I've been asked by a hell of a lot of people if I am going to watch this. The basic line of questioning goes something like this, "It's from a comic book. It's got zombies. You like both things. You gonna watch?"
Probably not.
I never read the comic book despite the generally positive reviews. I simply had no interest in it. Mistake? Maybe, but I'm still not going out of my way to get it.
I also don't watch a hell of a lot of episodic television. I don't find myself having enough time to do that, and if I were going to, I would actually go to the source material first (in this case the comic or trade paperbacks). It's not like it is impossible to find. Don't misunderstand me -- I'm fairly sure the show will be worth watching. I just don't plan on being one of the audience members. If I come across it, I'll probably tune in, but I doubt I'll even have the television on at that time.
What I'd love to see is the people who are excited about the television series actually becoming comic book readers. By all accounts (though not mine), the industry is dying. That means all these incredible franchise ideas will have to come from elsewhere -- something Hollywood has never been really good at doing. (Outside of the Star Trek and Star Wars franchises, I can't think of too many franchises that have solely been the creation of the movie/television industry. James Bond came from books, as did Harry Potter.)
It seems doubtful that all these viewers will turn into readers, but if I were a comic book store or publisher (that means you, DC and Marvel) I'd be taking out ads in order to expose potentially new readers to what you have to offer.
In the meantime, I'll continue to field the questions, reminding people of the television show's source material. And that material is always going to be better than what can be shown on the screen.
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