After the surprise conclusion of The Walking Dead comic book in July, many fans of Robert Kirkman, the creator and writer of the zombie series, wondered what he would do next. The answer is coming in May with Fire Power, a martial-arts-inspired series about Owen Johnson, who was adopted as a child and goes on a mission as an adult to learn about his birth parents.

The artist Chris Samnee is co-creator of the monthly series, which is colored by Matt Wilson. It will be published by Skybound, an imprint of Image Comics Inc. The main character “wants to live a quiet life with his family, but the safety of the world seems to depend on him discovering his power,” Kirkman said during a recent telephone interview. Finding that power involves a journey from his hometown, St. Louis, to a Shaolin temple in China and “the lost art of throwing fireballs,” he said. The idea for the story stemmed from one of the writer’s longtime fascinations. “When I wasn’t watching zombie movies as a teen, I was watching martial arts,” he said.

Image The cover of Fire Power No. 1. “When I wasn’t watching zombie movies as a teen, I was watching martial arts,” Kirkman said of his inspiration for this story line. Credit... Skybound/Image Comics

Despite the tremendous success of “The Walking Dead” as a television franchise, Kirkman is thinking of Fire Power solely as a comic book, at least for now. “I recognize that there’s a good chance that it could end up being a TV show or a movie or even an animated series,” he said. But “I’m certainly not writing scenes going, ‘How am I going to be able to fit this into the budget?’ I wouldn’t ever want to limit myself because comic book storytelling has a ton of strengths that don’t translate to other mediums.”