Todd McFarlane Shares More Details On The Action Figures For The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead tells the story of the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse; it follows a small group of survivors, traveling across the desolate United States in search of a new home away from the shuffling hordes of the undead. The group is led by Rick Grimes, who was a sheriff's deputy in a small Georgia town, before the zombie outbreak. As their situation grows more and more grim, the group's desperation to survive pushes them to the brink of insanity. At every turn they are faced with unspeakable horrors—both from the dead, and from the scattered remains of a struggling human populace.

"['The Walking Dead'] was a giant success for AMC," McFarlane told MTV News. "To me, 'The Walking Dead' has been in my life for years and years and years, because we've been doing the comic books [at Image Comics]."

"I convinced Robert [Kirkman] to give me the comic book property license and AMC to give [the show license] to me, so you wouldn't have two guys in the marketplace battling it out and sending mixed messages to consumers," he explained of his company's unique hold on both major licenses for the property. "It also allows one company to use the entire library of both the comic books and the TV show, so you can then draw it out and make it a 365-day program."

"Each zombie is going to have a sort of pull-apart, fun thing," he revealed. "When you buy it, it will be sort of mom-approved, if you will, [sort of] PG-13, but as soon as you get home there will be some really cool stuff that you can do with it. There's going to be guts in the cavities that you can pull out, and when mom comes, you can put it back together and she'll never be the wiser."

"Robert's going to be doing a lot of writing . . . because they're going to put him right in the middle of the show," he said. "So I have a back door to information. [He's] going to have to tell me [story elements] in advance so I can put that into production and we can get it into the marketplace in a timely fashion. So I now have an in with both that show and the comic books."