The Walking Dead: The Comic vs The Show | Blog Discussions | Forums

Over the last weekend, I've been reading up on the comic of my favorite television shows to ever have garnished our screens. If you didn't see from the title, it's "The Walking Dead". I'm only up to issue 63, and my word it's really starting to get interesting. I'll try to avoid where I'm at now, but what I feel like I can talk to you about is the events in the comic that have already been portrayed in the television show. Which media did it better? If you want to read the comic without spoilers, DO NOT read this article.

Now don't think I'm here to hate on one or the other, because I'm not. Think of this as some harmless fun. So we're two seasons out, and the third season of The Walking Dead is due to air October 14th (my mother's birthday. How about that?). The first thing I've noticed between the comic and the TV show is how they're both portrayed. In the comic, characters seem to jump straight to the point. For example, in 'Issue #10', Carl get's shot by Otis (just like in the television show). In the comic, Carl more or less survives and is patched up within the same day and everything is happy and dandy. In the show, they had to run into town to find the medicine they need, Rick had to give his own blood to his son and there was even talk of putting Carl out of his misery by Lori and Rick. It's quite strange how a television series pretty much had no choice but to spread things out a bit. I suppose the reason why it took longer for Carl to heal was purely because it's a TV show. If you've got no thrills, nobody is going to watch, zombies or no zombies. In the very same issue, Rick asks Hershel about staying in the barn instead of Dale's RV (that RV stayed with him in the show too). Hershel told him no, and even told him there and then the reasons why. The show took half a season to get to that point, and as somebody who watched the TV series prior to the comics, it was certainly a good build up. I wish the comic took it's time to build up to that as well, but somehow I feel like the writers of the comic felt it unneeded. For good reason perhaps? Then again, there are over 7years between issue 10 and season 2.

Lets move onto relationships between characters. Now the love affair between Lori and Shane was present in both the comic and the TV series, but it ended all too quickly in the comic when, believe it or not, Shane died. He died at the camp site in the same situation as in the TV series where Shane was crying out how Rick had ruined everything between himself and Lori by returning. He actually had Rick at gun point, but to his surprise, Carl comes in and kills Shane. Yes… that actually happened in the comic. And guess what? He was just 7 years old in the comic. I got a sense of "Gohan" out of him when reading that moment (Gohan is a character from Dragon Ball Z). Since Shane died at the camp, it was really surprising to see how him not being in the group when they got to Hershel's farm really affected the whole situation. I mean Rick and Hershel's groups were never forced out of the farm by walkers in the comic book. The TV series more or less touched upon "what would happen if Shane was still alive up to the farm" which was really good because it makes things a whole more more interesting than the comic.

You'll never believe this either. Andrea and Dale… I bet most of you watched the TV series and saw them bounce off each other as if they were father and daughter. In the comic series, they were actually in love with each other. I'm not kidding. It came as a real surprise to me when I saw their relationship flourish, and I must say it was quite nice. In comic books, you never really get an idea at how old they are, so for all I knew, Dale could be just 50 and Andrea in her early 40's, so it made the relationship all the more OK. Had it been Dale was 60 and Andrea was early 20's, then I might see it as a little creepy, but I would have just gone with it anyway. It's moments like that which surprise you in a comic book, because you just never realise how different two different pieces of media can be.

And so, the television series is moving onto it's third series, with Michonne (who I will say is one of my favorite characters in the character), the Governor and the prison from the comic book all making their impact on the television series. With different story lines between characters between the comic and the show, there's no doubt you can expect a lot of differences. I mean Michonne found Andrea and saved her life in the show; in the comic, Michonne found Otis… who was even racist in the comic. Like what?! And if Michonne's story relates to that of the comic, then Season 3 is going to be amazing.

So what has the point of this article been? It's more or less just been one massive look back at some of the comparisons between both the comic book and the television series of The Walking Dead. Judging from what we've learned, the comic book tends to get straight to the point in a lot of places (and I mean A LOT of places) whilst the series likes to build up the suspense. Between the two, characters have their own storylines, with characters who died in the TV show dying in completely different moments in time in the comic. I'd say the comic is better because it's original and is pretty much the reason why the show exists.

Here's hoping you enjoyed the memories if you've read the comic book series.

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