Like many of you, I’m a great fan of Robert Kirkman.  Like many of you, I’m also a great fan of The Walking Dead.  Like many of you, I’m also a great fan of Frank Darabont.

For those of you who don’t know, The Walking Dead (which you can order on Amazon here, and I strongly suggest it), is the continuing story of survival in a world over run by zombies.  In your average zombie movie, all we really see are how people react in the short term, and then the movie ends.  The Walking Dead doesn’t end.  It goes on.  And we watch a group of people, led usually by former police officer Rick Grimes, follow the path of survival in ways you can’t even imagine.  This is easily one of my favorite comic books and it will probably be one of my favorite television shows.

I’ve heard rumblings for a while now that Frank Darabont had the property and wanted to do it on television and the prospect of it excited me greatly.  Even as recently as the San Diego Con, I heard that he’d hinted to some people (and if they want to come forward and tell that story, that would be great) that there was something in the works.

Never did I think an announcement would be this soon.

But it’s true.  AMC, the producers of Mad Men and Breaking Bad, are looking to sign up Darabont (and perenial geek producer Gale Anne Hurd) to make The Walking Dead an ongoing television series for the network.

This should make geeks everywhere very, very happy.  I know some people will be bummed that it’s not on HBO, but AMC can get away with plenty.  And if there’s anything I’ve learned in all my years of watching and making movies, it’s that what you don’t show is often more scary than what you do.

Here’s a piece from the Variety article, which you can read in full here.

Joel Stillerman, AMC’s senior veep of programming, production and original content, said the project appealed to the cabler because of “the quality of the storytelling” in Kirkman’s work. The series will stay faithful to the tone of the original novels, he said.

“This is not about zombies popping out of closets,” Stillerman said. “This is a story about survival, and the dynamics of what happens when a group is forced to survive under these circumstances. The world (in ‘Walking Dead’) is portrayed in a smart, sophisticated way.”

Stillerman goes on to explain that basically, they’d be stupid not to.

I agree.