Starting out as a horror comic, The Walking Dead has become a multimedia behemoth, with multiple spin-off shows and games. However, despite these many different ways of experiencing The Walking Dead, there’s one character who can only appear under specific circumstances, despite being a breakout favorite among fans.
That character is Norman Reedus’ Daryl Dixon. Daryl first appears in the third episode of the first season of AMC’s television adaptation, ‘Tell It to the Frogs,’ alongside his brother Merle (Michael Rooker.) However, as crucial as Reedus’ Daryl has been to Walking Dead‘s fame, franchise creator Robert Kirkman has revealed he doesn’t own the character and was disallowed from including him in the original comics.
In The Walking Dead Deluxe #98, Kirkman shares his creator notes on the character, explaining that because he was created for the show, AMC owns Daryl Dixon outright. Not only that, but AMC has essentially banned Kirkman from using the character in the original comics, since he’s “a licensing goldmine for them.”
Walking Dead’s Daryl Dixon Belongs to AMC
The Character Is an Original TV Creation
Currently, Image Comics is publishing The Walking Dead Deluxe – a reprinting of Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard and Tony Moore’s original run of 193 comics, now with coloring by Dave McCaig. The issues include new covers, reader letters, and creator notes where Kirkman adds commentary to his original written plan for the issue. In the most recent issue, Kirkman explains that despite being the franchise creator and working as an executive producer and writer on AMC’s adaptation, he has none of the rights to Daryl, writing:
Since Daryl Dixon was created for the show, AMC owns Daryl outright. And since I still own TWD as a whole and actually compete with AMC on licensing, they were always very adamant that I could never do anything with Daryl in the comics. Since he was a licensing goldmine for them. That’s why you never see Daryl in any of the various video games that are based on the comics, but he’s usually front and center in the games AMC makes… like Survival Instinct.
This is an interesting detail for fans of the franchise who may wonder why – after Daryl became a breakout character on the show – Kirkman never worked him into the comics, despite the two projects overlapping. It’s also a funny detail to know given how omnipresent Daryl is in AMC’s spin-off games and tie-ins with other properties such as Fortnite. While Norman Reedus’ performance is inarguably great as Dixon, his ubiquity takes on an extra dimension once it’s clear that the character is one of few solely owned by AMC, and which they can use to compete against Kirkman when it comes to securing licensing deals.
Is one Walking Dead character based on Daryl Dixon? Despite similarities, Kirkman says not “officially.”
This reveal also explains why Dixon never appears in the popular Walking Dead games from Telltale Games, which do include characters like Michonne, Glenn and Jesus. Since these games are tied into the comic continuity, Daryl can’t appear. Fans who desperately want to see Daryl in comic form can check out David Finch and Dave McCaig’s front cover for AMC’s The Art of The Walking Dead Universe, which recreates Dixon in the half-zombified style of Finch’s variant covers for Kirkman’s Deluxe comics.
…But the Walking Dead Does Have a Suspiciously Similar Character
Was Dwight Inspired by Daryl? Not “Officially”
While Daryl doesn’t appear in The Walking Dead, Kirkman arguably found a way to get as close as possible to using the character. In Walking Dead #98, readers meet Dwight – a member of Negan’s Saviors who goes on to become an ally of Rick Grimes. Dwight has some visual similarities to Daryl Dixon, most notably his characteristic use of a hunting crossbow. In the latest issue, Kirkman skirts the issue of Dwight’s similarities to Daryl, writing that there is “officially” no connection between the two. Kirkman writes:
Is he related to a certain someone in any way? Officially, no. … Dwight is an original character, but as we were giving the Saviors unique weapons, I thought, hey… crossbows ARE cool!-
While Dwight follows a similar ‘antagonist to ally’ path as Daryl in the show, there are some major differences between them. Visually, Dwight has a large burn on his face caused as part of a punishment by Negan, and his relationship with Rick ends very differently. Upon meeting the authoritarian leader of the Commonwealth, Pamela Milton, Dwight immediately fears that she’s another corrupt leader like Negan, holding her at gunpoint. In order to prevent a larger conflict, Rick makes the decision to shoot Dwight before he can 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁 Pamela, gunning down his former ally.
Even in the final issue’s flash-forward that follows an adult Carl, a point is made that among the many people who now see Rick as a folk hero, there are still those who remember his 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁ing of Dwight and haven’t forgiven him. It’s a far cry from Daryl getting his own spin-off in The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, in which he travels across France on his own undead Odyssey.
While some fans may be suspicious of Dwight’s crossbow-wielding enemy-turned-friend having similarities to Daryl in his conception, it’s undeniable that Dwight has his own backstory, look and narrative journey in the comics, completely disconnected from Reedus’ character. Further distancing the two, Dwight appears as a separate character in AMC’s Walking Dead, played by Austin Amelio.
It’s not just that AMC banned Kirkman from using Daryl – he has his own reasons for not wanting Dixon in the comics.
Ultimately, It’s a Good Thing the Comics Didn’t Use Daryl Dixon
Kirkman’s Comics Tell Their Own Story
AMC’s The Walking Dead made a lot of changes from Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard’s comic story (for example, revealing the origin of the zombie plague, which Kirkman pledged never to do in the comics.) Indeed, Kirkman even included details to wrong-foot fans who already knew the comic story, for instance having Negan 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁 Abraham instead of Glenn… only to then also 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁 Glenn. Among these differences, the presence of Daryl Dixon is arguably the biggest, with the show adding a major new character to Rick’s group of survivors.
However, it’s not simply the case that Kirkman wanted to use the character and AMC banned him – it’s also something the writer has stated he wouldn’t feel comfortable doing. In a 2018 panel at San Diego Comic-Con (per ComicBook.com), Kirkman explained that
While I had a hand in creating Daryl and Merle, it was very much a team effort involving other season one writers … it would feel wrong to bring the work of so many other people into the comic. I never wanted the show to change the comic, since the comic is what made the show possible, and I worried it could turn into a snake eating its own tail.
Ultimately, it’s a good thing for The Walking Dead fans that there are such significant differences between the original comics and TV show. While a faithful adaptation is a nice tribute to the original, it’s also essentially the same story again. Thanks to the presence of Norman Reedus’ Daryl Dixon and various other changes, Walking Dead fans have two significantly different versions of the story to enjoy.
The Walking Dead Deluxe #98 is available now from Image Comics.
Source: Cameron Bonomolo, ComicBook.com
