The Posing Dead: Kirkman Publishes Walking Dead’s Michonne’s Origin In Playboy

When it comes to The Walking Dead, the closest thing that comic book has to a superhero is Michonne.

First appearing in The Walking Dead #19 by just wandering up in front of the prison where Rick and crew had taken refuge (Whoops; spoiler alert for people who only watch the AMC TV show! But if you’re one of those people, quick fucking around and go buy the comics, already). She’s a badass, katana-swinging ninja with a killer’s heart, an imaginary friend and Jack Bauer’s sense of justice. And most interestingly, she has a hazy, ambiguous past. Writer Robert Kirkman has truly made Michonne The Walking Dead’s Man With No Name.

Michonne’s origin has been long-awaited by fans of The Walking Dead, and probably by people like my Local Comic Store Owner, who knows me by name and asks me to stop calling him The Governor, because there’s a good chance that that story would get people who normally only buy the trade collections of The Walking Dead to also buy that individual issue.

Well, Robert Kirkman has announced that our waiting is over. Yesterday he announced that he will be publishing Michonne’s origin story. With art by regular penciler Charlie Adlard. And it’s available today.

In Playboy Magazine.

Wait, what?

“It’s an honor to be a part of a historic publication like Playboy,” said Kirkman, “I’m thrilled to share The Walking Dead with the magazine’s readers, especially such an important story like the origin of Michonne.”

Oh, Kirkman…

So let me get this straight: you’re telling a story that your fans have been waiting for for at least five years… a story that would drive comic book fans into comics retailers’ stores – you know, the guys who carry, sell and push the comics that presumably bought your house – and you’re publishing it in Playboy? A magazine that is only the Holy Grail for sixteen-year-old boys? Assuming that it’s 1987 and we’re talking about a teenaged boy who wasn’t raised on readily-available Internet lesbian natural-breasted rectal speculum porn?

There’s no word from Skybound Comics (Kirkman’s Image Comics imprint) as to when the story will be collected in trade form, or if it will be collected, but my money’s on volume 16, which is scheduled for release on June 19th. But if you absolutely can’t wait, here’s a teaser image from the story…

…and you can get the story in this month’s Playboy, available at newsstands, convenience stores and cruddy bodegas everywhere.

Or, if you’ve already masturbated today, I’m sure it’ll be available online by noon. Just like everything else that has been published in Playboy, ever.

(Panel image via Dread Central)