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The Walking Dead (franchise)

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Original work
  
The Walking Dead

Books
  
The Walking Dead

Creator
  
Robert Kirkman Tony Moore

Television series
  
The Walking Dead Fear the Walking Dead

Video games
  
The Walking Dead Survival Instinct Road to Survival

The Walking Dead is a media franchise including a comic book series, two television series, six novels, video games, and various other media such as audio books and sound tracks.

Contents

Comic book series

The Walking Dead is a monthly black-and-white comic book series chronicling the travels of Rick Grimes, his family, and other survivors of a zombie apocalypse.

First issued in 2003 by publisher Image Comics, the series was created by writer Robert Kirkman and artist Tony Moore (who was later replaced by Charlie Adlard from issue #7 onward, though Moore continued to do the covers through issue #24.) The Walking Dead received the 2010 Eisner Award for Best Continuing Series at San Diego Comic-Con International.

The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead is an American television drama series developed by Frank Darabont. The series stars Andrew Lincoln as sheriff's deputy Rick Grimes, who awakens from a coma to find the world dominated by flesh-eating "walkers", resembling the zombies of George A. Romero's horror movies. He sets out to find his family and encounters other survivors along the way.

The Walking Dead premiered on October 31, 2010 on the cable television channel AMC in the United States. Based on its reception, AMC renewed the series for a second season of 13 episodes, which premiered on October 16, 2011. Two episodes into the second season, AMC announced that the show would return for a third season, airing on October 14, 2012. It is presently airing its seventh season, starting on October 23, 2016, and has been renewed for an eighth season to air in late 2017.

The series has been well received and has received many award nominations, including a Writers Guild of America Award nomination and a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Television Series Drama. The series has also attained strong Nielsen ratings, beating various records for a cable series, including receiving 15.5 million viewers for its season three midseason finale, and 17.29 viewers for its season five premiere, to become the most-watched basic cable drama telecast in history.

Fear the Walking Dead

Fear the Walking Dead is an American horror drama television series created by Robert Kirkman and Dave Erickson, acting as a companion series and prequel to The Walking Dead. The series premiered on AMC on August 23, 2015, and it has been renewed for a third season to air in 2017.

Set initially in Los Angeles, California, the series follows a dysfunctional family composed of high school guidance counselor Madison Clark, her English teacher boyfriend Travis Manawa, her daughter Alicia, and her drug-addicted son Nick, at the onset of the zombie apocalypse. The four must either revamp themselves or cling to their deep flaws as they come to terms with the impending collapse of civilization.

The Walking Dead: Torn Apart

The Walking Dead: Torn Apart is a six-part web series based on the television series The Walking Dead. It aired in its entirety on October 3, 2011, on AMC's official website.

The web series tells the origin story of Hannah, also known as "Bicycle Girl", the walker whom Rick Grimes killed in the first episode. Rick risks a walker encounter to go back and find Hannah before he sets out for Atlanta. After telling her he is "sorry this happened to you," Rick shoots her in what is clearly a humanitarian gesture, which reveals much about Rick's own character and sets a tone for the rest of season one.

The Walking Dead: Cold Storage

The Walking Dead: Cold Storage is a four-part web series based on the television series The Walking Dead. It aired in its entirety on October 1, 2012, on AMC's official website, two weeks before the premiere of the third season of the show.

The web series follows the story of a young man named Chase as he seeks shelter in a storage facility commanded by a malicious employee named B.J. This web series marks a second installment, following The Walking Dead: Torn Apart, which aired a year earlier.

The Walking Dead: The Oath

The Walking Dead: The Oath is a three-part web series based on the television series The Walking Dead. It aired in its entirety on October 1, 2013, on AMC's official website.

This series tells the origin of the "Don't Open, Dead Inside" paint on the cafeteria doors of the hospital Rick Grimes awakes in, post-apocalypse. It follows Paul and Karina as they escape their zombie-overrun camp in search of a medical station. The central theme of the series examines the will to persevere in the face of inevitable death.

Fear the Walking Dead: Flight 462

Fear The Walking Dead: Flight 462 is a 16-part web series based on the television series Fear the Walking Dead. The series premiered on October 4, 2015, on AMC's official website.

The web series tells the story of a group of passengers aboard a commercial airplane during the earliest moments of the outbreak. Over the course of the series, the plane and the lives of its passengers are put in jeopardy once they discover an infected traveler. Two of its characters, Alex and Jake, are introduced in Fear the Walking Dead season 2, episode 3 "Ouroboros".

Board games

Multiple board games for the franchise have been released.

