The Walking Dead (season 1)
Robert Kirkman, who created the comic book series in 2003, says he had considered the idea of a "Walking Dead" television series, but never actively pursued it. "I certainly wanted it to happen, just because I knew it would be good for the book... I'm certainly not against adaptations, like some creators." When Frank Darabont became interested in adapting the comic books for television, Kirkman said it was "extremely flattering" and went on to say that, "He definitely cares about the original source material, and you can tell that in the way he's adapting it. It's an extreme validation of the work... Never in a million years could I have thought that if "Walking Dead" were to ever be adapted that everything would be going this well. I think that that's all because of Frank."
Robert Kirkman
Shortly after the launch of "Invincible", Kirkman and Moore began "The Walking Dead" (2003). Kirkman said in 2012 that Image had balked at publishing a comics series featuring what it felt was simply another zombie story, prompting him to say the zombies were part of an alien plot—a notion he had no intention of using except as a means of selling the project. Artist Charlie Adlard replaced Tony Moore with issue #7. Moore continued to draw covers until issue 24 as well as the first four volumes of the trade paperbacks for the series.
Kirkman was first hired by Marvel Comics to pen a revival of the 1990s "Sleepwalker" series, but it was canceled before being published; the contents of its first issue were included in "Epic Anthology" No. 1 (2004). He soon became a mainstay at Marvel, writing the "Avengers Disassembled" issues of "Captain America" vol. 4, 2004's "Marvel Knights 2099" one-shots event, "Jubilee" #1–6 and "Fantastic Four: Foes" #1–6, a two-year run on "Ultimate X-Men" and the entire "Marvel Team-Up" vol. 3 and the "Irredeemable Ant-Man" miniseries.