5. It's The Original, Critically-Acclaimed Story
In the ten years since the debut issue of the TWD comic book, the series has brought about favorable reviews from comic and critics alike. In the three years since the TV TWD premiered on AMC, it has yielded huge ratings and a whole new fan base for Rick Grimes and co. while also receiving a fair amount of criticism concerning pacing and overall character behavior. Creating a television series from the comic was a great step for TWD to reach a new audience, but when comparing the comic and the show, the original story depicted in the comic still holds up better than the first season of TWD. Any film or TV adaptation can be accused of being inferior to the source material. However, when you think about it, the huge following of TWD's comic was a big part of why AMC bothered to produce a big-budget zombie drama in the first place. Just by reading the first two or three volumes of the graphic novels you can see what made the story of Atlanta survivors fighting off zombies and corrupt human nature so addictive. If you're only familiar with characters like Rick, Shane,Lori, Andrea and The Governor through the show, then you'll be shocked to see how they behaved in the comic. Any type of adaptation is bound to contain a certain amount of artistic liberty that allows the plot to differentiate from the plot of the source material. Despite this, many of the TV show's most memorable moments and seasonal plots are taken directly from the comic. The television show has done a decent job translating the majority of the the comic's story and characters onto the television screen, but if you're tired of spending forty minutes an episode waiting for something to happen, you can instead read TWD comic and burn through expertly-crafted plot development in half the time it takes you to get through a season of the slowly-paced TV series.