Todd McFarlane might be best known for his work in the comic book world, from drawing the Spider-Man villain Venom, to forming the independent publisher Image Comics, to creating the iconic anti-hero Spawn.  But in more recent years, McFarlane's been known for his toy production company, which produces highly detailed action figures from comics, movies, and television.  One such property the company handles is AMC's hit drama, The Walking Dead, but you've never seen Rick and Co. quite like this.  Coming this fall exclusively to Toys "R" Us, McFarlane Toys will release new building block sets and characters pulled directly from The Walking Dead, allowing collectors and fans alike to recreate their favorite scenes on their very own shelves.  Hit the jump to get an early look at the sets and to hear more from McFarlane.

The news of McFarlane's new The Walking Dead sets comes courtesy of Spawn.com, home of the toy company.  The concept is absurdly simple: produce realistic sets and figures based on the popular show, and make them all compatible with each other in the form of interconnecting dimpled block sets (made famous by a name you know and love).

McFarlane expanded on The Walking Dead line of building block sets in a recent interview with Bloody-Disgusting, a snippet of which follows here:

BD: Why The Walking Dead for the first sets?

McFarlane: Historically businesses get noticed when they come out with a brand. You’ve got to work to get people to notice original ideas, but this brand is a global phenomenon. We’ll have instant street cred. “The Walking Dead” is perfect for a huge character base, you can buy 100 figures that I could never do in the action figure aisle. I don’t have to be selective. We can do everyone. You could conceivably have 100 humans versus 200 zombies in a two-foot span on the shelf. That’s all the space you’ll need.

Construction toys build environments, and the environments are meaningful in “The Walking Dead.” The prison, Woodbury, The rooftop in Atlanta, Morgan’s place, I can take advantage of these meaningful places. ...

The majority of my pieces are compatible and will swap with any of the competitors blocks. It’s the same block system, if you will that is available to every other competitor. Once I make the silhouette of the shapes I’m looking for, and that’s where the competitors stop. I put another layer on that stuff which is the art.

When I showed the working prototypes people didn’t understand the building block of it. I showed the Governor’s room at just under 300 pieces and people would scoff and say “That’s 300 pieces!” We just built it and put a veneer on it. Once I pulled up the veneers, and they could see the dimples on the blocks everyone gets it.  It’s all blocks we just put a sexy piece on top of it and you get rid of the dimples. It looks cooler, it’s not for mom, and it’s not for seven year olds.

If you’re twenty five years old and you still want to collect building blocks I’ll show you how it’s done.

Here's a bit more on the first sets and figures that will be available this fall:

The Walking Dead series one product line will feature building sets, expansion packs, and figure blind bags for consumers to build their own The Walking Dead apocalypse:

The Building Sets: MSRP $9.99-64.99 – Daryl Dixon with Chopper, The Governor’s Room, and Prison Tower with Gate. Expand your brick building apocalypse with additional figure and accessory packs.

Blind Bag Figures: MSRP $2.99 – Daryl Dixon, Michonne, The Governor, Carl Grimes, Riot Gear Walker, Michonne’s Pet Walker, and Herd Walkers.

Stay tuned to www.mcfarlane.com for the latest news and info on all the upcoming products from McFarlane Toys.