Trigger warning! This post talks about graphic violence and sexual assault
In the latest chapter of The Walking Dead deluxe, the series creator Robert Kirkman revealed artist Charlie Adlard initially refused to draw a graphic scene featuring the Governor and Michonne. In the footnotes of The Walking Dead Deluxe #33, Kirkman said Adlard urged him to rewrite Michonne’s revenge for a brutal assault at the hands of the Governor. However, Kirkman refused to rewrite the moment and wanted to emphasize how horrible the Governor was and make readers “uncomfortable.”
In The Walking Dead series, rarely are graphic or violent scenes dialed back as it’s one of the goriest comics of all time. Readers have grown accustomed to horrifically explicit moments, including seeing walkers eat the flesh and insides of many living people, a beloved character getting his head smashed in with a baseball bat, and even a graphic death involving an infant at the hands of the Governor. However, one of the most controversial and graphic scenes was initially passed on by artist Charlie Adlard refused to draw.
Charlie Adlard was the artist for nearly every single issue of The Walking Dead, joining the creative team after the comics’ co-creator Tony Moore left the series after issue six. In the recently released The Walking Dead Deluxe #33, Robert Kirkman revealed that Adlard initially refused to draw one of the darkest scenes. In the issue, Michonne gets revenge on the Governor for previously being sexually assaulted. She tortures him by impaling him with an electric screwdriver, plucks off his fingernails, slices his arm off with a sword, cauterizes the wound with a blowtorch, shoves a spoon up his anus, implies she ripped off his penis and carves his eye out with the same spoon.
Kirkman wrote that Adlard politely asked him to rewrite the scene, but he refused. Instead, he stated it was important to see what happened with the Governor in the most grotesque way imaginable. Kirkman explained to Adlard that they were making the reader uncomfortable, as the artist eventually agreed to draw the horrific The Walking Dead torture.
In the end, the torture scene with the Governor ended up shocking readers and accomplishing what Kirkman set out to do: make them uncomfortable. Michonne brutally getting revenge on the villain who assaulted her was an unforgettable scene and one of the most graphic moments in the comic or The Walking Dead show’s history. It’s understandable why Adlard would refuse to draw the scene, but Kirkman managed to explain its importance and convinced him to do it after the initial rejection. The Walking Dead Deluxe #33 is in comic book stores now.
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