He was making the point with humour, but he meant it. I think that kind of informed what I wanted out of entertainment for the rest of my life.” And Optimus Prime, my favourite character, dies 15 minutes into that movie. “As a very young boy, I went to the movies and I watched ‘Transformers: The Movie’ in 1985 - I saw it in the theatres. “The thing that I look for in all stories, regardless of what kind of story it is, is something that surprises me,” he declared. Eventually, he was persuaded to talk about himself briefly - “I’m from a small town in Kentucky I’m a blue-collar guy” - but really he wanted to talk about science fiction, fantasy, horror, superheroes and especially about messing with people’s heads. This is indeed a man who works a lot.Īnd it’s when the subject switches to work that Kirkman really comes alive. Season 2 lands on Prime Video later this year. Now Kirkman, who’s 44, is working on the animated version of “Invincible,” which ran to 144 issues of comics. His comics resumé is even longer, listing dozens of titles and characters, from “Ultimate X-Men” to contemporary alien horror “Outcast,” which also became a TV show.

“I tackle things like I’m going down to the factory to make widgets.” That’s fascinating. Robert Kirkman is not a boring man, though he insists he’s an ordinary guy who treats his work as if he were doing a blue-collar job. An audience that read the comics still needs to get something new out of the show.” I think ‘Invincible’s’ going to be a much more faithful adaptation than ‘The Walking Dead,’ but again with the surprise and the twists and turns.

There are going to be new elements of the show that aren’t present in the comics, but the overall arc of characters should remain somewhat intact. “Learning from that experience going into ‘Invincible’ … I’m taking a more ‘If it’s not broke, don’t fix it’ mentality. This character didn’t die in the comics, let’s kill him in the show. “With ‘Walking Dead,’ I was much more like, ‘Yeah, change it! Let’s do this, let’s not do this. “I’ve learned a lot more about adapting,” Kirkman said. He’s more constrained in television but, thanks to comics, accustomed to collaborative work and feels he’s improving with experience that means his TV storylines are taking fewer liberties with the comics. He values the work of editors but prefers their feedback late in his creative process.

Invincible by Robert Kirkman