The writer and creator of The Walking Dead Robert Kirkman confessed that there is a scene from one of his earliest comics that he would have done differently if he had written it today.

In an interview with Screen Rant, Kirkman discussed the upcoming release of The Walking Dead Deluxe, a set that contains the first six issues in the series in addition to 24 pages of content that has never been released to the public. The author notes that an early scene that sees Donna and Lori Grimes debating the fairness of the women being forced to remain in camp to do laundry still makes him cringe. "Did I need a full page of the female characters talking about doing laundry while the men hunted? Probably not...." He said, "I was going to take the female characters in some interesting directions as the series progressed. So starting them here would give me a lot of room to grow and evolve along the way. Anyway, I was 23 when I started writing this comic so this is definitely not the last cringe-worthy thing (for me at least) that I wrote into this book. I'd have handled things a little differently had I written it today. I'd have maybe had Allen or Jim help with the laundry."

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Page from the Walking Dead Volume 3 where Donna and Lori discuss laundry 

The scene, which played out in both the comic and the show, resulted in backlash from fans despite what Kirkman's intent might have been. While the version featured on AMC's The Walking Dead differs, it features many of the same elements.

In the show, the women are also relegated to washing clothes, but this time they are approached by Carol's husband Ed, who criticizes their work. Andrea, replacing Donna in the scene, becomes enraged and insists that if he doesn't like how they are doing his laundry, he is free to do so himself. Ed scoffs and expresses that it isn't his job, and attempts to bring Carol back with him.

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The women take this as an opportunity to confront Ed about his abusive behavior and refuse to allow Carol to leave with him. Enraged, the man strikes his wife, at which point Shane, who had been watching from a distance, moves in and beats the man bloody while the women watch. While this scene is significantly different from the comic version and does present an opportunity for the female characters to engage with a character meant to represent an oppressive patriarchal figure, they aren't given an opportunity to deal with him themselves. Instead, Ed is beaten by another male character and later killed by a walker.

The Walking Dead is one of Image Comic's most iconic franchises, running for 193 issues. The story follows a group of constantly-changing survivors as they attempt to navigate a zombie-infested world. The comics concluded in 2019 while the TV series will air its finale in late 2022.

Source: Screen Rant