Rick Grimes (Comic Series)

Rick Grimes is the main character of both of The Walking Dead series. The series was meant to follow his life for the apporximate 300 issue run.

Pre- Apocalypse
Rick Grimes lived in Cynthiana, Kentucky for most his life. Academically, he entered college for police administration with the intention of becoming a Police Officer. Around this time within his sophomore year, his parents made Rick chaperon at a New Year’s party set up by his parents, but had to attend another party elsewhere. Thanks to his younger brother Jeff, he was introduced to a high school senior named Lori. Although there was some chemistry between them, they couldn't explore a possible relationship due to Lori moving away to also attend college. Despite this Rick and Lori kept in touch with each other while he finished college. After Lori dropped out of her first year in college, she returned to Cynthiana, where they could finally develop their relationship. Soon after Rick and Lori were wed, so Lori became Lori Grimes. During this time, Rick officially becomes a police officer, where he is assigned a partner, and soon best friend, Shane Walsh. Life for Rick was perfect, a burgeoning career in the police force and the happy news of Lori's pregnancy. Soon they had a son whom they named Carl.

Pre-Atlanta
At the beginning of the series, Rick was wounded in a shoot-out, and was put into a coma for about a month. Upon awakening, Rick finds the hospital and the rest of the town desolated and overrun by Zombies. Rick remains dazed by all of the confusion, until he takes a trip to the house he shared with his family before the outbreak. He leaves his house, and is soon hit in the back of the head with a shovel. He wakes up, having been knocked out by the blow to the head, and sees that he is in the house of his old next door neighbors. He is greeted by a man named Morgan Jones, who explains that he and his son Duane Jones have taken refuge in the house. He informs Rick of the outbreak that has happened during his time in a coma. Morgan also informs him that the government was telling everyone to go to Atlanta, Rick is overjoyed upon hearing this, as he sees that Lori might have taken Carl to Atlanta to stay with her parents. He also realizes that he will need both a car, and guns. To accomplish this, Rick takes Morgan and Duane to his police department and supplies them with guns, ammo, and a car. He then leaves Morgan and Duane in Cynthiana, so he can go to Atlanta. Along the way, Rick's car ran out of gas, so he decided to continue the trek on foot. Along the way he found a farm house, he went inside to try and borrow some gas. Upon his entry, he saw that the entire family killed themselves during the initial outbreak. He goes around to the stable, and finds a horse and a hatchet (this becomes his main weapon throughout the rest of the series). He rides the horse for the rest of the trip and into Atlanta.

Atlanta
Upon arrival in Atlanta, he finds the entire city overrun. His horse soon becomes spooked, and falls over. The horse is soon mobbed, leaving Rick to try and fend for himself. He was however, thankfully saved by a man named Glenn, who rescues him and leads him to safety along the outskirts of the city; where Glenn stays in a makeshift camp with another group of survivors.

Upon meeting up with the survivor group outside of Atlanta Rick finds Lori, Carl and Shane. He also meets new survivors including a man with an RV camper named Dale, two sisters taking a road trip named Andrea and Amy, an emotionally burdened man named Jim, a mother named Carol and her six year old daughter Sophia and a family of four with father Allen, mother Donna, and six year old twins Billy and Ben. Shane explains to him that he was taking Lori and Carl to stay with her parents until the outbreak was over and that he would go back for Rick. Rick quickly took up a place with the survivors as a hunter along with Shane. During one of their trips Donna is almost attacked by a zombie that wandered into camp. Rick asks Shane if they could move their camp away from the city but the proposition was rejected. Rick accepted this but realized that they would need guns.

The next day Rick goes into Atlanta with Glenn. They find a gun store and collect as many guns as they can carry and barely escape the city without dying. This gains Rick favor with the other survivors. He also trains them in target practice. A few weeks later the camp is once again attacked, leading to the death of Amy and the infection of Jim. The group decides (against their will) to leave Jim outside of Atlanta, so he can reanimate and be with his family. After these events, and seeing that the only reason this attack happened was because Shane would not move the camp Rick confronts Shane but Shane punches him in the face. After seeing this, Lori smacked Shane and yelled at him. Shane ran away but Rick chased him and confronted him once more on what had happened. Shane turns out to be more hostile and attempts to shoot Rick with a shotgun. Rick is saved by his son Carl who shoots Shane. Rick is elected the new leader of the group by unanimous vote later that day.

