That guy's name is Nate, and I do not think he is Merle, Merle is a maniac, but he is no coward, and Nate is obviously one

 

Ditto, but it would not surprise me if Merle is part of that group just the same.

 

I find it a bit annoying when many people think the group might be previous characters such as the black guy Hershel shot, might be Morgan or like you said that the driver could be Merle. If you read the comics, you will know about Morgan. However, Merle isn't in the comics so he's unpredictable. If Merle were to come back into the series and not Daryl's hallucination, I don't think he will be bringing a few friends if any. I think Merle would get himself killed with his type of behavior anyway. He lost his hand due to his racist attitudes and violence.

 

You're going to find we have a mix of Comic and TV fans...a few are fans of both and everyone has a mental picture of how things should be in the show. The TV show is a watered down version of the comics in my opinion but to be fair, I don't think people could fully handle a show that closely followed the source material. So I think AMC has to create drama in order to help make up for deleted sub plots and gory scenes etc. Anyhow, my point if any, is that no, a lot of people has not read the comics and nor to they care to read them. The show is moving along nicely...although I think most of us can at least agree that Lori is annoying!

 

Plus as we have already seen with a few things different from the comics,

the show doesn't always follow them 100%. So maybe Morgan will show up when he did in the comics, maybe not!

 

I'll be honest with you, but I haven't read the comics. I found out about the Walking Dead TV show first. Then I checked my old stack of random comic books and I found a random walking dead issue.. (turned out to be a big spoiler). But I see what you mean, I guess I'm more of the TWD TV series fan than the comic. But I'm gonna start reading the comics too.