The comic books series The Walking Dead is full of impressive characters that were never in the TV show, like Rick’s brother or Tyreese’s daughter.

The AMC TV show The Walking Dead is based on the comic book series of the same name by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, and Charlie Adlard, which ran monthly from 2003 to 2019. That long run provided much source material to draw from, which helped keep the show going for 11 seasons. At the same time, the adaptation wasn’t so accurate. It constantly changed specific aspects of the narrative and the characters to better fit its medium.

The TV version of The Walking Dead has fan-favorite characters like Daryl Dixon and his brother Merle, who were never in the comics, while a few comic figures were never in the TV show. Tyreese was introduced in the comics along with a teenage daughter called Julie, and she had a boyfriend called Chris — a short-lived yet memorable story arc that made Tyreese a lot more complex in the comics. Another example is Douglas, who clearly was the inspiration for Deanna on the show but was a character far more unlikable than her.

15Julie Goes Through a Lot of Pain

Age
15 – 16 (High-School Student)

First Appearance
Issue 7

Last Appearance
Issue 15

In the comics, Tyreese is introduced accompanied by a beloved daughter. Julie is a teenage girl, presumably a high school student pre-apocalypse. She lived with her father in Georgia, and her problematic boyfriend was staying with them when the zombie outbreak happened. The three of them join Rick’s group.

The first impactful moment in the comics involving Julie was when Tyreese killed a man that tried to rape her. Her story keeps getting more heartbreaking as she becomes depressed and distances herself from her father. She doesn’t approve of Tyreese’s relationship with Carol and doesn’t like to be a babysitter for Carol’s daughter Sophia or any other child. Finally, Julie’s sudden death marks an important discovery. She’s pressured by her boyfriend into a suicide pact and is shot too soon by him. She then becomes a zombie without ever being bitten — the first time that happens in the comics, a scene given to Randall in the TV show. This moment gets very emotional as Tyreese finds Julie zombified and tries talking to her instead of killing her immediately.

14Chris Is Unlikable, but His Arc Is Interesting

Age
16

First Appearance
Issue 7

Last Appearance
Issue 15

Chris is Julie’s boyfriend, a teenager constantly crossing the line and disrespecting others in the group. He got into a fight with his parents and stayed with Julie and Tyreese, so Tyreese is forced to take him with them despite his annoyance. Chris has a huge problem with authority and feels like he’s old enough to be treated as an adult, but he only has immature reactions that are extremely rude. He even snaps at 8-year-old Carl when the child points out that Chris isn’t an adult yet.

He has the idea of a suicide pact between him and Julie, believing they could be together in peace after death. After Tyreese lets them carry guns, they find a moment to be alone and execute the plan. They have sex for the first time, then try shooting at each other simultaneously. Chris kills Julie before she can pull the trigger on her end. Tyreese hears the gunshot and finds them. Chris then shoots a zombified Julie down and Tyreese strangles the teenage boy to death. He soon becomes the second reanimated corpse never bitten by a zombie, and Tyreese kills him again.

13Dexter Turns Into a Scary Antagonist

Age
Late 30s

First Appearance
Issue 13

Last Appearance
Issue 19

Dexter is a convict who survives the zombie outbreak but gets trapped in the prison cafeteria. The remaining guards at the prison had let the prisoners out of their cells so they could all fight the zombies together but locked them in the cafeteria once the surviving inmates had cooperated. Dexter is friendly when Rick’s group breaks into the prison for food and shelter. But once he reveals he was convicted for murdering his wife and her lover, the group starts looking at him with suspicion.

When the Greene twins — who are also not a part of the TV show — are murdered, Lori wrongfully accuses Dexter of committing the crime. The group locks him in a cell, only to later find out he is innocent. This situation transforms Dexter into an antagonist whose new-found purpose is to make Rick’s group leave the prison. When Rick accidentally releases a hoard of zombies from one of the prison’s blocks, Dexter at first forces the visiting group to be unarmed. But realizing the situation is too dangerous to fight alone, he arms the group. Then Rick kills a zombie that’s about to bite Dexter, and the convict ungratefully says that a smart person would have let him die. Amidst the chaos, Rick kills Dexter with only Tyreese witnessing it was not an accident or the killing of a zombie.

12Alice Is an Interior Design Student Turned Nurse

Age
Early 20s

First Appearance
Issue 29

Last Appearance
Issue 48

Alice Warren is a very intelligent, brave, and honest young woman who Rick’s group meets in Woodbury. She was once an Interior Design student in college but turned into a nurse in the post-apocalypse under the mentorship of Dr. Stevens, who’s a thoughtful man. The Woodbury doctor, called Stevens, is a woman who shows loyalty to the Governor in the TV show. However, Stevens and Alice are against the Governor’s antics in the comics. Another confusing parallel is that there is another Alice introduced in The Walking Dead Season 9 who is unrelated to the comics’ Alice Warren.