Wiltshire Estates
While on the road Rick spots a seemingly perfect neighborhood called Wiltshire Estates and thinks it to be the perfect home. While in the process of clearing out the first house, Rick is tackled by a zombie, and saved by Tyreese who is becoming Rick's new best friend. They discover that the house was overly stocked with canned goods, and would make the perfect new residence for the group. They spend the night in the house and in the morning set out to kill all of the infected in the neighborhood. Rick splits the group into two teams, one headed by Rick and the other by Tyreese. Rick runs back to the RV to grab Tyreese a gun and discovers a previously snow-covered sign that says that the entire neighborhood is festering with zombies. He runs back to the group to inform them that they have to leave but he is too late as Donna had just been bitten in the eye. This event caused Allen to become emotionally compromised (something that he wouldn't recover from for months) and Rick eventually convinces Allen to leave his dying wife and the rest of the group escapes Wiltshire Estates.

Hershel's Farm
After the tragedy of Wiltshire Estates Rick, Tyreese, and Carl go hunting. Carl is accidently shot in the shoulder by another hunter named Otis. Rick, in a fit of rage, places a gun to Otis's head and threatens to shoot him. However, Tyreese stops by telling him that Carl is still alive. Otis suggests that they go to his friend Hershel Greene's farm, where he can patch him up. While Rick and Otis run to the farm, Tyreese returns to the RV to inform the other survivors of what had happened. Tyreese and the survivors reach Hershel's farm just as Rick and Otis arrive with Carl.

Rick watches in fear as the two strangers operate on his son. Hershel removed the bullet, stopped the bleeding and leaves Carl to rest to introduce Rick's group to his family and friends, Lacey Greene, Arnold Greene, Maggie Greene, Billy Greene and his young daughters Rachel Greene and Susie Greene and Otis's girlfriend Patricia. The group stays at the farm while Carl heals and Glenn begins a relationship with Maggie. It is also during this time that Tyreese begins a relationship with Carol (and by default taking Sophia as a surrogate daughter) and Dale begins a relationship with Andrea.

Rick confronts Hershel about allowing his group to stay in his barn so that they don't have to sleep in the RV anymore. Hershel protests saying that he has been placing all of the zombies that they have encountered in the barn. This information set Rick off and they begin yelling at each other leading to the discovery that Hershel's oldest son Shawn Greene was bitten and turned at the beginning of the outbreak and that he is in the barn at that moment. Rick tries to explain that it is not his son but Hershel keeps denying the fact and walks off. Carl fully heals and as a show of gratitude Rick gives Hershel the rest of their spare guns and invites them to target practice. Rick hosts the target practice next to Hershel's barn but Hershel screams for them to stop saying that his neighbors house is next door.

They see another zombie walking in the field outside the fence, and Hershel shows his technique for trapping zombies in the barn. However one of the zombies falls against the barn door and they break out of the barn. Arnold and Lacey attempt to save Hershel but are both bitten and killed. Hershel realizes that there is no saving the zombies and finally accepts that they must be killed. Hershel shoots Arnold, Lacey, and Shawn as a form of closure.

With the barn now cleared out Rick and Allen begin cleaning it up so that they can sleep there. However Rick finally cracks and runs off to yell at Hershel about staying in the rooms of the house. This leads to an argument and Hershel informs Rick that after Carl is fully healed he will throw them out of his house. Rick returns to inform Lori of this. She is outraged and goes to yell at Hershel. Lori begins a fight with Hershel and Rick tries to intervene. The fight ends with Hershel about to smack Lori when Rick stops him. Hershel places a gun to Rick's head but he is stopped from executing Rick by Otis who takes Rick's side. Rick decides that they will leave and packs everyone into the car. Glenn decides to stay to live with Maggie and Rick and the group leaves in the RV. The group continues on the road until, Dale and Andrea see a prison in the distance.

The Prison
Rick instantly sees the prison as a new hope for the group. With three fences, and heavily fortified buildings, he really feels it's the best place for them to start a new life.

