SAN DIEGO — Ask Robert Kirkman about the snub his show "The Walking Dead" received in Emmy Award nominations and he answers with a hearty laugh.

"I'll take the ratings, I think is what I usually say," Kirkman said Thursday in an interview at his Skybound booth at Comic-Con.

Kirkman points at all the great shows that are competition for his zombie apocalypse series in what has become a golden age of television.

"The Walking Dead" set cable ratings records earlier this year when more than 12 million people tuned in to the season finale. But it was not among the six nominees Thursday in the drama series category. The nominees were fellow AMC original series "Breaking Bad" and "Mad Men," "Downton Abbey," "Game of Thrones," "Homeland" and the Netflix release "House of Cards."

The show did receive a nomination for outstanding prosthetic makeup, an award executive producer Greg Nicotero and his KNB EFX Group have won twice before.

"It's a really great time for television," Kirkman said. "When I hear, 'Oh, are you upset you didn't get nominated for an Emmy?' I'm like, 'Well, I don't know, there's 'Breaking Bad' and 'Mad Men' and 'Game of Thrones' and 'Boardwalk Empire." There's a dozen other shows that are fantastic that I really enjoy. Yeah, I kind of see. It's really hard to pick the best 20 or so amazing television shows that are out there now. It's a tough field to be active in, so I get it."