8-bit Love Story

When this comic posts at midnight, the Gnome and I will be in Austin just getting out of w00tstock. Neil Gaiman is the Special Guest Wil Wheaton Impersonator for tonight’s performance. The Gnome is very excited, and so am I. A little over a year ago we had no idea who Paul & Storm were, but we soon fixed that after hearing them perform as the opening band to Jonathan Coulton. The next time that Coulton, Paul & Storm travelled to Texas, we made sure not to miss it - this time dragging along Kris and his brother. Little did I know that Gnome and my love would be so sorely tested that night.*

On Halloween night, AMC had the world premiere of their latest original show, The Walking Dead based on the extremely popular Robert Kirkman series of the same name. Normally such a major comic-related event that occurs on the weekend would be prime fodder for a Monday blog post, but I had to postpone that since while Kris was able to watch TWD on Sunday when it aired, I didn’t have a chance to see it until Monday night. If you haven’t seen it, then stop what you’re doing right now and go to iTunes and get the episode. Yes, I would say it’s actually that good. As Kris said, it’s a very good and well done movie and then it ends and you realize “Oh wait! There’s a whole rest of the season left!” It was AMC’s highest watched show ever and after seeing it I can see why.

If you’re a fan of the comic series, it is faithful enough to the series that you’ll really enjoy it. If you know nothing about the comic series, then you’ll have no problem jumping into it. Nothing else, the makeup effects for some of the zombies is some of the best stuff I’ve seen in a long time.

Personally, I’d heard of the comic but never actually read it. After watching the first episode of the TV series, I’ve picked up the first volume of The Walking Dead trade paperback, which includes the first six issues. I’ve read through about half of it and the TV series premiere covers the first issue and a half (plus some extra scenes). So far, I actually like the TV series better than the comic. The first issue of the comic seems rather rushed and not very compelling. A story like this is very character driven and while Rick Grimes seems like an interesting character, they do a much better job in the TV series making him compelling than they do in the comic. The other characters that are introduced in the first issue and a half seem rather shallow to start with. I don’t want to ruin either the TV series nor the comic for people who haven’t seen/read them, but as an example to those who have Morgan Jones’s reasons for not going to Atlanta are much more powerful in the TV show than in the comic.

While I’ll wait until I finish reading the rest of Volume 1 before I decide if I’m going to continue reading the comic series, I will definitely be continuing to follow the show. Check it out if you haven’t already.