One character fromThe Walking Deadproved to be almost too ambitious to adapt to television. There are some bigdifferences between the show and comics, which is usually the case for any page-to-screen adaptation. However, it’s rare for the author of the comics to, essentially, go out of the way to produce material that they know would be difficult to adapt - but Robert Kirkman was up to the task.
Kirkman,The Walking Dead’sco-creator, confirms inThe Walking Dead Deluxe#108’s Q&A section that, upon further introspection and in the wake of the show being adapted as he was still writing the comics, he pushed himself to do things that would makehis depiction of Shiva, a major character’s pet tiger, harder to film.
Kirkman’s approach to handling Shiva in the comics and taking advantage of the comics medium shows exactly how comics can distinguish themselves from their televised adaptations, and vice versa.
Robert Kirkman Purposely Planned to Make Shiva Difficult to Adapt for Television
Fans ofThe Walking Dead, both the comics and the show, will remember Shiva as Ezekiel’s pet tiger. Calling Shiva a pet almost undermines the complexity of his relationship with Ezekiel, since saving Shiva’s life in the past gave theWalking Dead’sfan-favorite charactera confidante willing to protect him as long as she carried air in her lungs, right up until her ultimate sacrifice. They stood side by side in the Kingdom, and that dynamic resonated strongly with television viewers, even if Kirkman was determined to make that dynamic too difficult to adapt. As he says inDeluxe#108:
Having children changes you. I believe I’ve spoken about this a little. When I had my kids, I noticed immediately that it softened me. Violence in media hit me harder, even upset me at times, in ways it never had before I was a father. That to me finding myself hesitating with this book, sometimes thinking, “Is this too far?” or merely, “Do we really need to do this?” And I developed a dangerous instinct because of this. I’d think, “No, f*** that. That’s these kids making me soft! I can’t hold back. I have to do this!”
So, at times, there’s a chance that before I had kids, there are elements of this comic I would have held back on, lines I wouldn’t have crossed. BUT because I was worried that I was second-guessing myself only because of my kids, I pushed myself into doing this … and, well, the book got darker because of it.
How does this apply to this issue?
Well, sort of the same thing happened when THE WALKING DEAD got made into a TV show. There were a few times I’d think, “Well, this is going to be hard for us to adapt on the show.” That would lead to me thinking, “Too bad! Gotta do it! Can’t let the show change this book.” I had a concern. I’d never considered if anything was adaptable or could work in a TV show before THE WALKING DEAD had been adapted, so why worry about that now? I had to keep the process pure at all costs.
Kirkman’s creative process onThe Walking Deadwas largely framed by his children, which is common for creators; for example,oneCaptain Americawriter was inspiredto sneak his son into the official Marvel canon. What makes Kirkman’s source of inspiration so unique is that it wasn’t so much that his children were inspiring him as that he feared fatherhood was stifling his creativity, at least with regard to producing violent material. This fear inspired him topush the limits ofTheWalking Dead, doing so through Shiva. Kirkman continues:
So when I got the idea to put a tiger in the book, my first thought was, “How will that work in the show?” And then that was followed by, “Who cares! Gotta do it! Gotta stay pure! But my point is: if the show had never happened… there’s a chance I’d have thought, “Hmm… maybe a tiger is too weird …” and not done it.
So … the TV show made this book WEIRDER. I’d also say COOLER, because Ezekiel and Shiva made this book WAY cooler. But, I have to admit, also way weirder. And that’s okay.
Shiva’s existence is a rare instance ofa show inspiring - or goading - the comic seriesthat it adapts. One may call it art imitating art, in which both mediums take from each other and give inspiration to one another. The show managed to help Kirkman’s creative process for his comics. His urge to push the limits of how graphic he could make his comics also inspired him to push the limits of how weird the medium can be in itself, birthing Shiva. If Kirkman never agreed to adaptThe Walking Deadto television, he may never have conceived of Shiva.
Shiva from the Show vs. Shiva from the Comics
Through the wonders of CGI,The Walking Deadon AMC was able to bring Ezekiel’s giant tiger to life. As Kirkman expected,adapting Shiva wasn’t an easy task, but the beauty of Hollywood magic made it simpler. Story-wise, Shiva’s dynamic with Ezekiel onscreen isn’t too dissimilar to how it pans out on-panel, though their paths towards each other differ in both mediums, perhaps proving the difficulties of adapting Shiva to the screen. Onscreen, Ezekiel befriends the zoo tiger before the apocalypse, tending to its wound after Shiva fell into a concrete meat moat.
“It’s a Well I Dipped into Too Often”: Walking Dead Creator Admits the Franchise Overuses 1 Cliche
According to creator Robert Kirkman, he might have employed 1 narrative technique too many times during the run of “The Walking Dead” comic series.
On-panel, the former zookeeper befriends Shiva in much the same manner, except whereas Shiva shows no signs of aggression towards Ezekiel on TV, Shiva had struck him across the gut when he tended to her wound in the comics. Aiding Shiva helped tame her for Ezekiel, butShiva’s comic origins saw her as an aggressor.Shiva does die in both versions, sacrificing herself to Walkers to give her master a chance to escape. Both sacrifices carry emotional impacts, and both are powerful moments in their own ways, but they have distinct differences as they cater to their respective media.
The Same Can Be Said for All of Kirkman’s Adaptations
This drive to distinguish the comics from their TV adaptations appears to be a running trend with Kirkman’s adapted works, asThe Walking Deadisn’t his only show to go far in trying to distinguish itself from its counterpart. For instance and more recently,Invincible’sSeason 3 finaleis currently earning praise online for one of the episode’s most memorable moments. Like the instances previously referenced fromThe Walking Dead, said momentdoes not happen in the comicsand is therefore unique to the TV adaptation.
More than anything, a television show needs to feel different from the comics it’s adapting, and vice versa.
Regardless of his methods or the reasons he had to distinguish the comics, Kirkman’s adapted works speak to the most important qualities that every comic-to-TV pipeline needs to uphold. More than anything, a television show needs to feel different from the comics it’s adapting, and vice versa. The adaptation must take full advantage of its medium by creating moments that can only happen in that medium. It makes each version of the story, in both mediums, all the more must-see. Shiva’s distinction between howThe Walking Deadportrays her on TV compared to the comics is a prime example.
The Walking Dead Deluxe#108is available now from Image Comics.
The Walking Dead
The Walking Deadis a massive multimedia franchise that began with a comic book series created by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, and Charlie Adlard. The franchise gained widespread popularity with the launch of the television seriesThe Walking Deadin 2010 on AMC, which chronicles the lives of survivors in a post-apocalyptic world overrun by zombies, referred to as “walkers.” The success of the original show has led to numerous spin-offs, web series, video games, novels, and other media. The franchise explores themes of survival, human nature, and the breakdown of society in the face of an existential threat, making it one of the most successful and influential horror series of the 21st century.