When Rick meets Alice, he’s immediately impressed by her ability to learn anything quickly and her questioning personality. Alice convinces Stevens they should escape Woodbury and go with Rick. After Stevens dies, Alice becomes responsible for the group’s health needs. She delivers Lori’s baby, Judith. Another interesting feat for Alice is studying zombies and trying to find a cure. But she unfortunately dies before any discoveries when the group is attacked by the Governor.

11Douglas Monroe Is a Corrupt Womanizer

Age
Mid 60s

First Appearance
Issue 70

Last Appearance
Issue 83

While Deanna is a good person deep down in the TV series, her counterpart in the comics is a lot more morally ambiguous. Douglas Monroe was a Congressman of Ohio before the zombie outbreak who took control of the Alexandria Safe Zone from Alexander Davidson. Most residents consider him a good man and a good leader. The only problem is that he’s often corrupt and abuses his power for personal gain.

He’s a womanizer, constantly cheating on his wife, Regina. He tends to pursue beautiful women and give them positions of power to make them respond to his flirting. But when Regina dies, Douglas is overcome with guilt and falls into a deep depression. This leads to him passing the leadership onto Rick and contemplating suicide, but zombies get to him first. Deanna and Douglas have a lot in common as counterparts — from the background and leadership status to the death of the spouse. But Douglas is often a coward and does things that are far worse than anything Deanna does in The Walking Dead.

10Sheriff Kapoor Is a Late Inclusion but a Great Character

The ending of the comics is very different from the TV show’s. One of the reasons is the introduction of the comic character Sheriff Kapoor, who seems to be a trustworthy authority as the sheriff of the Commonwealth in Issue 193. The huge time jump was a bold decision for the end of the comic series, but it also made a lot of sense.

25 years after Rick dies, Carl and Sophia are married and live with their daughter Andrea at the Grimes farm. When Carl kills one of Hershel Greene’s escaped walkers, Kapoor tries to get Carl’s punishment reduced to a fine — as now a walker can be considered private property, and what Carl did is a crime. But when Carl runs amok and kills all of Hershel’s walkers, Kapoor has no choice but to do his job. He’s a very righteous man who would have made a great main character if Issue 193 wasn’t the finale of The Walking Dead.

9Maxwell Is Pamela’s Assistant

Age
Late 40s

First Appearance
Issue 176

Last Appearance
Issue 192

Maxwell Hawkins’s counterpart in the show is Maxxine Porter, a character who has a more eventful journey. However, Maxwell is also an interesting supporting character in his own way in the comics. He’s Pamela Milton’s personal assistant and greets the new arrivals from Alexandria. Despite being a relevant figure in the Commonwealth, he’s not as rude as others in similar positions.

He shares certain values with Pamela but is seemingly annoyed at how his boss handles her leadership. He accompanies her on her visits to other communities like Oceanside. He’s a very intelligent man capable of great things but prefers to stay at a lower rank and cooperate for the greater good without excessive responsibility.

8Morton Is Obsessed With Revenge

Age
Late 40s

First Appearance
Issue 135

Last Appearance
Issue 150

Although there are similarities between Morton Rose in the comics and Margo in the TV show, they’re not exactly counterparts because their stories don’t share key elements. Morton is a stern and authoritative figure responsible for maintaining order and security within the Commonwealth as a leader of the soldiers. He’s introduced as an aggressive man who demands extreme punishment for Carl after he nearly beats Morton’s son to death while defending Sophia. Margo may have anger issues, but she isn’t fixed on revenge for everything bad that happens and doesn’t have a leadership position like Morton.

He’s blinded by his hatred for Carl and wrongfully believes the Grimes family is responsible for his wife Tammy’s disappearance when she was killed by the Whisperers. Rick eventually tells them what happened, and Morton demands that Rick take action against the Whisperers as the leader of Alexandria. As Rick refuses to seek revenge for Tammy’s death, Morton attacks Rick to try and force him into action. But his attack backfires, and he ends up dead after Rick rips out his jugular with a bite to his neck — one of Rick’s most gruesome kills.

7Oceanside’s Pete Is a Kind Fisherman

Age
Mid 30s

First Appearance
Issue 139

Last Appearance
Issue 158

The TV version of The Walking Dead transformed Oceanside into a community where mostly only women had survived the outbreak, but it’s a very different place in the comics. Pete — who has no relation to TV’s Pete Anderson — is the kind captain of a fishing boat in the community. He’s relevant to Michonne and Ezekiel’s journey, as Pete convinces Michonne not to commit suicide and convinces Ezekiel to search for Michonne.

Like other survivor communities, Oceanside is drawn into the conflict against the Whisperers. When Siddiq comes to recruit fighters, Pete denies his and his crew’s participation. He’s a pacifist who only chooses violence as a final option to survive. He’s one of the most likable supporting characters in the comics.

6Thomas Introduces the Idea of People Being Worse Than Zombies

Age
Late 40s

First Appearance
Issue 13

Last Appearance
Issue 20 (Corpse)

In the same story arc that makes Dexter an antagonist, the group finds another villain at the prison: Thomas. Completely different from Tomas in the TV show, this character is not the leader of the inmates. He’s a very quiet and polite man, so the main group initially deems him the least threatening of the convicts.

