Since this is specifically for people who have read at least some of the graphic novels as well as have seen the show, I’m going to say OPEN SPOILERS AFTER THE O.P., but I’ll make the OP long to minimize accidentally getting a spoiler while looking at the poll results.
Generally speaking which do you prefer: the TV show or the graphic novels?
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And open spoilers can start below this post.
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If you were to have asked me this question in 2010, I would have said TV, hands down. Now, I say comics, but only becasue the TV shows looks to be circling the drain (as far as quality is concerned).
Season Two went off the rails for me (as documented on this site) with the Sofia and Shane arcs, the zombie in the well, and Carl, the least-supervised child of the apocalypse. That being said, I though Season One was perfect.
The comics, on the other hand, are never great, but always entertaining. The dialogue is clumsy and corny, but things seem to happen much faster. The artwork isn’t particularily good but it’s not bad either. On the whole, the comics yield more enjoyment per consumption unit.
nitpick: they are comic books, not graphic novels
I’ve only read a few issues, so I’m not voting because I don’t think it’s enough to be completely fair, but just comparing what I’ve read to roughly the episodes of the show that covered the same material (mainly the first season) I prefer the show.
nitpick pick: many, if not most of the folks who read them, I understand, read the “graphic novel” collections that have been published for the last 3-4 years. I have yet to actually see one of the comics, but the graphic novel collections are always available at Barnes and Noble, etc. etc…
I have the same issues with season 2 that have been mentioned before, though I understand why they had to do what they did. That being said, they are going to have to come big in season 3, or the show is dead, imo.
Nitpick pick pick: Comic books collected in a series of bound volumes are usually referred to as trade paperbacks, frequently abbreviated by the geeky cognoscenti as “trades”. Graphic novels are typically single volume works that were never published as multiple comic books.
But one should probably sneer slightly at those making such pedantic arguments in the same way as most folks do when someone starts arguing the technical differences between a “hacker” and a “cracker” :).
Technically today graphic novels are any comic that has a planned story with a concrete beginning and ending. The Sandman books, *Cerebus *and *Bone *are all Graphic Novels, for example, even though they were all originally published serially. Originally the phrase was used by Eisner to describe stuff like his Contract with God, but the term is more inclusive than that now.
Which doesn’t change Walking Dead not being a graphic novel. At least it doesn’t seem to be one to me.
yes, this is the geekiest most pedantic argument in the world and has nothing to do with anything since everyone reading the OP knew what he was taking about