Rick Grimes (Comic Series)

Rick Grimes is the Walking Dead's primary protagonist; originator Robert Kirkman has stated that the series is intended to focus on him and cover his life. He was a small-town police officer living with his wife Lori and son Carl Grimes.

Days Gone Bye
Rick awakens to find himself alone in a hospital. As he ventures out, he finds that the world has drastically changed. Dead people are walking around everywhere, and the living are scattered. He makes his way home only to find that his wife and son are not there. He's accidentally attacked by his first encounter with live people, who take him in and teach him the ways of this new world. The two survivors are Father and Son, Morgan and Duane Jones. They also tell Rick of Atlanta, which was supposed to be turned into a stronghold. Rick helps the two find supplies, and along the way shoots former partner, Leon Basset. Rick leaves them at their house, and decides to go to Atlanta to look for his family. Along the way he runs out of gas and while searching for more decides to borrow a horse from a deceased family instead.

On horseback, he rides into Atlanta where he's quickly overwhelmed by a mob of the dead. The horse is killed and he narrowly escapes by jumping into a nearby tank.

Guts
With some help from a mysterious stranger over the radio, Rick is given a plan to break out of the tank, as the walkers are mostly on one side. Rick does so, and fires on multiple zombies before going into the alley which was specified. The stranger is there, and leads Rick onto a roof, escaping the zombie hord below. They meet up with the stranger's group in another building. The group is frustrated because Rick's previous gunshots had drawn the nearby mob of dead directly to the area and they're stuck in a non-fortified building with no way out. And to make things worse, Merle Dixon, another survivor from the group, is firing on many of the zombies, bringing more undead closer to the building

After some clever planning, Rick and Glenn, the boy who saved his life in the tank, are able to smear rotting body parts all over themselves and walk among the zombies without being attacked. A sudden rain-shower ruins their plan, and they are forced to make a run for nearby vehicles.

While Glenn provides a distraction, Rick is able to successfully save the rest of the group, save Merle, who had been handcuffed to the roof by Rick at the onset of their problem, and had the key to the handcuffs lost down a drain.

Tell It to the Frogs
At the survivor's nearby camp, Rick's wife, Lori, and son, Carl, are surviving with a group of strangers who had all been making their way to Atlanta. Among them is Rick's ex-partner, Shane, who has been leading the group. When Rick and the rest of the stranded group from Atlanta return, tears of joy are shed at the reunification of the family, who had thought they'd never see Rick again. (Mostly because Shane told them he was dead).

The joy isn't long-lasting, however, since some explanations have to be made when Merle's brother Daryl returns from hunting in the area. In the end, Rick volunteers to lead a group back into the city to bring Merle back to camp alive. After a carefully thought out plan, they arrive back on the same roof to find Merle gone, having cut off his hand to escape his trap.

Vatos
On the search for Merle, Rick leads the small group following the trail of blood to find that Merle had survived cutting off his own hand and escaped the building. Deciding to retrieve his bag of guns he had dropped when he first entered town, the group executes a plan to retrieve the guns. All goes well until a young "Vato" encounters the group, and Glenn is taken hostage by the gangsters. After some posturing and planning, Rick and his group are nearly killed in a giant shoot-out between the two groups, until a kindly old woman stops them both. Retrieving their man, Rick leaves some of the guns with the gang members, who had been protecting a group of abandoned elderly people since the outbreak.

On their way back to camp, they find that their van had been stolen, most likely by Merle, and are forced to walk back to camp.

Just before they arrive, the camp is attacked and almost overrun by zombies. Some of the campers died in the attack, but Rick was able to protect his family.

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 to 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.

Hershel brings 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.

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 lets Thomas out of his cell in an attempt to rescue him from his death. Instead of gratefulness, Thomas attempts 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 however didn't shut ther door behind them that led 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.

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 at 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.