Robert Kirkman (; born November 30, 1978) is an American comic book writer, screenwriter, and producer. He is best known for co-creating The Walking Dead, Invincible, Tech Jacket, Outcast, Oblivion Song, and Fire Power for Image Comics, in addition to writing Ultimate X-Men, Irredeemable Ant-Man and Marvel Zombies for Marvel Comics. He has also collaborated with Image Comics co-founder Todd McFarlane on the series Haunt.
He is one of the five partners of Image Comics currently serving as COO, and the only one of the five who was not one of its co-founders.
In 2010, Kirkman co-founded the entertainment company Skybound Entertainment in order to develop properties in traditional and new media, including comics, television, and film. The company also manages the license for The Walking Dead and Invincible. In 2018, Skybound expanded his own video game division under Skybound Games to develop video games based on its intellectual property.
Kirkman is also known for creating and producing the television series Outcast and Invincible, both adaptations of his own comic book series. He has also written a number of episodes for The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead. He is executive producer of the AMC series Robert Kirkman's Secret History of Comics, and the Korean pre-apocalyptic drama, Five Year.
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Early life
Kirkman was born November 30, 1978, in Lexington, Kentucky, and was raised in Cynthiana, Kentucky.
Kirkman grew as a fan of zombie films such as the Night of the Living Dead series and Zombi 2, as well as zombie video games such as Resident Evil.
Career
His first comic book work was the 2000 superhero parody Battle Pope, which he co-created with artist Tony Moore, self-published under the Funk-O-Tron label, and was adapted into a season of 8 animated webisodes that appeared on Spike TV's website in 2008. Later, while pitching a new series, Science Dog, Kirkman and artist Cory Walker were hired to do a SuperPatriot miniseries for Image Comics. While working on that book, Kirkman and E. J. Su created the 2002 Image series Tech Jacket, which ran six issues, and the one-shot title, Cloudfall.
In 2003, Kirkman and Walker created Invincible for Image's new superhero line. The story surrounded the adolescent son of the world's most powerful superhero, who develops powers and starts his own superhero career. Walker later failed to meet the monthly title's deadlines and was replaced by Ryan Ottley. In 2005, Paramount Pictures announced it had bought the rights to produce an Invincible feature film, and hired Kirkman to write the screenplay. However, due to a lack of significant development, the rights expired and reverted to Kirkman.
Shortly after the launch of Invincible, Kirkman and Moore began The Walking Dead (2003). Kirkman said in 2012 that Image had balked at publishing a comics series featuring what it felt was simply another zombie story, prompting him to say the zombies were part of an alien plot—a notion he had no intention of using except as a means of selling the project. Artist Charlie Adlard replaced Tony Moore with issue #7. Moore continued to draw covers until issue 24 as well as the first four volumes of the trade paperbacks for the series.
In 2003, Kirkman was hired by Marvel Comics to pen a revival of the 1990s Sleepwalker series, but it was canceled before being published; the contents of its first issue were included in Epic Anthology No. 1 (2004). He soon became a mainstay at Marvel, writing the "Avengers Disassembled" issues of Captain America vol. 4, 2004's Marvel Knights 2099 one-shots event, Jubilee #1–6 and Fantastic Four: Foes #1–6, a two-year run on Ultimate X-Men and the entire Marvel Team-Up vol. 3 and the Irredeemable Ant-Man miniseries. He continued his exploration of zombies by creating the series Marvel Zombies, in which an alternative Marvel universe's superheroes become zombies.
At Image, Kirkman and artist Jason Howard created the ongoing series The Astounding Wolf-Man, launching it on May 5, 2007, as part of Free Comic Book Day. Kirkman edited the monthly series Brit, based on the character he created for the series of one-shots, illustrated by Moore and Cliff Rathburn. It ran 12 issues.
Personal life
Kirkman and his wife lived in Kentucky until 2011. Their son was born on April 25, 2006.
Kirkman and his family currently live in Los Angeles having moved there in 2011.
Accolades
In 2010, Kirkman's comic series The Walking Dead received the Eisner Award for Best Continuing Series. In 2012, he received a special Innovator Award at the Saturn Awards for his work adapting his comic books to the screen as well as serving as executive producer of The Walking Dead.
The Walking Dead television series garnered nominations for Best New Series and Best Television Series Drama at the Writers Guild of America Awards 2011 and the 68th Golden Globe Awards. The show clinched prestigious honors including Television Program of the Year by the American Film Institute in 2010 and 2012, along with IGN's Best Horror Series in 2012 and 2016. Additionally, it secured two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup in 2011 and 2012.
In 2020, he was granted a special award ("Fauve d'honneur") at the Angoulême International Comics Festival for his overall achievement.