My Interview with "The Walking Dead" Artist Charlie Adlard.

There is big news in the works for AMC and their deal with The Walking Dead series. I wanted to get to know the people who make the world of zombies so appealing to the eye and I recently got a chance to do just that with my interview the pencil artist for “The Walking Dead”, Charlie Adlard.

First off Mr. Adlard, let me start by saying it is a pleasure to be able to interview such a talented artist especially one who is currently working on one of my personal favorite graphic novels "The Walking Dead".

How did you come to work with Kirkman?

I've known Robert for many years... We first got to know each other when he offered to publish the last few episodes of Codeflesh - a strip that Joe Casey and myself had originally started at Image. He was running his indie publishing company - Funkotron - at the time.
When Tony Moore left TWD, he called me up out of the blue with the offer to "make money"! Little did we know how apt that phrase was going to be... :-)


I understand that you seamlessly replaced Tony Moore as the penciler in the second graphic novel release (episode seven in the comic book), were there any limits that you were given to follow so the look of the comic never changed or did Kirkman basically know you were an amazing artist who had a style that would fit and just trust your judgment in the design?

Well, the latter really.
Robert's been brilliant... He's always let me be my own man and that was certainly true at the beginning as well. Tony and myself have quite different styles, so it was a risk that people might be put off the book when I took over. But Robert put his faith and me and, hopefully, mine is the style that people now associate with TWD.

Do you have much input over the story boarding and the way that the images layout along with what is happening in the story?

Robert does his thing and I do mine. It's very rare that one of us will suggest something to do with each others skill. We've worked together for so long now that we pretty much put 100 per cent trust in what we do individually.
The scripts are fairly open too - not to much detail - so it gives me almost free reign to design pages and characters to how I think will be best. It's the perfect working relationship!

More than a few times of me reading through "The walking Dead", i felt like I was watching a movie on print, my heart raced and i couldn't wait to see what happened on the following page. One question that many of our readers might wonder about is the fact that you have had a past that dealt with more science fiction / military based comics like Savage 2000 A.D.
Were you a big fan of the horror genre before "The Walking Dead"?

I'm a TOTAL fan of the genre. What I do now is exactly where I want to be and what I want to be doing for the rest of my life. This isn't a stepping-stone to a "better" industry... I can't imagine being in a better industry! I don't read as many comics as I used to, but I'm a definite fan of the art-form. I'm a "genre" fan... not rabid... But I certainly lean towards all that stuff, and that includes horror.

Are you getting known for the intense gory undead artwork now that TWD has been building its success?

The funny thing is that I've become a kind of go-to-zombie guy, and I'm not a massive zombie obsessive... I've seen (and like) most of the well-known zombie movies, but that's that. Most of the horror movies I like tend to be the more, for want of a better word, subtle - movies like the original Haunting, Halloween, and the Shining. Movies that have the horror happen off screen where the imagination runs riot far more than what could possibly be shown in front of you.

Do you believe that in a dark setting like a zombie apocalypse, large blocks of black shadows might allow the readers imagination to really think about what could be lurking beyond the limits of their vision?



I think the main reason people can associate me with horror is the style I draw in. I use a LOT of black in my art, which obviously draws the horror crowd... It's a fairly obvious link, but that's how these things work.

For a graphic novel to be based on a zombie outbreak in the south to be done without color you really have captured the gore and the emotional turmoil that comes in a world that isn't so metaphorically black and white.
Your style has clearly evolved or creatively devolved from the fully painted artwork on Armitage, through increasing usage of monochrome art that we see in your current work, which uses large blocks of black ink on the page to create shadow effects much more bold than whats commonly seen in other comics. (It works beautifully by the way.)
Thank you for your time Mr Adlard,
It has been a pleasure getting the chance to pick your brain
(no pun intended).