  • Cryptozoic Entertainment has so far released two board games based on the TV show:
  • The Walking Dead Board Game (2011)
  • The Walking Dead Board Game: Best Defense was released in 2013, as well as an expansion
  • Keith Tralins, Brian-David Marshall, and Matthew Wang have so far released two games based on the comic:
  • Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead: The Board Game (2011), released by Z-Man Games
  • The Walking Dead: The Prison (November 2014), released by Alliance Game Distributors
  • A The Walking Game version of Monopoly has been released
  • A The Walking Game version of Risk has been released
  • Card games

  • Cryptozoic released The Walking Dead Card Game in 2013
  • The Walking Dead: All Out War

    In January 2016, Mantic Games announced plans to release a tabletop miniature wargame based on The Walking Dead, named The Walking Dead: All Out War.

    Telltale Games

    The Walking Dead: Season One

    On February 18, 2011, Telltale Games announced plans to create an episodic video game based on the comics, was scheduled to debut in fall 2011, but finally was released on April 24, 2012. Kirkman has said that, unlike typical zombie games such as Left 4 Dead, it focuses more on characterization and emotion than action. The video game includes known characters and also introduces characters not shown in the comic or TV show.

    From April 24, 2012 to November 20, 2012, the game released five episodes, and then released a DLC Pack in June 2013.

    The game was met with critical acclaim, winning several Game of the Year awards.

    The Walking Dead: Season Two

    Following Season One's success, a sequel was announced for release. Its first episode was released on December 17, 2013. Its final was released on August 26, 2014.

    The Walking Dead: Season Three

    Telltale Games confirmed that it will produce a third season of Walking Dead, following the success of the first two seasons. The season began on December 20, 2016.

    The Walking Dead: Social Game

    Flash based social game on Facebook, launched in 2012 and shut down at the end of 2014.

    Survival Instinct

    On July 6, 2012, Activision announced a first-person shooter based on the television series, which is being developed by Terminal Reality. It was released on March 19, 2013 in North America. It was met with negative reception.

    The Walking Dead: Road to Survival

    The Walking Dead: Road to Survival is an RPG developed by Scopely based on the comic book series. It was released initially on the Android platform, than later iOS. Players complete various missions using teams, in exchange for further rewards, and more challenging stages.

    The Walking Dead: No Man's Land

    Game for Android/iOS

    The Escapists: The Walking Dead

    The Escapists: The Walking Dead is a spin-off from The Escapists, a puzzle role-playing video game about escaping prisons.

    Overkill's The Walking Dead

    A Walking Dead co-op first-person shooter from Payday 2 developer Overkill Software is in the works, the company's owner, Starbreeze Studios, announced in August, 2014. The game is called Overkill's The Walking Dead, and it claims to deliver a "completely new co-op experience" to the Walking Dead universe that will explore new characters and storylines. It is scheduled to launch on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Microsoft Windows in 2016. The game is being made with The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman, who says he was certain from the first day he saw the project that it was the "co-op action game fans have been waiting for." It is also the result of a new "long-term" partnership between Starbreeze and Kirkman's Skybound Interactive company. This partnership will extend "into the next decade" and marks a new era for Starbreeze, the company said.

    Novels

  • Robert Kirkman & Jay Bonansinga (October 11, 2011). The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor.  CS1 maint: Uses authors parameter (link)
  • Robert Kirkman & Jay Bonansinga (October 16, 2012). The Walking Dead: The Road to Woodbury.  CS1 maint: Uses authors parameter (link)
  • Robert Kirkman & Jay Bonansinga (October 8, 2013). The Walking Dead: The Fall of the Governor: Part One.  CS1 maint: Uses authors parameter (link)
  • Jay Bonansinga (March 4, 2014). The Walking Dead: The Fall of the Governor: Part Two. 
  • Jay Bonansinga (October 14, 2014). Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead: Descent. 
  • Jay Bonansinga (October 6, 2015). Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead: Invasion. 
  • Other products

  • McFarlane Toys manufactured action figures resembling the characters in the comic book for September 2011 release. In addition, action figures resembling characters from the TV series, including Rick Grimes, Daryl Dixon, and a dismemberable "walker", were set for release in November 2011.
  • Taverncraft has produced The Walking Dead pint glasses and steins, and has a license to release lighters for the series as well.
  • Titan Magazines has published The Walking Dead, The Official Magazine since October 2012 .
  • Vannen Watches has produced two limited edition wrist watches featuring artwork from Charlie Adlard. The first watch was released February 2012, and came with packaging that was hand-signed by Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard. The second watch was released June 2012, and came with packaging signed only by Robert Kirkman.
  • Stern Pinball released a The Walking Dead pinball machine in 2014.
  • Parodies

  • Dave Sheridan starred and produced the parody film The Walking Deceased (2015).
  • References

    The Walking Dead (franchise) Wikipedia