‘The Walking Dead’ Spoilers: Before You Judge Him, Get To Know Who Negan Was Before the Zombie Apocalypse

By Carlo Monzon
Negan
Negan from "The Walking Dead" comic books.  YouTube/Make a Path Presents

Even before AMC premiered the season 6 finale of "The Walking Dead," fans already know the Negan is a major villain, who is possibly even worse than the undead horde trying to snack on Rick Grimes and his group. But, in a new material released by Image Comics, fans were able to see what Negan was like before the apocalypse.

The new story, titled "Here's Negan" is a 48-page comic book. Image Comics already released the first page of the story earlier this month followed by the next three pages this week, according to ComicBook.com.

As told in the story, back when the world was still zombie-free, Negan used to work as a school teacher and a ping-pong coach. But, this doesn't mean that he's the kind of teacher that everyone loves.

In fact, even during the pre-apocalypse days, he was already sarcastic and had a foul mouth. In the first few pages, Negan is shown coaching his students and dominating one of them at ping pong. When he finally beats the student, he curses at him and uses sexual references to berate the student.

But, after the students run away because of Negan's bad attitude, a woman believed to be his wife or girlfriend approaches him. But, as she was walking towards him, she begins to have a seizure and fall.

The first pages of the story certainly ended with a cliffhanger which means fans of the "Walking dead" will have to wait until next month to see its continuation. And, with a couple of more pages to go, the new story will surely shed light on how Negan became who he is now. More importantly, the story could explore Negan's transition from using a ping pong paddle to a baseball bat. After all, it's probably not that intimidating if he terrorizes his victims using a barbwire-clad ping pong paddle.

"Here's Negan" is the latest comic book to explore side stories in the "Walking Dead" universe. Earlier this month, Panel Syndicate partnered with Image Comics to release "The Walking Dead: The Alien," which tells the story of Rick's brother Jeff and how he's handling the zombie apocalypse.