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"I do comics to do comics. I don't do comics to do TV. I don't do comics to do movies."

That's the philosophy of Robert Kirkman, the author behind The Walking Dead media empire. Take a look at his work and you'll see that he's telling the truth - long before his comics were adapted for other mediums, Kirkman was putting his heart and soul into them. But even so, it's undeniable that, after one's work gets adapted (like, say, into a sprawling TV franchise), it's tempting to let that adaptation influence the work one does in their original projects.

Fortunately, Kirkman knows exactly how to avoid that temptation.

That's what we learned from Kirkman's time at San Diego Comic Con, when the Eisner-winner sat down with Collider for a wide-ranging chat regarding, among other things, the interplay between his comics and TV work. Or rather - the lack thereof.

"You have to have those blinders on when you're making the book," the Void Rivals writer explained, "Because you can't be distracted when you're making a book. You can't be like, 'Well, how are we gonna make this on set? How are we gonna do this with the VFX? Is this going to blow the budget up if we do a show?'"

But as we inferred, those blinders Kirkman mentioned didn't always work, and there came a point when his TV brain threatened to overtake his comic brain.

"I could feel that creeping in as I was writing Walking Dead," Kirkman admitted, "And that's why I was like, 'No, I'm putting a tiger in this comic and I don't care how it happens in the show.' You can't let a potential media thing influence what you're doing in comics, because then it makes the comics less special. Yeah, I try to push that stuff off as as long as possible."

In case you don't know what Kirkman's referring to here - he's probably talking about Shiva, the big cat pet of Walking Dead fan-favorite Ezekiel Sutton, introduced into that zombified universe in The Walking Dead #108. What's fascinating is that, not long after the character made his comic debut, AMC did work him into the show it inspired, replete with his stripy companion. We'd argue, though, that that's not a case of Kirkman writing to fit an adaptation at all. If anything, it's a case of the adaptation having to go extra lengths to fit Kirkman.

I mean, I'm no TV producer, but I can't imagine putting a tiger on screen is an easy thing to do.

The Walking Dead is streaming now on Netflix.

Interested? Here's where to find your closest local comic store, courtesy of Sweet, and here's a guide to how (and where) to read comics online. If you're looking for the best comics in recent memory, check out the Eisner Awards winners and the Harvey Awards nominees. And if you like free comics, here's everything we know about Free Comic Book Day 2027.