The Walking Dead #150 is out now, and it sheds light on the ongoing direction of this long-running zombie saga.

Warning: this article contains spoilers for The Walking Dead #150!

Art by Charlie Adlard

Recent issues of The Walking Dead have explored the aftermath of the Whisperers' brutal attack and Rick's uphill battle to prevent his people from launching into a destructive war against an unknown enemy. The solicitation for issue #150 promised a big betrayal, and that moment came when two citizens of Alexandria attacked Rick in the middle of the night. But despite having only one hand and a bad leg, Rick proved capable of defending himself.After waking up the next morning, Rick's first order of business was to deliver an impassioned speech to his community about the need to stick together and avoid slipping back into the darkness and cruelty that characterized the early years of the zombie apocalypse. He also revealed that he would be spearheading the formation of a military force to protect the city and finally punish the Whisperers for their crimes.It was a key moment for Rick, and it offered renewed hope that civilization really can rebuild. However, the final shot of Rick's former enemy turned adviser Negan hinted that maybe our hero is headed down a dark path.We were lucky enough to get a chance to chat with writer/creator Robert Kirkman this week and discuss the events of issue #150. Kirkman talked about the thrill of hitting such a major milestone and what's next for the Walking Dead cast in the aftermath of this issue. He even teased what to expect from Brian K. Vaughan and Marcos Martin's upcoming Walking Dead digital comic. Scroll down to check out the interview.

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Yeah, there's a weird duality to it. On one hand, I'm like "Oh my god, I can't believe we made it to #150!" That's so many issues! I can't believe we've been at this for over a decade!" And on the other hand, it really does still feel like we're just getting started. Which is almost scary at this point, but I've got a lot more stories to tell. It's interesting. At the same time I'm feeling like "Oh my god! I've been doing this forever!" and "Oh my god! I have more stories!"It's one of those things where I don't want everybody to always be expecting a big thing to happen. We had a monumental thing happen in issue #144, and shoehorning a big event into the series just because this is issue #150 seemed like a mistake to me. That said, there is a titanic, monumental shift in Rick Grimes at this point. We see Rick using this horrible thing that happened to him - this attack - to basically manipulate the people that are under him. The shift in his thinking and the way he's going to be leading these people moving forward has serious repercussions. I think people will look back on #150 as a huge turning point in the series that changed the book quite a bit, even if it doesn't necessarily seem like it right now.Yeah, there's definitely an honesty to that speech. Those are definitely things that he believes. But doing it in that moment, making sure he was still covered in blood, using that attack to solidify his power and make everyone rally behind him. These are all things that he's, to a certain extent, picking up from Negan. He's picking it up from seeing how that guy manipulated others. This is definitely a big change.Definitely not a great thing to be getting Negan's approval.Yeah, and I also want to make sure that all of our big villains are as different from each other as possible. I would argue that Alpha - she's definitely evil. She's definitely done a lot of bad things. But I would say she's more conflicted than any other villain we've encountered. Negan 100% prepared to do all the things he was doing. There was no conflict within him. He's very confident and sure of himself. Alpha, not so much. She's assembled this group and things have gotten away from her and she's made a lot of compromises to hold her group together. There's a tremendous amount of regret she feels over all the things she's had to do to keep her group operating. That's something we're going to be exploring a lot moving forward. We're going to see a lot more of the Whisperers after #150 and beyond.Yeah, there's a lot to be revealed there. We're not against flashbacks, and we have done them from time to time. It's not something that happens very frequently, but I wouldn't completely rule it out in her case. Regardless of whether it's a flashback or not, we will be finding out more about what it is that makes her tick and that unique relationship she has with her daughter and how she came to be who she is.I guess I'm having a lot of fun writing Negan, but I'm always very careful not to grow too attached to these characters. Just because I don't want to artificially keep them around just so I can keep writing them when, by all other indications, their story has already been told. I strongly feel that Negan's story hasn't completely been told. There's a lot more to be done with him. Most recent issues were sowing the seeds of other storylines. Without revealing too much, there's a whole lot more of Negan ahead of us.That's one aspect of the story, but there's going to be a lot more going on than that. We're gearing up for another big conflict. We've had big conflicts in the past in this series. There was the attack on the prison or the big "All Out War" storyline. Now that we're ramping up for another big confrontation between two big groups, we're going to see everything in a much different light. The formation of the military and Rick's new plan to combat the Whisperers and put that situation to rest is all part of a larger story of them continuing to figure out how to live long-term.The Whisperers have proven to Rick that the infrastructure of the military and a peacekeeping force that has an offensive side to it and can keep them safe on a larger scale - this is something that's necessary to their continued survival. While that military is being developed to handle this very present threat that's there right now, I think Rick is always thinking long-term and seeing that this is a piece of civilization and infrastructure that needs to be brought back from the dark ages, so to speak. It's all part of that larger story.Carl has now hit that age where he wants to be his own man and he wants to live on his own. And while he is still very young - he's not an adult by a long shot - this is a different time. In much less civilized times, people did grow up faster because they, frankly, didn't live very long. I think the world of The Walking Dead does mirror that in a lot of interesting ways. Carl has always had a level of maturity that's not present in everyday kids, based on the situation that he's living in. This is a further continuation of that. That will be a big part of the story moving forward. A lot of people talk about him, "Oh, he's replacing Rick as the main character of the book!" I don't know if we're necessarily there yet, but I would say that he's possibly a much more central character to the story than he ever has been in the past.That's entirely possible. [laughs]I know it's being worked on right now. I've read the script, and gosh darn it, it's absolutely amazing.It's a fun prospect for me to have Brian K. Vaughan come in and write one single issue that people will say is the best issue of The Walking Dead ever, blah blah blah, even though I've written 150 issues. But I'm very confident. I can handle that kind of criticism. So that's fine. It's really great. I think people are gonna love it. Marcos is drawing it right away. I think he's working on it at the same time he's doing Barrier. I don't know when it's going to be released, but when it's done it'll come out.One of the cool things about Panel Syndicate is that their release schedule can be very flexible because of the online nature of it. There's not any kind of big production that factors into it. We'll be able to market and release that in a pretty shocking and startling and very cool way. It won't be promoting something and then ordering something and then shipping something. That aspect of it is possibly the most fun for me. So when it comes out it'll be a surprise and people will be able to enjoy it. On the record, when it comes out it'll be amazing.

Jesse is a mild-mannered writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter , or Kicksplode on MyIGN