Carl Grimes (Comic Series)

Carl Grimes is the son of Rick and Lori and brother (half-brother) of Judith Grimes.

Atlanta
His mother Lori, his father's partner Shane, and Carl tried to make it to Atlanta after the Zombie outbreak but could not make it into the city. They stayed at a camp on the outskirts where they were reunited with Carl's father Rick. There at the camp Carl was taught how to shoot despite being only seven. Later he saved his Mother from a Zombie by killing it with his gun. He then saved his father's life by shooting Shane before he could murder his father.

Hershel's farm
When the survivors began to relocate to another spot, Carl was shot by Otis and brought to the Greene farm, where they remained for some time till they were asked to leave by Hershel Greene after an argument with Carl's father, this forced them to hit the road once again until Dale and Andrea stumbled upon the prison while searching for supplies.

The Prison
At the prison life for Carl began to settle down with only the minor disturbance of seeing his father Rick beat up Thomas, an inmate that killed Hershel's daughters Rachel and Susie Greene. It was at this time that Lori gave birth to Carl's half-sister Judith whose father is believed to have been Shane. After his father returned from trying to locate a downed chopper, and his father’s experiences at Woodbury, Carl was forced to get used to his father without the use of his right arm. When his father Rick chases after Woodbury's Caesar Martinez who plans to alert Woodbury were the prison is, Carl asks Tyreese whether his father loves him, because he always is leaving him.

When Woodbury attacked the prison, Carl was one of the few to be there until the prison fell to the Governor and his men, and barely escaped with his father. Once they had reached relative safety from the violence taking place at the prison, Carl and his father then began to mourn the death of Lori, Judith, and the others.

Travel to D.C.
While wandering the area, and after an attack by two Zombies, Carl and Rick then took refuge in an abandoned house, and after a brief encounter with another three Zombies, Carl was led under the impression that he could defend himself from now on, and even blamed his father for his mother and sister's deaths. However afterwards he realized he needed his dad still and was scared without him. When on the move again, heading back to Hershel's farm, Carl was rescued by Michonne who had also survived the prison and informs the duo that she was tracking someone from the prison. After traveling further and then reuniting with Maggie and Glenn, Carl is reunited with Sophie and the surviving members of the prison that had left prior to the Governor's second attack. One morning Carl is woken by a shot and seeing the new arrivals Abraham, Rosita, and Eugene who bring hope that society has not crumbled, Carl along with the remaining survivors and the arrivals, proceed to take the long journey to Washington DC.

Along the journey, Rick decided to take a detour to his hometown in Kentucky, and brings Carl and Abraham along. It is during this trip that a band of road bandits attack and attempt to rape Carl. However Rick manages to break free by biting one of the bandits, and with the help of Abraham frees Carl. Later on Carl, Rick and Abraham discuss similar situations that they had been involved in, where they committed acts of in-human violence in order to protect, which prompts Carl to talk about shooting Shane in order to save his fathers life. After visiting their hometown, and reuniting with Morgan and his zombified son Duane, the four head to the police station in order to retrieve supplies, during this time Morgan constantly stares at Carl, remembering how Duane used to look, the end result of a freaked out Carl. On the return trip to the interstate junction, the four encounter a Zombie herd (the largest Abraham has seen an estimated to be 2000 Zombies in size). Initially Rick tries to drive the car into the herd in order to escape, however when the car gets jammed over the mass of bodies, the survivors flee on foot in hopes of escaping. With Carl firing behind Abraham quickly grabs him and carries him on his back. After a failed attempt at distracting the herd, they return to the main group and flee by truck out of the area.

While only seven years old when the dead began to rise, Carl quickly became adapted to the new world, proving himself a good shot for his age, similar to his father. He is the playmate, and later "boyfriend" of Sophia and her only companion with Ben and Billy gone. He continues to show growing signs of being a sociopath, having killed Ben and showing no remorse for it. His father talked to him about killing the cannibalistic hunters (though he believed he was talking to Abraham) and Carl tearfully admits to killing Ben.

Since Ben's murder, Carl has been very reluctant to talk about what he's done to his father. Eventually, Rick does confront his son as to why he killed Ben. To which Carl tearfully replies that he did it for the same reason Rick killed several people in the past, because it needed to be done and because none of the others would. Upon hearing his answer, Rick explains to him why he did a lot of bad things in his past. And tries to remind him that even good people do bad things.

Rick urges Carl to never lose sight of that and if killing becomes too easy, that's when good people become bad ones. Carl then cries and cries, saying that killing Ben still haunts him. He cries night after night and how he missed Ben. He feels tremendous guilt, but strongly believed he had to do it because Ben was dangerous. Carl also admits he planned on keeping it a secret from his father, but after hearing him talk at the bonfire, he just couldn't. He then assures his father that he does love him, even after all the bad things he's done to keep the group alive. He loves his father because he's done so much for them. Both cry in one-another's arms, with Rick apologizing to his son.

Alexandria Safe-Zone
Carl, along with his father and the rest of their group successfully traveled and made it to the Alexandria Safe-Zone. While Carl was at first shown to be very happy to find others and have real food, he's shown to be having problems adjusting to the community. As in the beginning he and a boy Mikey have a fight over his gun. When he refuses to let Mikey see his gun, Mikey pushes him down to which Carl returns the gesture. Rick makes him understand its not good to fight with the other kids, to which Carl tries to apologize. But Mikey refuses and pushes his hand away, leaving Carl hurt. Later on at night Carl believes he won't make many friends with the kids that live in the Safe-Zone.

During a small daytime-Halloween meant for the kids, Carl quickly wanted to stop trick-or-treating. He tells Rick, he hates being in the Safe-Zone because it all felt pretend. And while Rick tries to let his son know he can enjoy himself and be a kid, Carl shows worry about leaving. He goes on saying he didn't want to let down his guard and that he was afraid of being weak and dying.

Trivia

 * Creator Robert Kirkman's father is named Carl.
 * Carl mentions in Issue 82 to Morgan, that he's probably 8.