The group begins the long process of cleaning out the prison and fixing the fences that had been damaged, when they find that four inmates had been hastily locked in the cafeteria when the place had begun to be overrun. The leader of the inmates Dexter introduced the other inmates to Rick's group as Axel, Andrew, and Thomas Richards. As well as giving a tour of the prison to the group. In the weeks since the outbreak, these inmates had survived by the stockpile of food in the cafeteria's pantry, as well as using the walk-in freezer as a latrine.

Weary of the new people, the group attempts to continue the work of fixing up the prison while Rick traveled back to Hershel's farm to bring them all out to their new place. Apparently things at the farm hadn't been going so well since the weather was warming up, and zombie attacks were on the rise, so the group was happy to come live at the prison. All seemed well until Ruick was awoken by a gunshot and rushed to see that Chris had accidentaly killed Julie in a suicide pact by firing to early. Julie reanimated without being bitten resulting in the revelation that all of the survivors were infected. Julie's corpse attempted to eat Tyreese, who was in turn saved by Chris. However instead of gratefulness, Tyreese is infuriated and proceeded to murder Chris as Rick looked on in shock. Rick woke up the next morning after having informed the group of what had happened the previous night, and saw Tyreese burning the bodies, and after a quick talk the two proceeded to clear out the rest of the prison. Hershel brought with him many of the supplies he needed to farm, and begins planting a garden in the prison yard so that they have a renewable source of food for the weeks and months to come. The inclusion of Hershel and his family allowed the group develop a sense that things would be safe from now on.

Upon the revelation that a bite doesn't turn a person, Rick traveled back to the Atlanta Camp to dig up, and shoot Shane, comenting "You were a good man Shane, I don't know why you did what you did, but you were a good man." Among other things. He then leaves back to the prison, having gave his final words to Shane saying "And I aint gonna bury you again you son of a bitch" and left. However this feeling of peace is short lived, as tragedy strikes when Hershel's two youngest daughters are found murdered in the prison's barber shop. The survivors instantly blame the inmate who had told them he had been incarcerated for murder, locking him in his own room while they decide what to do. It eventually turned out that the murderer was a quiet man called Thomas, who attempted to murder Andrea. Rick disarmed him of his knife, and, completely outraged, beat him brutally, almost to death. He then preceded to tell the survivors Thomas was to be hung, and why. Later, he went to Dale for medical attention for his hand, which was broken and mutilated by the severity of his attack on Thomas, though he stated he "doesn't regret a thing". Rick confronts Dexter on his accused crime, he is however, unsuccessful in extracting any bit of information from him. The truth is however revealed after Thomas attempts to decapitate Andrea. Rick repeatedly, and relentlessly beats Thomas until his hand is completely broken and has Thomas's teeth lodged into it. After an argument with Lori over what to do with Thomas, Rick decides that they will hang him. However before they could do this, Patricia let Thomas out of his cell in an attempt to rescue him from his death. Instead of gratefulness, Thomas attempted to kill her resulting in Maggie shooting him several times. They then throw his body out for the zombies to feed. Rick allows Dexter to leave his cell, and then tries with Lori to decide on what they should do with Patricia. This is interupted by a force combined of Dexter, Andrew, and Patricia all wanting to force Rick's group out of the prison.

They soon realize that they hadn't shut the door behind them leading to the prison's A-block. The courtyard was soon swarmed with zombies. Rick sent Laurie and the kids back into the prison and forced the "revolutionists" to assist in reclearing out of the courtyard. Rick saves Dexter from a zombie about to kill him, however Dexter is incredibly ungrateful and coaxed Rick with the thought that he should have let it kill him. Rick then took the opportunity of the mass confusion to kill Dexter and cover it up as friendly fire. This event is only witnessed by Tyrese who is mortified by Rick's actions. The group finishes the clearing of the zombies, and they let in Otis into the prison, as he had stayed at the farm to watch over the livestock. During this inductin to the prison, the group also alows in the person who had saved Otis's life while he was out side of the gate; a katana wielding woman named Michonne. They confiscate the katana from Michonne in fear of another possible uprising of the prison.

