Consider The Source: The Walking Dead

Atlanta’s zombies population is booming these days, with AMC’s “The Walking Dead” production joining previous local (and local-ish) living dead projects, including the films Zombieland, The Signal, Dance of the Dead and the 2008 stage musical Song of the Living Dead at Dead’s Dad’s Garage. The Shawshank Redemption director Frank Darabont is developing “The Walking Dead,” which shoots its first six episodes in Atlanta, beginning in June.

“The Walking Dead” might not seem like the obvious choice for AMC, whose name means “American Movie Classics,” even though its contemporary rep rests with the terrific TV dramas “Mad Men” and “Breaking Bad.” Read writer Robert Kirkman’s original Walking Dead comic book series, however, and you may find more similarities to AMC’s flagship shows than you’d expect from a storyline in which ambulatory corpses try to eat people.

Set partially in and around Atlanta, The Walking Dead’s initial issues (drawn by Tony Moore) don’t disguise the premise’s debt to George Romero’s zombie apocalypse scenario, and the opening scenes prove derivative of the beginning of 28 Days Later… Rick Grimes, a police officer from a small Kentucky town, awakens from a coma to discover his hospital deserted and the community overrun with the living dead. From a couple of still-breathing townsfolks he learns of the undead epidemic and hears a rumor that Atlanta has become a regional stronghold for survivors. He makes his way on horseback to the ATL, where he finds no civil authority, lots of zombies and, miraculously, his wife and son among a small group of survivors.