Volume 6: This Sorrowful Life

For the Volume's Gallery, see Volume 6: This Sorrowful Life Gallery

Volume 6: This Sorrowful Life includes issues 31-36. This volume happens as Rick, Glenn and Michonne manage to escape from Woodbury with the help of other survivors wishing to escape the Governor's insane rule. They manage to safely arrive back at the prison, although they will be completely unprepared for what they found.

Plot Synopsis
In Woodbury, Rick Grimes is bonding with Dr. Stevens and his nurse, Alice, when one of the town's gladiators, Eugene, arrives and kills his opponent, Harold who had accidentally knocked out Eugene's teeth. After the confusion, Martinez comes to check on the doctor and is surprised by Rick's injury.

Low on gladiators, The Governor offers Michonne to fight it out in the arena in exchange for a rest period from her daily torture. He explains that the arena fights are staged to look good, but not deadly. She agrees to fight Eugene, and in the arena, kills him and then the surrounding zombies without hesitation. The onlookers protest the extreme violence, and Michonne is quickly knocked out again. Meanwhile, Martinez breaks Rick out, taking Stevens, Alice, and Glenn with him so that they can escape the Governor as well. When they rescue Michonne, she says she will catch up later and leaves to take her revenge. In the confusion of escape, Stephens is bitten, but asks to stay a zombie rather than be killed. Back within the town, Michonne arrives and tortures Phillip to the point of severe mutilation. When she is interrupted, she quickly escapes. Michonne later arrives at the crashed helicopter, meeting her friends.

After a fight against zombies back to the prison, they return to find the gates open, the prison overrun by hordes of zombies, and Dale's RV seemingly abandoned. Rick's group finds Dale and Andrea hiding in the RV, who tell Rick the other survivors are hiding in C-Block. Rick kills an undead Otis, but is reunited with everyone else. Hershel Greene says his wound was just a scratch from friendly fire, and Glenn finds a female zombie and takes its ring off, presumably to ask Maggie to marry him. Andrea catches Michonne talking to her other self, and Tyreese takes Rick off zombie duty due to his injuries.

In the confusion after clearing out the zombie infestation, Rick notices Martinez is missing, and assumes that he has gone back to Woodbury to tell the survivors there where the prison is. Rick immediately sets off after Martinez in Dale's RV. He catches up to him before he makes it to Woodbury and proceeds to ram him with the RV, crippling him. Martinez protests that he wasn't going to bring the Governor, only the people who deserved to be safe in the prsion. Regardless, Rick kills him and leaves his body to reanimate.

Back in the prison, Glenn asks permission to marry Maggie from Hershel, to which the tearful father agrees. Glenn then proceeds to propose to Maggie and the two become engaged.

After Rick's return, he calls for a group meeting where he finally reveals where Glenn, Michonne, and he have been for the past few days. He instructs the group to prepare themselves for the upcoming fight with the Woodbury survivors.

Credits

 * Rick Grimes
 * Lori Grimes
 * Carl Grimes
 * Morgan Jones
 * Duane Jones
 * Brian Blake
 * Tyreese
 * Michonne
 * Glenn
 * Andrea
 * Dale
 * Ben
 * Billy
 * Carol
 * Sophia
 * Hershel Greene
 * Maggie Greene
 * Billy Greene
 * Patricia
 * Axel
 * Alice
 * Caesar Martinez
 * Dr. Stevens
 * Bruce Cooper
 * Gabe
 * Bob
 * Harold
 * Eugene
 * Wes
 * Miss Williams
 * Otis (Zombified)
 * Penny Blake (Zombified)

Deaths

 * Otis
 * Dr. Stevens
 * Caesar Martinez
 * Harold
 * Eugene

Sales

 * Creator Robert Kirkman wrote:
 * "The Walking Dead Volume 6 was number 7 on the top 100 graphic novels of 2007 and Volume 7 was number 10. All the other volumes placed on the list, all pretty high as I recall."