How Robert Kirkman Wrote Invincible And The Walking Dead At The Same Time For 15 Years [Exclusive]

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Robert Kirkman is definitely one of the superstar writers in modern American comics. He broke out writing at the publisher Image Comics (where he's now chief operating officer, in addition to co-founder and chairman of partner company Skybound Entertainment), thanks to his superhero book "Invincible" and his zombie apocalypse comic "The Walking Dead."

Both "Invincible" and "The Walking Dead" are some of the biggest and most successful comics that exist outside the Marvel/DC duopoly. They're not just popular among comic fans, they've broken into the mainstream with popular TV adaptations too. "The Walking Dead" TV series is AMC's golden goose (just look at all the spin-offs) and "Invincible" has been adapted into a cartoon on Prime Video. ("Invincible" season 4 and more are on the way.)

Kirkman co-creating "Invincible" and "The Walking Dead" is already an achievement. You know what makes it even more impressive? That he wrote both series for about 15 years — and not just any 15 years, the same 15 years. It's comparable to how mangaka Naoki Urasawa wrote and drew the acclaimed series "Happy!" and "Monster" from 1993 to 1999. Then once, "Happy!" ended, he kept his workload the same with a new series: "20th Century Boys," consistently producing two series until "Monster" ended in 2001. But Urasawa did this for only eight years; Kirkman did it for 15. 

For reference, "Invincible" began in January 2003 and wrapped in November 2018 at 144 issues. "The Walking Dead" began slightly later, in October 2003, and lasted almost a year longer before concluding on issue #193 in November 2019. During this time, despite having two series to maintain, Kirkman kept up impressive quality control — neither "Invincible" or "The Walking Dead" ever slip below "pretty good!" 

I recently got to speak with Kirkman and "Invincible" artist Ryan Ottley for their new series, "Invincible Universe: Battle Beast." As the conversation wound down, I couldn't help but ask Kirkman how he juggled his "Invincible" and "Walking Dead" duties for such a big portion of his life. According to him, it wasn't as hard as it might seem, especially since he had great artists to rely on.

Kirkman says he shares a comic writing attitude with Todd McFarlane (creator of "Spawn" and co-founder/current president of Image). For Kirkman, writing a comic is an issue-by-issue task. 

"You worry about the month, you worry about the week, you worry about the day. I'm doing 'Void Rivals' now with Lorenzo de Felici and I'm like, 'Oh my god, issue 18 is out? That's crazy. I can't believe we're already at issue 18.' And it's just because you keep your head down and you just keep those issues coming. It seems like a pretty monumental task to get two books over a hundred issues, but like I say, it's just doing those little pieces and then you don't notice that so much time has passed as you go."

Kirkman gives a lot of credit for making that time pass productively to his artists: Ottley (who replaced "Invincible" co-creator Cory Walker as the book's primary artist from issue #8) and Charlie Adlard (who drew "The Walking Dead" from volume 2 after Tony Moore drew the first six issues). Kirkman says that Ottley and Adlard, "kept those books coming out like clockwork."

"You write a comic in three days usually, and so you're talking about six days of the month, sometimes 10, sometimes 15, depending on if an issue gets hard to write, but at worst you're talking about half of a month focused on those two comics. For me, I got 15 full workdays to do other projects, and I did 'Outcast' and 'Astounding Wolfman' and all kinds of other stuff while I was doing that, but Charlie and Ryan, [they were both] nose to the grindstone, day in day out making those books happen. It's definitely a team effort when it's all said and done."

Kirkman and Ottley tell me they have a strong working relationship to the point that they write and draw, respectively, with each others' strengths in mind. They'd have to since they stayed partnered on "Invincible" for 15 years, and the reason "Battle Beast" is happening at all because they wanted to work together again.

"There's not a lot of writers that are as interested as visuals as [Kirkman] is," says Ottley. "Most writers do not sketch or draw anything. And so occasionally I'll get a sketch from Robert about a certain layout or a design, that kind of thing, and it's always helpful." Kirkman too says he is able to "edit" his writing to best prepare for when Ottley draws it.

"I do know what Ryan likes to draw, so I know if it's something that I need for the story but is not going to be something Ryan enjoys, that's a one-page scene," says Kirkman. When Ottley once wanted to "punch up" an "Invincible" fight scene, they worked together to fit two more pages of that fight into Kirkman's script while trimming other parts. "I'm very meticulous about page turns and keeping everything exactly where it needs to be." 

With how closely Kirkman and Ottley work together, the line between writing and drawing the story on "Invincible" blurs a bit.

"There have been times where the way I'm chiming in and annoying [Ottley] on character designs, [while] he's chiming in and annoying me on fight scenes," adds Kirkman. What does Ottley's process look like when he's drawing? In "Battle Beast" #1, there's a splash page of Battle Beast walking a desolate planet, with a hood over his head and a sword on his back. I instantly thought of Guts, protagonist of the dark fantasy manga "Berserk." (Compare the two below.)

Image Comics/Dark Horse

Knowing Ottley is a fan of "Berserk," I asked him if that "Battle Beast" page was making its hero looks like Guts. To my surprise, it wasn't! Ryan Ottley is not the kind of artist who sets out to homage when he's drawing, he says.

"When I'm working on something I try to just focus on the thing at hand and get into my own brain of it all. I try not to get too much into other ideas or anything like that," he says. He adds that, similar to how Kirkman writes issue-by-issue, he "[looks] at each issue like a different project." Across 15 years of keeping his nose to the grindstone drawing "Invincible," he aimed to push himself during those different projects.

"I remember going through it all and you get lots of friends in the industry going to conventions and all that, and they're doing lots of different projects, and I'm just doing the one and it's like I need to get better. And so I was like, 'All right, I can't just be consistently this style,' because I think a lot of artists kind of get stuck in that, 'Well, I can't change my style too much because it'll look totally like a different artist.' And I was more about, 'I need to get better and experiment.' And so that was my goal throughout the whole series...so yeah, I'm hoping people do see the difference between ['Invincible'] issue #8 and issue #144 for sure, yeah."

"Invincible Universe: Battle Beast" #1 is currently available for print and digital purchase. Issue #2, set for release on Wednesday, June 18, is available for pre-order.