Zombies or not, The Walking Dead has been a big revelation on television, especially in a day and age when there’s infinitely better writing on TV and cable than in movies.
There’s some who feel the whole zombie thing is just about played out, although I’m sure the show will continue to do fine for a while, but it does make you wonder about The Walking Dead magazine, which will be hitting newsstands and bookstores in October.
According to SciencefFiction.com, The Waking Dead official magazine will be released quarterly, while its debut will coincide with Season Three of the show.
Frankly, in this day and age it’s bizarre anyone’s launching a magazine at all with paper and ink being so expensive, and trust me, as this writer can attest, the publishing world absolutely got hammered during the recession. Whether this is a signal that print media, and the economy, is coming back, or whether it’s an ill-advised business decision remains to be seen.
The mag will feature interviews with Robert Kirkman, who’s an executive producer / writer on the series, Glen Mazzara, the show runner, and stars Andrew Lincoln, Sarah Wayne Callies, and more. The magazine will also include 100 pages of the latest news, revelations and tips for fans of both the television show and the graphic novels.
So is there enough interest in The Walking Dead to sustain a full-blown magazine? We’ll see this fall when it hits US newsstands on October 23, and when it launches in England on November 8, and Australia and New Zealand on December 18.
In other Walking Dead News, showrunner Glen Mazzara recently noted that just because something happened in the comic series, doesn’t necessarily mean it will be depicted in an orderly fashion on the screen.
“Just because we don’t play particular scenes upfront as maybe they were played in the comic book that doesn’t mean we may not play it down the road. Everything’s in play. I won’t say anything’s off limits,” Mazzara told TV Guide. “I’m not interested in wrapping up The Governor, Michonne or the prison story line anytime soon. We are getting to the heart of the matter, I think the core of Robert’s comic book. We really have a lot of great material to explore. I hope to explore all of that for a long time.”
Meanwhile, Walking Dead comic creator Robert Kirkman acknowledged that a one-handed Rick significantly limits the options of what can be done with the character.
“… As we get closer to the story line, I don’t want to remind people that I set things in stone like that,” he said. ”Constantly, we’re up against things in the comics where it would be awesome if Rick could… oh, Rick can’t do that, he only has one hand. That is something that I regret, but I wouldn’t put it past us. I’m not ruling anything out. Season 3 is going to be pretty nuts.”
