Even before AMC's The Walking Dead premiered in Halloween 2010, there was already a huge amount of hype. The reason for this was simple the show was an adaptation of a hugely popular Image comic-book series written by Robert Kirkman. It was the huge fanbase of the comic book series and positive word of mouth to those unfamiliar with its pages which stoked the anticipation fires and made people clamour for the on-screen version of Rick Grimes' struggles against the undead. Yet for better or worse, we got a series which was somewhat different to its literary forebear. Adapting a comic book into a TV show allows certain liberties to be taken with characters and plot, which is cool. Just to be clear, I'm not hating on TV TWD completely while it's been inconsistent, there are moments where the show really picks up and surprises me with some impressive episodes. Characters who aren't even in the comic like Daryl and Merle Dixon are some of the best parts of the TV show and continue to make it worth watching. So if The Walking Dead is your favorite TV show, then that's great, more power to you. It's better than some of the other current TV shows out there and when it's good, it's really good. But unless they've taken the time to research around the show's origins, many new Walking Dead fans won't know about the fantastic post-apocalyptic source material from which the series took its name, and frankly that's a shame. It's frustrating to know there are people out there who are turned off to The Walking Dead in other forms after watching the TV show, because they're depriving themselves of something brilliant. It's the same feeling you get where people say they've seen the Harry Potter movies, but they haven't so much as skimmed a few pages of Prisoner of Azkaban. Frankly, these guys are missing out on something brilliant the original black-and-white series can offer the full-fat awesome survivor vs. zombie moments the show only gives us in diet form, so with this in mind, I'm going to tell you why you should drop the TV control and head down your comic store immediately.
WARNING: There will be spoilers.