The group begins to burn the bodies of the newly killed zombies; and as this occurs, Andrew runs out into the wilderness, to his awaited zombified state. The group decides to move to more pressing issues as Andrea calls a meeting. Andrea, with the assistance of Axel, brings out the prison jumpsuits to make into clothes for the other survivors. After this meeting, Tyrese confronts Rick with understanding of his decision to murder Dexter. After this course of events, Rick takes Dale, Axel, Tyrese, and Allen to clear out the A-block. Along the way, they find the prison's library in which Allen is nearly attacked. After this takes place, the group splits up, Dale and Tyreese leave one way, while Rick, axel, and Allen go another. Along the way, Dale and tyreese find a massive generator, meanwhile Allen gets bitten on his ankle. The group carries Allen out into the prison courtyard, where Rick proceedes to amputate his leg. Hershel shows up to assist and stops the bleeding.

The next day, Rick gets his bandages removed by Dale, and then proceeds to be a confident for Carol, who unbeknownst to Rick, had just kicked Tyrese out of her cell for having an affair with Michonne. Rick then gets Lori to try and see how Carol had been taking things and what made the two of them split up. However, instead of a lamenting carol, they were presented with an overly distraught Carol that had just slit her wrists in front of her daughter Sophia. Rick and Lori proceeded to bring Carol to Hershel who would take care of her, and nurse her back to health. Rick took it upon himself to bring the sudden turn of events up to Tyrese, whom he found in the arms of Michonne. Infuriated at the realization that Tyrese had actually cheated on Carol with Michonne. Rick proceeded to blame not only the suicide attempt on him, but his daughters death on him as well this resulted in a fight in which both parties wound up toss over the second floor of the prison and on to the ground where they proceeded to briefly pass out. Both Tyrese and Rick are awoken by Glenn and Maggie, however before they can ensue they're fight, Andrea enters the room to inform the group that Allen had died; Rick proceeded to get up, and shoot him before Allen could reanimate. Suddenly, Michonne and Hershel discover that Rick blacks out.

Rick awoke the next morning to find Carol sitting above him, the two talk about the current status of the group before she kissed him with much passion. Rick informed her that he would have to tell Lori, and she left just as Dale walked in. Dale tells him that he might not be a good leader, because he's killing people. Rick walks outside, to tell everyone he killed Dexter to protect all of them. Lastly, he tells they're the walking dead.

On the next day, generator is running out of gas. Glenn and Rick are about to go get some gasoline, and they discover a helicopter. Glenn tells Rick to get car and go look for some survivors, because the helicopter is about to land badly. Rick goes with Glenn and Michonne to the forest, where helicopter landed. They discover that possible survivor have left, and they start to follow the footprints.

Woodbury
After a long journey, they found a little town called Woodbury. Suddenly, a gunman tells them to get down, and shoots the zombies. A survivor named Wes drags them to Woodbury, and other, Hispanic-American man, Caesar Martinez, tells Wes to collect them weapons. He says it's their way to deal with safety and tells he can show the place. Man, introduced as The Governor, tells him he can take it for here. Martinez accepts, and Governor takes the three with him. He shows the place, and Rick asks why they have a area filled with chained zombies. Governor explains it replaced television, and tells them they feed the zombies with strangers.

Governor's right hand men, Gabe and Bruce Cooper, are aiming Rick and others with their guns. Governor wants to know if they had a place to stay, but Rick disagrees. Governor doesn't believe, and Bruce puts Rick's head into a table. Governor tells Rick he doesn't understand the situation, and cuts off his hand. Michonne jumps on Governor and bites his ear off. Rick blacks out, and Bruce captures Michonne. He tells Governor to say the word, and he can snap her neck. Governor yells not to.

Rick is taken into Dr. Stevens, head doctor of the place. Glenn and Michonne are taken into cells. Stevens patches up Rick, and when he wokes up, he tries to attack him. Stevens' assistant, Alice, pumps Rick some balsamic and he falls asleep.

Later, Rick wakes up, and asks what's going on. Stevens explains and tells Governor, real name Philip, is a monster. Governor shows up, and he wants Stevens to patch his ear. Rick and Governor are having discussion, and he tells that he unchained Glenn, and if he's stupid enough, he'll lead them right to the prison.

Later, cage fighter named Harold, wants Stevens to patch him up. Rick says he'll skipt the fight. Other fighter, named Eugene, rushes in, and says Harold knocked his teeth out. Harold is sorry about it, and Eugene says that sorry isn't going to cover it, and stabs him in the neck. Stevens tells Rick to help him to patch Harold up, but it is too late.

