One character from The Walking Dead proved to be almost too ambitious to adapt to television. There are some big differences 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’s co-creator, confirms in The 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 make his 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

The Walking Dead Deluxe #108 by Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard, Dave McCaig, and Rus Wooton

Fans of The 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 the Walking Dead’s fan-favorite character a 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 in Deluxe #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 on The Walking Dead was largely framed by his children, which is common for creators; for example, one Captain America writer was inspired to 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 to push the limits of The Walking 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 of a show inspiring – or goading – the comic series that 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 adapt The Walking Dead to television, he may never have conceived of Shiva.

How Did AMC Adapt The Walking Dead’s Shiva?

Shiva from the Show vs. Shiva from the Comics

Through the wonders of CGI, The Walking Dead on 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.

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, but Shiva’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.

Robert Kirkman Knows How to Differentiate The Walking Dead’s Comics from Its TV Show

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, as The Walking Dead isn’t his only show to go far in trying to distinguish itself from its counterpart. For instance and more recently, Invincible’s Season 3 finale is currently earning praise online for one of the episode’s most memorable moments. Like the instances previously referenced from The Walking Dead, said moment does not happen in the comics and 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 how The Walking Dead portrays her on TV compared to the comics is a prime example.

The Walking Dead Deluxe #108 is available now from Image Comics.