That quickly changes when he reveals himself as a psychotic murderer who likes to decapitate women. He’s responsible for the death of the Greene twins, who were only teenagers at that point. He then tries to kill Andrea, but she’s able to escape. Rick nearly beats Thomas to death, and the group locks him in a cell. Patricia frees him as the group debates whether they should kill Thomas, believing it’s all a misunderstanding. But Thomas immediately tries to kill Patricia and soon gets killed by Maggie Greene. This early arc introduces the concept of people being sometimes more dangerous than zombies, which becomes a constant conflict in the series afterward.

5Billy Is a Key Member of the Greene Family

Age
18 – 19

First Appearance
Issue 10

Last Appearance
Issue 48

The Greene family is very different in the TV show from the original comic’s version. Three additional family members never made it to the show: twin sisters Susan and Rachel and their older brother, Billy Greene. The latter is a rebellious boy in his late teens who is kind-hearted.

Despite constantly fighting with his father, Billy and Hershel often work together. Billy is learning to shoot and trying to be brave throughout his short-lived arc, with a child-like charm that balances his father’s tendency for ruthlessness. He may make some terrible decisions due to still being immature — like sleeping with Carol as her mental state is deteriorating — but he’s a valuable team member for his skills as a shooter and willingness to help out. When he’s killed by one of the Woodbury soldiers during the escape from the prison compound, Hershel falls into a deep depression.

4Ben Kills His Twin Brother

Age
4 – 5

First Appearance
Issue 2

Last Appearance
Issue 61

Another important difference between the TV and comic versions is the representation of Allen and Donna’s family and their overall arc. Allen and Donna not only have different personalities in the TV show, but they also have only one son—Ben, who’s an older boy who goes through completely different situations than the comics’ Ben. Originally, Ben is a 4-year-old child with a twin brother called Billy.

Ben and Billy are friends with Carl despite being a few years younger than him. After the death of their parents, the twins are adopted by Andrea and Dale. Ben starts showing signs of psychopathy, as he doesn’t seem to feel any grief or even miss his birth parents. He later kills a cat from the barn and goes on to kill his own twin brother, believing he would come back as a zombie, and that wasn’t a big deal. This shocking scene is followed by another one when 8-year-old Carl decides to kill Ben as punishment so the group won’t have to deal with such a troubled child. This story arc inspires the character Lizzie Samuels in The Walking Dead Season 4.

3The Scavenger Derek Is as Evil as the Governor

Age
Late 30s

First Appearance
Issue 75

Last Appearance
Issue 78

There is a Derek in the TV show that is a part of the Saviors and is unrelated to the comics’ Derek. This comic book character is the leader of the Scavengers, a man introduced by throwing one of his own group members into a hoard of zombies as a distraction for the rest to be able to escape. Although short-lived and unsuccessful in his plans to infiltrate Alexandria, he’s one of the scariest villains in The Walking Dead for being as evil as the Governor and other ruthless antagonists.

When they get to Alexandria, the Scavengers have a sniper aiming at Rick. Derek demands entrance, but Rick says it’s not that simple and starts asking questions about his group. Irritated, Derek threatens to kill Rick, but Andrea is able to shoot down the Scavenger sniper before the situation escalates. Derek then tries to kill Rick himself, but Andrea quickly shoots him down first, ending the dispute between Alexandria and the Scavengers.

2Claudia Goes From Spain to the US Looking For Answers

Age
Late 20s

First Appearance
The Alien

Last Appearance
The Alien

The comic book series has a few special editions, including the one focused on Rick’s brother and his friend Claudia. Titled The Walking Dead: The Alien, its story is brief but very entertaining. It starts in Barcelona, where the protagonists meet when Claudia saves Jeffrey (Rick’s brother) from a walker.

Claudia is a brave woman who used to work as a curator. She believes the zombie outbreak is not the end of the world and that there will be a solution sooner or later. Hearing rumors that the United States is working on a cure and may have already found it, she starts making plans to get there by boat and a clandestine plane — as flights are no longer a possibility, and the country is under quarantine. Her goal is to find the cure and bring it back to Spain. The special ends by teasing that Claudia might meet Rick one day, as Jeff’s dying wish is for her to deliver his brother a message. However, Claudia never reappears in the series.

1Jeff’s Death Is Devastating

Age
32

First Appearance
The Alien

Last Appearance
The Alien

Rick’s younger brother, Jeff, is the main character of The Walking Dead: The Alien. Jeff struggles to fight zombies once the apocalypse breaks in Barcelona, where he’s traveling. With Claudia’s help, he starts learning how to defend himself. The duo crosses the city to the harbor through the sewers, trying to get to a boat that would take them to Ibiza. In Ibiza, Claudia’s friend would fly them to the United States.

When they finally get to the boat, they don’t realize there’s a zombie inside and are attacked. Jeff is bitten by the zombie, and it’s clear he can’t survive the injury. He asks Claudia to give his brother a message but dies before sharing more information about Rick. Jeff is so friendly and relatable that his sudden death is devastating. Knowing he’s Rick’s brother, it’s sad to think they’d never meet again.