Martinez pops in, and asks what happened to Rick, and he starts to attack him. Stevens stops the fight and tells Martinez to leave. Later, Rick and Alice are talking about Lori, and their child. Martinez splits up the conversation, and tells Rick they have to leave, and right away.

Rick is surprised, and tells Martinez not to touch him. Martinez says he has noticed that Governor is real monster, and has Glenn with him. They leave, and take Michonne, Alice and Dr. Stevens with. Michonne leaves them, only because she has to deal with Governor. While they have left the town, Dr. Stevens gets bitten. They leave him to die.

After escaping, they spend a night in the crashed helicopter. Michonne gets back, and she isn't sure if The Governor is dead. They start to head back to the Prison. In there, they discover the fence is left open and whole place is filled by zombies.

Prison Redux
Rick discovers that Prison Survivors have left the fences open wide for zombies. Glenn instantly drives a car throught to a wall. Rick and others go help him, and Rick discovers zombified Otis. It's assumed Rick shot it. Dale and Andrea discover them from the RV, and Dale tells he saw Otis getting eaten up and Hershel getting bit. Everyone accepts to run into A-block.

In the A-block, everyone is happy to see each other. Hershel comfirms he wasn't bitten, and Carl and Lori are surprised of Rick's missing arm. Rick explains it isn't infected, and Tyreese threatens Rick to watch his wife, or he'll kick him out of the leading business.

While burning the bodies, Rick realizes Martinez is gone, he's up to Woodbury people.

Rick drives Dale's RV into Martinez, and cripples him. He kicks his gunn off his hand and shouts at him. He explains he was trying to bring the good people into prison. Rick reminds him what their people did to him and Michonne. Lastly, Rick strangles Martinez to death.

Rick gets back. He calls a meet, and before that he tells Lori what he had done. In the meeting, Rick tells everyone they have to be ready, when the Woodbury people get in the Prison.

Weeks after, things seem normal. Everyone is happy, and the biggest problems are food, supplies and romantic relationships. A gang of survivors drag a zombie into prison, mostly because Alice could develope a cure of it. The idyl falls down, when Carol, who snapped, lets a roamer bite herself. She zombifies, and gets shot by Andrea.

Again weeks after, things start to seem normal. Suddenly, discovered by Rick and Hershel, big trucks and tanks start to asslemb in front of Prison's fences.

Back to Hershel's Farm
After The Prison assault, Rick, Carl and Michonne find Glenn and Maggie. They're surprised that they're just three of them and Maggie asks where his family is. Rick becomes wordless and Maggie starts to cry. They leave the road, and go back to Hershel's farm.

Andrea, Dale, Sophia, Ben & Billy are in the farm, and Andrea is very surprised of seeing Rick and others again. Carl runs for Sophia and Dale apologizes to Rick. Sophia is inside, alone in a room, and Carl says hi to her. Carl says they're both motherless now, and Sophia says her mother is in other room, crying. Carl says that is Maggie, not Carol, but Sophia angrily disagrees. Carl asks if she remember him, and Sophia says she does, and hugs him.

Later, Carl says to his father that Sophia is crazy. Rick says he can't say that, and says Sophia has reincidir because lost of her both parents, and Carl should patronize her. Carl agrees, and Rick goes outside. Dale is with him out there, and says Sophia's only problem isn't sleeping. He says it's not the undead he's afraid any more. Rick puts hand into his face and says they should have left with Dale. Dale tries to cheer him up by telling they could have come searching them all from the farm. He says he has to focus on the living now. Rick thanks Dale.

Next morning, they meet three new arrivals; Sgt. Abraham Ford, Rosita Espinosa and Dr. Eugene Porter. They says they need equipment, and Andrea tells them to drop their guns. They have a argument about the what has happened for past months, but they get to the harmony. Abraham says they're about to go to Washington, take Porter into somewhere. Eugene says he knows how the undead apocalypse began.

Later, everyone accepts to leave the farm. Before leaving, Rick tells Carl not to trust everyone, even if they seem friendly and safe. Carl accepts, and they leave the farm.

