It was a shocking image.

Rick Grimes, hero of Image’s long-running comic book epic The Walking Dead, looking down in shock at the bloody hole punched through his chest by a single bullet fired into him from an unlikely assassin who had disrupted his sleep, croaking out the question “What did you do?” as blood poured through his gritted teeth.

So ended issue 191 of the series, leaving readers with a dropped jaw and one helluva cliffhanger to be resolved. Whether it was the seemingly unlikely possibility of Rick’s death or the knowledge that the television series adaptation of the comic so often toyed with viewers over their heroes’ fates, there really was no genuine tension between issues once the initial surprise subsided – at least not for this reader. As a fan who’s been with the comic since the beginning, I never for a moment considered the possibility that Rick friggin’ Grimes could die in the comic book. Hell, it’s his story! We opened on him being born into this newly undead world! We followed him step by step, through terror and tragedy, even as the cast of characters grew and changed around him. He was our constant! Our rock, our mainstay! He was the backbone of the entire tale!

At worst, I assumed Rick would wind up in a hospital bed, taken out of commission for awhile as he healed up and eventually returned, allowing other characters to take the spotlight for a time. Something very soap opera like that. But, no.

In the very first pages of the following issue, a remorseful yet frightened murderer apologizes to Rick just before firing more bullets into him, killing our hero as he lay defenseless in bed. The following morning, Rick’s son Carl (still quite alive in the comics, TV viewers) discovers the zombified version of his pop and guns him down in self defense before he could even realize who it was that he had just killed. The rest of the issue is devoted to the fallout of Rick’s legacy and death, and how it has affected the world he’d helped bring back from the brink of extinction.

What…the…hell?!

For uninitiated readers who aren’t caught up on the comic and yet are curious about this major event, a bit of background on recent happenings in the world of the comic…

Our heroes have recently discovered a massive community called the Commonwealth, comprised of thousands of members who participate in its questionable, class-based system. An uneasy alliance is struck between Rick and Co. and the people of the Commonwealth, including its leader, Governor Pamela Milton. Milton and Rick tentatively attempt to make the alliance between the Commonwealth and Rick’s homebase of Alexandria work, though a rebel uprising soon threatens the status quo and forces Rick to question Milton’s leadership abilities. Rick ultimately manages to dethrone Milton and peacefully bring together the people of the Commonwealth. This doesn’t at all sit well with Milton’s pampered, hot-headed son Sebastian, who slips into Rick’s room one evening, raving at him with a gun in his hand, before firing a bullet right into Rick’s chest. Sebastian apologizes, apparently having not intended to actually shoot Rick. Nevertheless, Sebastian fires more bullets into Rick to silence him forever, then races off into the night. The following morning, Carl makes the terrible discovery and does what he must.

What follows is a cold, gut-wrenching exploration of a son’s grief at having lost his father, all while touching on Rick’s legacy as a man who left the world in a better place than he found it. It’s simultaneously touching and unceremonious. Rick was our hero, sure, but he was also just another man in this world, which can take out anyone at any given notice. His death, in hindsight, was very nearly an inevitability.

It certainly was to The Walking Dead creator/writer Robert Kirkman, who provides a lengthy explanation/eulogy/apology in #192’s letters pages. Kirkman notes that Rick’s death was the longest planned in the series’ history, all the way back since the very first issue. And, in all fairness, he reminds readers that he’d always said that ANYBODY can die in The Walking Dead, even Rick Grimes. And now, here we are.

The shocking decision, so long in the making, actually follows in the wake of Rick’s much heralded exit on the television series (which didn’t actually result in a death, as the character will be returning in a trilogy of AMC Studios Original films). Nevertheless, regardless of the comic character’s status as one of the newly not-at-all-walking dead, the message sent by both iterations of this tale is clear: there is no one hero who will see this story to its end. Anybody can fall, anybody can be removed from their lives and loved ones at any moment.

Where this leaves the comic book series is any fan’s guess. Without its original lead, the focus of the book may move to Rick’s son Carl, long thought to be the true hero of the comic. Or, perhaps, the comic will become even more of an ensemble piece now. Or, maybe Kirkman and Image really need to start sorting out those pesky rights issues with AMC and figure out a way to get Daryl Dixon into the damn book already so that he can become its new de facto Rick, much as his visibility on the television series has risen in the wake of TV Rick’s departure. In any case, July’s issue #193 will be the introduction to a brave new world for Walking Dead fans – a world without Rick Grimes, utterly permeated with the dreadful possibility that anyone can die now.

And in that sense, The Walking Dead remains one of the most fascinating long form frightfests currently going. It refuses to always play things safe. It remains vital, thrilling, and often deeply upsetting.

And ain’t that horror, though?