But after coming up empty in after a search for a threat from the outsiders, Rick was left pondering if Jesus may have been right -- that there really could be a peaceful society willing to help his group of survivors continue on.

"Rick has hard time trusting anybody so of course he doesn't trust the guy," Kirkman tells The Hollywood Reporter. "Anytime a stranger comes in telling him good news, he's weary of them. He remembers his interaction with the Governor and other people that he has encountered over the years. This is something he's going to be weary of at all times. The real question right now is, is he going to ruin a potential good opportunity because of his lack of trust."

But could Jesus hold the key to opening up a larger world for Rick, Andrea, Michonne and company? Kirkman says as the series continues toward its 100th issue, it's something the series has yet to tackle -- not just surviving but rebuilding the world they once knew.

"We haven't really seen anyone working hard to actually re-establish civilization," he says heading into Issue No. 94. "That's really what we're looking at here; we have a pocket where Rick and all his people live and it's safe in the community and now they're potentially going to be discovering other similar pockets of civilization. If they're able to form a network or they're able to actually work together and try to deal with this problem on a much larger scale, you're a hop, skip and jump away from re-establishing civilization and that's a very exciting thing and that may or may not be what we're working toward right now."

Check out the first five pages of Image/Skybound's issue No. 94, exclusive to THR, in the pages that follow.

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Image/Skybound's Walking Dead No. 94 bows on Wednesday.

Email: Lesley.Goldberg@thr.com; Twitter: @Snoodit