WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Walking Dead: Deluxe Edition #8 by Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard, Rus Wooton, and Dave McCaig, on sale now.
Through The Walking Dead Deluxe Edition, fans are reliving the adventures of Rick Grimes as he makes his way from Atlanta and eventually forms the Alliance that'll have to fend off sinister villains like the Governor, Negan, and the Whisperers. The colored version adds a lot more texture to the story, and from a narrative standpoint, it's interesting reconciling how the book ended, how the TV shows are adapting the zombie-world, and how it was making the journey with these characters initially.
And in The Walking Dead: Delux Edition #8, franchise co-creator and mastermind Robert Kirkman takes time in the letters section to address one particular character, and how he mishandled her: Rick's wife, Lori.
This issue focuses on the aftermath of Rick being told by Lori she's pregnant. However, before Rick has a chance to ask questions, knowing she had an affair with Shane, she rushed to let the rest of the camp know. He eventually chats with Dale about it, who asks if it's Shane's. Although Rick is well aware of the possibility, if not probability, that Shane is the father, Rick just wants to ignore it and live a life of hope and happiness amid the walker infestation, ordering Dale to drop the issue.
While Dale is sympathetic to Rick's cause to drop the issue, she largely avoided the topic of her relationship with Shane and the chance that he might be the father.
At first, Kirkman writes that he thought audiences would be sympathetic to her story, but as he admits now that his execution was off. He says he was simply trying to show her state of mind, especially how "lost" she was, which is why she rushed to tell them the news. As he admits when he reread the print, Lori's actionsdid strike him as "cold."
"It's always bugged me, on average, how readers never really liked Lori. I always saw her as more sympathetic than readers did, " he wrote. "I never really understood why my opinions of her never quite got through in the work. Reading scenes like this I finally start to understand. I feel like I was a young writer and didn't really handle Lori the way I thought I did. Kind of a shame."
As much as he chalks it up to inexperience, several fans also had the same issue with her depiction on the TV show. While that indicates that some fans more object to her larger character arc, Kirkman confesses he could have handled her development better to make her a more empathetic leading character.