Alexandria Safe-Zone
When Rick and the group are at the Alexandria Safe-Zone his main intention is to make Carl relax and live like a child, but Carl insists they should be aware of the threat beyond the wall and that they shouldn't just forget. Rick is asked by Douglas to be the community's 'constable' claiming he prefers the name to cop or policeman. But Rick is worried the survivors liviing in the safe zone before them may mess up what they have, so Rick sends Glen to steal back their guns which were taken when they had entered. Rick later learns that Pete has been abusing his wife but is told by Douglas that they cannot get rid of him due to him being a doctor Rick then argues over the importance of how the residents behave before attacking Pete in his home and pulling a gun out on Douglas when he tell Rick he has to leave. Michonne attacks Rick from behind and tells someone to grab his gun. Rick looks up to her and realises what hes done.

Alexandria Safe-Zone Chaos
When zombies start to crowd into Safe-Zone, Rick is seen killing zombies and helping people, especially Morgan to rescue from a zombie bite. Later, when he and Michonne took Morgan into Rick's place, Denise comes to patch him up. He's seen hiding on his house along with Jessie, Ron, Carl, Morgan, Denise, Michonne, Maggie and Sophia. He wants everyone to escape, and help later other people. Everyone, except Maggie and Sophia, and later Denise, are about to leave. Rick uses the technique he used with Glenn earlier; rub zombie guts into body to smell like a zombie, so they'll ignore them. They get out, but the plan horribly fails; Ron and Jessie got eaten by zombies. Jessie is still grabbing Carl's hand, and in fear if Carl gets eaten, Rick apologizes her and cuts off her hand.

Douglas begins haphazardly shooting zombies. As he is overtaken by a group, he fires his gun and accidentally shoots Carl in the head, destroying his eye and taking out a chunk of his face. Rick takes him to Doctor Cloyd and asks her to save his life.

Killed Victims
This list shows the people Rick has killed.


 * Shane Walsh (Zombified)
 * Allen (Before Reanimation)
 * Caesar Martinez
 * Otis (Zombified)
 * Dexter
 * Chris (Hunter)
 * Theresa
 * Albert
 * David (Hunter)
 * Greg
 * Charlie
 * Pete Anderson
 * Jessie Anderson (Caused)
 * Numerous counts of zombies and unnamed people.

Death
Writer Robert Kirkman stated:
 * "If I keep doing horrible things to [Rick Grimes], I'm going to eventually have to kill him or this book will become completely unrealistic. So yeah...he'll die, sooner or later—and I can pretty much promise that he will die before the end of the series. Unless I change my mind."

In answer to the question:
 * "In the first "Walking Dead" TP intro, you hinted that you're going to chronicle Rick Grimes adventures for the whole of his life. How can you possibly do that?"

Robert Kirkman responded:
 * "...Rick could die at any time--so that would chronicle his adventures for the whole of his life right there. I seriously doubt Rick is going to live to be 80, and at the pace this comic usually runs at that would take about 300 years to reach. We're at issue 37 right now and not even nine months have passed. Rick could only have two years to live and that could take another 100 issues to show."
 * "Also, I don't think I ever said the book would end if Rick died. It could easily continue after his death."

Quotes
While consoling Sgt. Abraham Ford, Rick confesses to the killing of Dexter and Caesar Martinez, when Ford asks him why he is telling him this, Rick tells him that:
 * "...some people...it was like a switch went off...one minute they were good people...then this whole things started and poof...they're monsters. Thing is, I don't think that's an entirely bad thing."
 * "You and me--our switches flipped, we're doing whatever it takes to survive and to help those around us to survive. The people without the switch--those who weren't able to go from law-abiding citizens to stone-cold killers...those are the ones shambling around out there--trying to eat us."
 * "We do what we have to do, it doesn't matter if we can live with ourselves...as long as we live."

Later, near Dale's grave Rick says:
 * "[Dale] resisted things that I deemed necessary. He wouldn't allow himself to be completely changed by his surroundings.
 * I though that made him weak, but maybe I was wrong.
 * Maybe he was strong to resist those urges, maybe he was stronger than any of us to hold on to his humanity and refuse to let it go."

Trivia

 * Harrison Memorial Hospital was the name of the hospital that Rick Grimes stayed at during his coma, this is an actual hospital in Cynthiana, Kentucky.


 * Rick is presently the only character alive who has been in Issue 1. Other one were Morgan Jones, but he died in Issue 83.


 * Rick is one of the many amputees in The Walking Dead. Others include Allen, The Govenor, Dale, Morgan, and Jessie.