The Walking Dead, Fables Game Adaptations Coming Soon

In addition to Jurassic Park, Telltale is currently adapting The Walking Dead and the Fables comic book series into games, reports All Thing’s Digital’s eMoney blog, part of the WSJ network. The developer is expected go into detail on the titles at a pre-scheduled press event tonight, during which a total of five multiplatform projects are supposed to be announced.

According to eMoney, the Fables game is part of "an exclusive worldwide publishing agreement" with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, while The Walking Dead game will be based on the AMC television adaption of the franchise (which also originated as a comic). Steve Allison, SVP of marketing for Telltale, told the site that he thinks The Walking Dead has the potential to become a $20-30 million franchise for the studio.

"See the movie, play the game doesn’t work anymore," Allison said, "but the way we make content, it does." Both new series are expected to be episodic adventure games, in line with Telltale’s current and past efforts, and "will trickle out over the next year," according to eMoney, through digital retailers including Telltale’s online store and Steam.

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‘Walking Dead Weekly’ Coming In January

Image will launch Walking Dead Weekly, a new series reprinting each issue of the original series, in January. Each will be a 32-page b/w comic for $2.99.

Image plans the series as a new way for fans from the AMC series (see “Zombies Invade World Capitals”) to start at the beginning and read a new issue each week in 2011.

The first six-episode season will be completed by January; a second season has been greenlit and will presumably air in 2011.

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Zombies Invade World Capitals For ‘Walking Dead’ Premiere

Zombies will appear in 26 cities around the world on Tuesday in a global publicity stunt organized by AMC and Fox International Channels promoting the premiere of The Walking Dead TV series on October 31st . The zombie invasions will occur during peak morning commute hours in each city beginning in Taipei and Hong Kong and moving around the world, culminating at the show’s Los Angeles premiere.

U.S. cities involved in the stunt include New York, Washington, DC, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

Zombies will appear at major landmarks in the targeted cities, including the Brooklyn Bridge in New York, the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, Big Ben in London, the Prado Museum in Madrid, the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul, the Acropolis in Athens, and so on.

The global publicity campaign makes sense because The Walking Dead is premiering worldwide the same week in 120 countries, 33 languages, and an expected 250 million households.

The first season is only six episodes; a second season has already been greenlit.

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‘The Walking Dead’ Novels Coming Soon

Robert Kirkman’s Image Comics series The Walking Dead, which has already been adapted into a TV show that will debut on AMC on Halloween, will soon infect the realm of prose thanks to a trilogy of original Walking Dead novels that will be published by Thomas Dunne Books, an imprint of St. Martins Press.

According to Deadline, the books will be “conceptualized and outlined” by Kirkman before being written by horror novelist Jay Bonansinga (Perfect Victim). The novels will take place in The Walking Dead universe, but will feature original plots. Kirkman himself was the first to bring his creation to straight prose with a short story that he wrote entitled “Together, Alone,” which was published in the horror anthology volume The Living Dead 2, which was published by Night Shade Books in September.

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Image From ‘The Walking Dead’ TV Series

AMC, which is producing the TV adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead, has released the first production still featuring the show’s zombies. Earlier this month AMC did issue a number of photos of make-up tests featuring the outstanding work of make-up master Greg Nicotero, but this is the first chance to see one of “the Walkers” in action (though she appears to be crawling in this scene).

Although movie adaptations are perceived as being sexier, it’s hard to argue that a property like The Walking Dead, which is firmly established in the comic market and breaking out in the bookstores, isn’t better served by a TV series, especially if it’s being overseen by Frank Darabont and produced by AMC (Mad Men). For one thing TV series, like comics are basically extended serial narratives. For another, a successful TV series can run for years exposing the property to millions of viewers, something that could really help an extensive series like The Walking Dead (the 12th volume is due out in July).

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AMC Orders Six Episodes Of ‘The Walking Dead’ Comic Book

AMC have today officially announced their order of a six-episode first season of The Walking Dead, adapted from Robert Kirkman’s comic book series. Frank Darabont is writing and directing, at the very least for the pilot episode, and that’s recommendation enough for me.

The series is set to premiere during AMC’s annual marathon of horror and thriller programming, which they’re now calling Fearfest. Seems like a solid launching pad… in fact, I imagine the unveiling of such a hotly anticipated series as this in the season will actually give the marathon a boost.

The press release also announced that Jon Bernthal has been cast as Officer Shane, a key player and best-friend of the protagonist, Office Rick Grimes. Not yet official, but already reported, is that Jonny Lee Miller is the current front runner for the role of Rick.

 

This casting is according to Bloody Disgusting. They describe the character as “a police officer who leads a group of zombie survivors in search of a safe place to live during the apocalypse”, which will do for now, and posted this excellent comparison between the Grimes of the comic and the real Miller. Read more

The Walking Dead #51 – My Initial Reaction

There are some comic book series that, when I get a hold of the latest issue, I do a quick scan to see what happens as fast as possible, then I go back and read it through a little more slowly. Then there are other series that when I open up the first page, I’m carried along at a violently quick pace as if I was on a raft in the rapids. The Walking Dead #51 falls somewhere in between those two extremes, although I did go back to one particular page about three times to make sure I didn’t miss something (when you read it you might know which page I’m talking about). Read more

New Items Listed For May 24, 2008

Here is a handful of new items I’ve just added to the store:

Classic Marvel Figurine Magazine Special Juggernaut

Indiana Jones & The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull #1

Indiana Jones & The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull TP

Superman / Batman #48 – DC Comics

The Incredible Hercules #117 – Secret Invasion

The Walking Dead #1 – Special Edition – In Stock – 2008

World Of Warcraft #7 – Ludo Lullabir Cover

World Of Warcraft #7 – Samwise Didier Cover

Zombies! Hunters #1 – IDW Publishing

New Items For May 15th 2008

Here are some new items that I just added to the store. I’ll have more added tomorrow including some cool new Gears Of War action figures.

The Walking Dead #49 – Kirkman – Image Comics

The Shadow – Double Novel #17 – Nostalgia Ventures

Serenity – Better Days #3 of 3 – Firefly

Secret Invasion Fantastic Four #1 Of 3

Project Superpowers #3 of 7 – Dynamite Entertainment

King Of Cards Volume 4 – Makoto Tateno – CMX Manga

Captain Britain And MI 13 #1 – Secret Invasion

Batman #676 – R.I.P.