Volume 6: This Sorrowful Life

Volume 6: This Sorrowful Life is the sixth volume of Image Comics' The Walking Dead that includes issues 31-36.

This volume happens as Rick, Glenn, and Michonne manage to escape from Woodbury with the help of some other Woodbury survivors wishing to escape The Governor's insane rules. They manage to safely arrive back at The Prison, although they will be completely unprepared for what they have found.

Plot Synopsis
In Woodbury, Rick Grimes is bonding with Dr. Stevens and his nurse, Alice, when one of the town's gladiators, Eugene Cooney, arrives and kills his opponent, Harold Abernathy, who had accidentally knocked out Eugene's teeth. After the confusion, Caesar 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, decapitates 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 Dr. 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, Dr. Stevens is bitten, but asks to stay a zombie rather than be killed. Back within the town, Michonne arrives and tortures The Governor, using several objects such as a drill, a hammer, her own katana, a torch and even a spoon, to the point of severe mutilation. When she is interrupted by the arrival of The Governor's henchmen, she quickly escapes. Michonne later arrives at the crashed helicopter, meeting up with the others.

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 that the other survivors are hiding in C-Block. Rick kills an undead Otis, but is reunited with everyone else. Hershel 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 amputated hand.

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 prison. 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.

Deaths

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

Reception

 * 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."