Of all episodes in the series, this one deviates the most heavily from its source comic. The original comic was not narrated to a journalist by Luke and did not feature Joe, William, Jack and Averell Dalton, but their cousins Bob, Grat, Bill and Emmett (who share their names with the historical Daltons). The comic ended with them getting killed. Many subplots have also changed. For instance there is the subplot of an identity change which backfires: in the comic, the Daltons get plastic surgery, while in the cartoon, they dress up in drag.