The Walking Dead Comic Creator Admits Carols TV Story is Better

Robert Kirkman, creator of The Walking Dead, admits that fan favorite character Carol Peletier has a better story on the television adaptation.

Robert Kirkman, creator of The Walking Dead comic book series, admitted that fan favorite character Carol Peletier has a better story on the television adaptation. The Walking Dead's television show isn't a straight 1:1 recreation of the books. Instead, the show aims to take inspiration from the comic, following the basic plot set out by the source material while changing up relationships, motivations, and sometimes entire characters. This method of adaptation serves to keep fans already familiar with the comics on their toes, as the show makes some pretty drastic changes from the source material. Some even argue that there are things The Walking Dead TV series has done better than the comics.

One of the most obvious examples of the show doing something better comes with the handling of Carol Peletier, played by Melissa McBride. In the comics, Carol is a meek housewife who never really grows past her timid nature. Carol ends up committing suicide fairly early on in the comic's run by allowing a walker to bite her. TV Carol starts off similarly to her comic counterpart, but starts to take some dramatic shifts around season 4. TV Carol eventually morphs into one of the group's leaders, having her former life as an abused wife inform her ability to make the tough calls needed to protect those she loves. In a far cry from her comic book origins, Carol is, arguably, the toughest character on the show.

During his Comic-Con@Home panel, Robert Kirkman himself admitted that he thinks Carol's TV story is better. Kirkman was asked by a fan what he liked most about the development of Carol's character, and he responded, "How inadequate it makes me feel as a writer." Kirkman remarked how he didn't do a lot with Carol's character in the comics, and was consistently surprised and impressed with what The Walking Dead's television writers were able to come up with.

"[Carol] was someone that I did not see the potential in that has existed in the television character, and has gone on for many many years to do amazing, crazy, awesome stuff. It's really kind of shined a light on an area of the comic where I kind of fell short. I think that that's actually a great thing. It reminds me that there's more potential in any character than I could possibly foresee."

Now, Carol is one of the few remaining season 1 characters still on The Walking Dead, even outlasting series lead Rick Grimes. There were talks of killing Carol back in season 3 (which would have been around the same time she died in the comics), but even then the writers saw where they could take Carol as a character and decided to keep her on. The writing team on The Walking Dead saw the thematic potential that a survivor of domestic abuse could have in a post-apocalyptic world. Rather than letting her past destroy her, like it did in the comics, the writers decided to use Carol's trauma to empower her and inform her survival instincts, which allowed her to last far longer than most characters.

However, all this doesn't necessarily mean comic book Carol is a bad character. Kirkman himself stated that he wanted to "tell a specific kind of story with [Carol]." The difference between TV Carol and comic Carol points to one of the most interesting aspects of a good adaptation: the ability to take familiar characters and morph them into something new while still honoring their original background. TV Carol doesn't start off dramatically different than comic Carol, but both characters are informed by their background in divergent but authentic ways. TV Carol is generally considered to be more interesting (and scary) than her counterpart, but it's not because the writers just made a new character with a similar name. TV Carol remained true to the roots of the comic character, and her evolution is all the more satisfying for it. Taking inspiration from the comics and elevating the material is when The Walking Dead is at its best, and hopefully, we'll see more of that in the coming years.