AMC's "The Walking Dead" is definitely the freshest show on TV, and its also one of the most popular shows around (season 2 premiere brought in 10 million viewers). It's currently my favorite show and I wait for it very impatiently every week to watch it on Sunday. All the time I have in between I spend on things like Left 4 Dead 2 and reading the Walking Dead comic books to feed my post-apocalyptic appetite. I decided to write this post to quickly outline a few major differences between the comic books and the show itself..

Overall they are "along the same lines", but the TV show deviates from the comics quite a bit, especially with season 2 in full force. I would say these are the most glaring differences (but don't get me wrong here, there are a ton of small differences too).

Zombie Speed

In the comic books, walkers are super slow at moving and very stupid. It almost seemed like, the only way someone could get killed in the comic books is by absolutely not paying any attention to their surroundings. The TV show, walkers are pretty fast and have a decent ability to control their actions.

Weapons Training

The first comic book covers about 3 - 4 episodes of the TV show, and within that one book a lot of stuff happens that didn't happen in the show. One of the biggest differences to me was the fact that Rick and Shane gave the order to train everyone with weapons, including the kids. This probably has something to do with kids running around with guns on TV and the Advisory committee not digging it.

Climate

Well, to put it simply... In the comic book its FREEZING cold, and in the TV show its HOT like hell. By the end of the first comic book they are looking for shelter due to the crazy cold weather. By the end of the first comic book, it begins to snow and the group of survivors led by Rick is trying to find shelter. In AMC's show, they are looking for water to survive the hot weather.

Cast

In general, the cast is pretty different. For example - Ed doesn't even exist in the comic books, and instead he is replaced by a sexist woman (forgot her name off top of my head). If you have a hard time remembering, its the guy who gets his face bashed in by Shane for being rude to his wife. Also the cast is different in a way that the character personalities are much different. Rick in the comic book isn't nearly as emotional as he is in the show, he is more of a leader.

Shane

Spoiler alert (if you plan on reading the comic books). Basically Shane in the comic book is a WAY bigger asshole. He is super rude to Rick and everyone around him. He is so rude, that he gets shot. That's right, he got shot at the end of book one. Which means if the TV show was exactly like the comic books, Shane would not be in season 2.