Unlike The Walking Dead TV fans, comic creator Robert Kirkman doesn’t let himself get attached so easily.
Seriously, Kirkman is as cold-blooded as Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin. Kirkman stated during an interview with Entertainment Weekly he is compelled to kill characters he finds himself getting attached to out of fear it would affect The Walking Dead story too much.
"You know, I don’t really have a favorite," Kirkman told EW. "I tend to kill those, just because when I find myself real attached to a character, or if I find myself wanting to write them more and more and steering more story toward them, I kind of realize that that means that audience investment in that character is extremely high, and I don’t want it to affect the story too much by focusing too much on that character. And that tends to make me want to kill them."
This is why characters like Glenn and Abraham died in The Walking Dead comics and the show. It’s also why characters like Morgan, Tyrese and Carol had horrible deaths in comics. Kirkman told EW he really like “comic book Carol,” despite many fans telling him “show Carol” is much more interesting to follow.
“There are constantly things in the show where I’m like, ‘You know, the show’s Carol is so much better than the comic book Carol.’ I like the comic book Carol,” Kirkman told EW. “There are definitely some cool stories that were done with her, but it didn’t do anything as cool as what we do in the show with her. So, there are things like that where if I look at the show and I look at the comic, it’s like, I kind of wish I had done something like that in the comic.”
In comic book Carol’s defense, she was a young mother struggling to cope in the zombie apocalypse. She didn’t know how to survive alone with her daughter Sophia. When Tyrese cheated on her with Michonne, she completely lost it. Even Rick screamed at Tyrese for hurting Carol. However, Michonne didn’t give a fuck about Carol and was just trying to get laid, which just made people like her more.
What do you think about Kirkman killing off characters he gets attached to? Let us know in the comments below. The Walking Dead Season 7 airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on AMC.
