Kirkman: This is a perfect example of the differences between the comic books and the television series and the kind of things you'll see on the show. Shane is now an "x-factor" on the television show for the comic books fans. They don't know when he's going to die, how he's going to die, or if he's going to die. Because everything's changed. So now it makes the show more interesting for the comic book fans because they don't know what's going to happen next. I think that's one of the best things going for this show. To keep fans guessing. The storyline between Shane and Rick and Lori - the love triangle – had I known the comic book series would last as long as it lasted and that it wasn't going to end at issue #6 or issue #12 then I would have probably extended that out a lot longer.
When Frank [Darabont] started reading the comic book series, way on in the early development of the show, he said "You know, there's a lot of story that we can mine out of this love triangle. We can do this, or this, and it can lead to this." He just had a lot of ideas that sprang directly from that and told me that it wasn't something he wanted to blow past like I did. He really wanted to get his hands into it and flesh it out. I think we've seen, over the course of the series, is that some of the best stuff in this show are things that were in the comic but Frank has expanded upon. Or changed them in a way that I feel has improved them. I think that the Lori/Shane/Rick story is a good example of that moving forward. Plus, Jon Bernthal is such a great actor that I don't know if we'll ever kill him. So, who knows?
Source: IGN
