I am really glad we decided to choose some obscure shows to use in our research for the presentation. The Walking Dead is a show that I really enjoy and so doing the work for it had been interesting and fun!
Here is the main bulk of the research for the presentation on The Walking Dead:
Comic Book
The Walking Dead comic book is an
American black and white comic series by Robert Kirkman that follows the
travels of Rick Grimes during a zombie apocalypse. It first issued in 2003 and
is a monthly comic that is eventually transferred in to hard covers and
compendiums; basically turning the comics into full story books.
The art in these comics has been
created by Tony Moore, Charlie Adlard and Cliff Rathburn. They take turns in
doing the cover art and Cliff Rathburn is in charge of the overall shading.
The series won critical acclaim
and has been called 'one of the best monthly comics available'.
IGN ranked the main protangonist
Rick Grimes as the 26th Greatest Comic Book Hero of All Time in 2011. Many
other awards have been given for the comic book series that still continues
today.
Ratings:
IGN individually rates each comic
book monthly. Looking through the ratings its clear that every rating is at
least about 7.0 out of 10.
TV Show
The Walking Dead TV show is based
fully on the comic book by Kirkman but is developed by Frank Darabont. It
premiered in 2010 and is still aired today continuing to use the comic book
series. As the comic book is not looking like ending anytime soon, the show
will have extreme longevity as well. The Walking Dead debuted in 120 different
countries in the same week. Large publicity stunts such as world wide zombie
invasions occured around the time of the pilot airing; organised by the TV
companies themselves.
The companies cleverly used
various outlets to engage audiences that were familiar with the comic, or not.
The aired clips from the pilot at Comic Con 2010 San Diego, AMC is one of the
main channels in America and so everyone with a TV will have at least heard
about the show.
All 3 series that have aired so
far, have been given critial acclaim much like the comic series. The positivity
surrounding the show is amazing, but also bizarre considering the subject.
The producers are also releasing
the first series of the show in black and white in 2013, this will again
attract new viewers but also give the chance for fans to watch more of the show
they love.
Ratings:
Season 1 - Timeslot 10pm Sunday -
6 episodes - 5.24 million vewiers on average
Season 2 - Timeslot 9pm Sunday -
13 episodes - 6.90 million veiwers on average
Season 3 - Timeslot 9pm Sunday -
16 episodes - 10.87 million veiwers (of premiere)
Gaming
There are various games that have
came from the origins of The Walking Dead. The first official game is The
Walking Dead: The Game; it is an episodic point and click adventure game. This
game is available on iPhone, Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. This game is
styled very much like a comic book, very similar to the original comics but
with more colour.
The difference with this game is
that most of the characters are original to the game itself and not related to
the comic books. It is set just after the apocalypse began, and aims to develop
the characters. This form of gaming allows players to become attached to the
characters and want more from the story. So Telltale game have released the
game in episodes so you are waiting for the content to come out.
The next game, to be released in
2013 is The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct. This game will be totatally
different to the latter as it is a first person shooter and encourages a very
active gamer to take part in the action. The game will be available on Windows,
XBox 360, PlayStation 3 and of course as many new games are - Wii U. The game
is a prequel to the TV series and is set in the countryside of Georgia focusing
on Daryl and Merle as they fight their way through walkers and make their way
to Atlanta.
Using this none linear idea of
what came before the story of Rick Grimes waking up from his coma, allows the
fans to delve a little deeper in to the lives of the character they know and
love.
The way in which the focus has
shifted from a certain main character throughout the comic and the TV shows, to
different characters all together; makes the games delicious extra content for
fans and also those who are just interested in gaming. Gamers might buy the
game and then eventually look in to the comics and the TV show; this cycle will
occur on all levels and to an extent help boost ratings of each platform.
Ratings:
IGN rated The Walking Dead: The
Game at 9.3 'Amazing - The game demands to be experienced'.
IGN community have given The
Walking Dead: Survival Instinct an 8.4 as a pre-release rating.
Spin Off Shows
Robert Kirkman, creator of the TV
series has been quoted in saying that there will be no spin offs. However there
is a chat show called The Talking Dead on AMC, which has guests each week from celebrity
fans, to cast members and even the crew involved in the show.
The show started when season two's
pemiere of The Walking Dead aired, and had an immediate fanbase. Clearly any
extra content is benfitial and exciting to the viewers.
The show will be bunked up to
right after The Walking Dead, at 10pm and will be increased to a one hour show
(rather than its usual 30 mins).
The series features
host Chris Hardwick discussing the latest episode with guests who are fans of
the series. Segments on Talking Dead include an "In Memoriam"
highlighting the deaths from the episode, an online poll, episode trivia,
behind-the-scenes footage, and questions from fans via phone, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, or from the official Talking Dead website. After the on-air episode
ends, a bonus 15–20 minute segment continues online.
The Walking Dead like
to use online sources for extra content especially on their website.
Online
The website for The
Walking Dead TV Show is under the heading of AMCTV.com. The website in itself
is jam packed full of extra content, games videos, webisodes and even access to
a new story sync app that allows you to watch the show and take part in polls
and trivia about the show that is airing.
Anything you could possibly want
is on the site, they really haven't scrimped on the extra content; they even
have Facebook and Twitter links so you can follow their news and updates daily.
The series has gone that big world
wide that the site now has a shop online section where you can buy the latest
collectables, clothes, games, DVDs and Blu-Rays. This just shows how much The
Walking Dead has expanded since its initial TV premiere in 2010.
The fanbase is huge and this is
evident from the forum that is also accesable from the website. With this you
have to have an account with the website to join in the conversation, giving
you exclusive access to certain areas of the site.
Rating:
As there is no official rating of the site itself. I give it a 9.5 out of 10.
It needs some tweaking on the navigation side of things and also the
compatibility with various laptops/computers.
Here are a few video links that I intend to put on the presentation:
The Walking Dead Video Game
Trailer
The Walking Dead TV Show
First Trailer
The Walking Dead: Survival
Instinct Trailer
The Talking Dead TV Show
The Walking Dead First Ever
Webisode
Speak Soon!