California Here I Come: Applied Media Research

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.