A little context for The Walking Dead

● The Walking Dead is a comic series that started in 2003 and is still going to this day. It’s latest issue was issue #155.

● The series was adapted into a show by AMC in 2010, produced by Frank Darabont. Since then the show has become one of the largest shows on TV, is now on its seventh season with its third Showrunner

● Along with a comic series and a TV series, there has been two different games. One from Telltale Games in 2012 which was critically acclaimed. The second game came from Activision in 2013 and was a complete failure. There are also several mobile games as well.

● Finally, The Walking Dead even has a novel series that began in 2012 which currently has two novels left to be released.

Conventions of the genresThe Walking Dead, while it was not the first ever zombie story, it was the first of it’s kind in the sense that it was an ongoing narrative. Robert Kirkman, the creator of The Walking Dead stated that he was sick of watching zombie films and wondering what came after. He then created a series that would show the full span of the apocalypse. Before The Walking Dead, there were little comics like it in the market.

Unlike many other zombie stories, Robert Kirkman has stated that the comic isn’t meant to be action packed, scary or conventional. He’s stated that instead the comic would focus on the characters and their reactions and interactions with each other. This was very unconventional at its first release.

The TV show also follows this line of thinking, and was the first of it’s kind. Since then, similar shows such as Izombie have tried to cash in on the large market. The video games however were nothing new, as zombie video games have been around since the early 1990s with games such as Resident Evil and Zombies Ate My Neighbours! The Telltale game, like the show and comic however, strayed away from the horror aspect and instead focused on the characters and their relationships and reactions to the end of the world.

Who is the target audience and how can you tell?

The comics have a clear target audience of males between the ages of 20-35, as this makes up the majority of the comic market.

Which below and above the line processes are used?

Intertextuality, borrowed interest, star identity and common codes.

Intertextuality

Borrowed Interest: The Walking Dead takes a lot of inspiration from George Romero’s films, such as Day of the Dead and Dawn of the Dead.

Star Identity: A fair mix. Few B-List actors from England, stars from previous Frank Darabont films and then new stars they created themselves.

Common Codes

Brand Identity

Walking Dead is a massive brand

Spans all forms of media

Has a massive following

Very recognisable characters

Exhibition and Distribution

AMC, so it’s on cable in America

Fox HD in UK, comes out a day later than the US.

Comics can be bought in most comic stores, also online

Video Games can be bought easily online or in stores.

They have large viral campaigns (Posters and trailers)

Attend several conventions to build hype

Statistics

The Walking is a very popular show. It’s highest recorded amount of viewings was 17 million, and that was for the Season 5 premiere. Season six had an average viewership of 14 million.

The comics have sold a immense amount of issues, even more so considering it started as an independent series.

The Telltale Game sold 28 million copies and got an average

Score of 9/10.

Innovations