Rumors began to swirl back in August about the possibility of The Walking Dead's Daryl Dixon being gay. Unlike most rumors, this one came straight from the source -- Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman himself.

In a column in The Walking Dead comic, Kirkman responded to a fan question about Dixon's sexuality, saying that Dixon's sexuality, and possible homosexuality, had been discussed by him and AMC.

"We have very specific ideas about Daryl's sexuality (or the seeming lack thereof). and if there's ever a quit period in the show where he's not consistently distracted by crossbowing...we'll tackle it in the show," Kirkman said in his response.

Turns out that discussion was just that: a discussion. Daryl Dixon is 100 percent confirmed straight. Following the midseason finale of The Walking Dead on AMC, Kirkman appeared on the following talk show Talking Dead to discuss the episode. While he was there, he took the opportunity to spell it out for fans.

"In the letter column of the comic book that I do, I mentioned that there was a possibility early on about making Daryl Dixon's character gay," Kirkman said during Talking Dead. "I just wanted to clarify that the possibility is there and that I would have been fine with it, the network would have been fine with it -- but we ultimately didn't do that. I can make it official: Daryl Dixon is straight."

It makes sense. Fans have long been wanting Daryl and Carol to hook up, and it's hard not to see some kind of relationship between Daryl and Beth. Still, Daryl was never explicitly in a relationship, which left some fans to wonder.

Daryl might not be gay, but a new character soon to be introduced on the show will be. Kirkman confirmed that a gay character is coming to the show in the second half of The Walking Dead's fifth season and that the character will be from the comic series.