Revenant Landscapes in The Walking Dead - Issue 1 - Confused Fidelity

Sep 1, 2026

Revenant Landscapes in The Walking Dead examines how landscapes and spatial design operate in both AMC’s TV adaptation and the comic book version, especially in the opening episode/issue. It argues that despite visible surface parallels, the two media mobilize distinct narrative strategies to generate place and spatial meaning. The analysis begins with the fidelity rhetoric surrounding the TV launch, expands through gothic and adaptation theory to frame landscapes as uncanny and revenant, and ends by assessing how comic-specific narrative techniques convey space and place.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryPaper Templates

FormatDOCX

Pages9

Reading Time3 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Fidelity rhetoric and visual mirroring

Legitimation and genre signaling

Uncanny, revenant landscapes

Revenant Landscapes in The Walking Dead This paper examines the landscapes and visual narrative strategies used in the TV and comic book versions of The Walking Dead. Despite making significant changes, the AMC TV show has always drawn attention to the similarities between the two versions, with its producers often describing the comics as a storyboard or similar. This paper will look closely at the ways in which landscape and space are used in both texts (focusing on the first episode/issue) and demonstrate that, although there are superficial similarities, the two texts in fact use quite different narrative strategies to convey a sense of space and place. My argument has three parts. First I will demonstrate what Robert Jewitt (2013) has identified as the hopelessly muddled rhetoric of fidelity that surrounded the TV show at its launch, and extend this to later series of the show. Then I will use gothic and adaptation theory to demonstrate similarities between the comic book and television text at a deeper, more symbolic level, defining the landscapes as uncanny and revenant – like zombies themselves. Finally I will conclude by using a range of theorists and my own work to analyse the ways in which the comics medium uses its unique narrative strategies Confused Fidelity There is, of course, no doubt that the visuals of The Walking Dead TV show do, in many places, closely mirror those of the comic. Robert Jewitt (2013) points out the numerous times the cast and crew draw attention to the series’ fidelity, as in these clips: ‘The graphic novels are kind of like a rather exotic storyboard.’ (David Tattersall, Director of Photography, Episode 1) (S1 Blu-Ray ‘Making of’ Feature) ‘We had total confidence in the quality of the comics as source material […] as a road map’ (Joel Stillerman, AMC Senior VP) (S1 Blu-Ray ‘Making of’ Feature) ‘Having Robert there is so cool, because it means that someone that was a part of this amazing thing, to have him be just as excited as everybody else, makes us excited and happy that we’re doing work that he thinks is going to be [a] good representation for his comic book.’ (Steven Yeun, actor, played Glenn Rhee) (S1 Blu-Ray ‘Making of’ Feature) ‘The Walking Dead really looks, you know, like a storyboard. And the fans of the comic will go ‘that looks just like the police station in the comic book’, well we kind of did that, here and there, just to clue it in, and also because it worked. (Gregory Melton, Production Designer) (S1 Blu-Ray ‘Making of’ Feature) ‘I walked on set and it was straight out of the comic book. I mean it was like, you had the RV, you know, you had Dale’s little umbrella, like, it’s such a beautiful set. It really is remarkable.’ (Emma Bell, actor, played Amy) (S1 Blu-Ray ‘Making of’ Feature) ‘It’s a near-perfect adaptation; it’s everything I would have wanted. It’s definitely The Walking Dead, the show is completely and utterly The Walking Dead, it’s not The Walking Dead light, it’s not a different version of The Walking Dead, it’s exactly what you get out of the comic book. But it’s so different that you can enjoy them both separately.’ (Robert Kirkman, writer) (S1 Blu-Ray ‘Making of’ Feature) ‘I’ve always said that the template, the path, the breadcrumbs left by Mr Kirkman are extremely good ones, the path is a very very strong template, but I’ve also said, and Robert has been great about this and in fact has encouraged it, to take every interesting detour we feel like taking, you know. As long as in the long-term we’re still following what Robert has done, I don’t see why we shouldn’t bring every other good idea to the table [uncertain applause] […] And that’s kind of an exciting thing, because we’re not locked slavishly into a thing that is familiar to the fan base. They’ll get that, but they’re gonna get a lot of other stuff too.’ (Frank Darabont, Producer) (Comic-Con 2010) The comics are repeatedly referred to as a ‘road map’, a ‘template’ or a ‘storyboard’ and fidelity is

FAQs

What central comparison does the paper make between the TV show and the comic?

It compares how both texts use landscape and space to convey a sense of place, arguing that surface similarities mask fundamentally different narrative strategies.

How does the paper describe the TV show’s fidelity claims?

It explains that producers and creators repeatedly stress fidelity as a benchmark, while also showing how the rhetoric becomes confused and difficult to define consistently.

What theoretical lens does the paper use to interpret the landscapes?

It applies gothic and adaptation theory, treating the landscapes as uncanny and revenant, similar to the zombies themselves.

Sep 1, 2026

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