Tag: Robert Kirkman

Could ‘The Walking Dead’ Be Getting A Movie?

by Shawn Madden

Well, for now we are going to file this one in the rumor department. But it couldn’t be entirely unlikely due to the fact that the show was originally shopped as a movie before it became a television show. One of the folks over at Bloody Disgusting posted this:

With that said, I have some friends working closely with “The Walking Dead” crew and AMC who confirm with me rumblings of a feature film. But before you get your panties in a bunch, we’re only in the third season of the popular zombie show – adapted from Robert Kirkman’s astounding comic book – and when I say rumblings, I strongly suggest the idea has been passed off in non-business conversations. The show was originally shopped as a feature film before it went network, so the idea of ending the series with an hour and a half feature would be exciting. But as I stated before, “24,” “Lost” and “The Sopranos” had been rumored for years, and they all failed to make the jump.

So, pretty much its been talked about but the thing is we wouldn’t see anything for a few years. I’m pretty sure The Walking Dead has a few seasons left in it and AMC is going to take full advantage of that.

Artist Tony Moore Sues For Co-Authorship Of “The Walking Dead”

by Eric Diaz

Only a few months after suing longtime collaborator Robert Kirkman over the proceeds to The Walking Dead, artist Tony Moore is asking a federal court to declare him co-author of the lucrative horror franchise along with several other comic-book properties, according to website CBR. In a complaint filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, Moore is seeking a judgement that he is joint author of  The Walking Dead, as well as Battle Pope, Brit and two potential comics series, Dead Planet and My Name Is Abraham.

The plaintiff, artist Tony Moore.

Moore, who started  The Walking Dead with Robert Kirkman back in 2003 and drew the first six issues, filed his lawsuit in February, saying that Kirkman  fraudulently induced him to sign over his copyright interests in the comic back in 2005 so that Kirkman would be able to complete “a large deal” for what would eventually become The Walking Dead television series. In exchange, Moore was granted 60 percent of  comic publishing net proceeds and 20 percent of  motion picture net proceeds for The Walking Dead and Brit, and 50 percent of “motion picture net proceeds” from Battle Pope. However, Moore alleges that he “has not received the proper amount of royalties owed to him,” and has never been permitted access to financial records. Robert Kirkman has already responded back, saying that the whole lawsuit is “ridiculous”. Moore fired back with “Kirkman is a proud liar and fraudster who freely admits that he has no qualms about misrepresenting material facts in order to consummate business transactions, and it is precisely that illicit conduct which led to the present lawsuit” Ouch. (girls, you both pretty.) Moore is asking for a jury trial for this case, so expect to hear  a lot more about it in the months to come.

 

Geekscape Comics: First Look At ‘Thief Of Thieves #7’

by Scott Alminiana

The conclusion of the first story arc of this hit new series! Unfortunately for Redmond, despite all his efforts to the contrary… nothing goes as planned.

Thief of Thieves #7
Story by Robert Kirkman & Nick Spencer
Art by Shawn Martinbrough & Felix Serrano

‘The Walking Dead: The Game’ Now Available For iOS!

by Shawn Madden

Can’t get enough of The Walking Dead? Telltale Games and Skybound Entertainment are now releasing all five episodes of the critically acclaimed and award-winning game to iOS! However it will only be compatible with iPad 2 and up, and iPhone 4 and up. Earlier devices? Out of luck!

The Walking Dead is a five-part episodic game series set in the same universe as Robert Kirkman’s award-winning comic books featuring Deputy Sheriff Rick Grimes.  Episode one, and the following four episodes deliver an experience tailored by the decisions that each player makes, leading to multiple paths through the story. Players take on the role of Lee Everett, a man convicted of murder, now given newfound freedom and a chance at redemption in a world devastated by the undead.  Intense life or death situations will force the player to explore the darker sides of human nature, and they will meet familiar characters and visit locations from the world created by Robert Kirkman, foreshadowing the story of Deputy Sheriff Rick Grimes in The Walking Dead comics.

‘Episode 1: A New Day’ is available now on the app store for $4.99; Episodes 2-5 will be released periodically and available via in-app purchase. Pre-order the remaining episodes in  The Walking Dead game series by purchasing the Multi-Pack [Episode 2-5 Bundle] for $14.99 via in-app purchase and save 25%!

Game Features:

•Based on Robert Kirkman’s award-winning comic book series: The Walking Dead allows gamers to experience the true horror of the zombie apocalypse, with artwork inspired by the original comic books. Live out events, meet people and visit locations from The Walking Dead lore.

•A tailored game experience: Live with the profound and lasting consequences of the decisions you make in each episode. Your actions and choices will affect how your story plays out across the entire series.

•Act fast: You’ll be forced to make decisions that are not only difficult, but require you to make an almost immediate choice. There’s no time to ponder when the undead are pounding down the door.

•Adventure horror spanning across five episodes: Gameplay involves meaningful decision-making, exploration, problem-solving and a constant fight for survival in a world overrun by the undead.

Source: Apple

Geekscape Comics: ‘The Walking Dead #100’ Already Going Into Second Print

by Shawn Madden

Issue number 100 of The Walking Dead had a print run of 380,000 copies and it’s already sold out. Having already broken one record becoming the best-selling comic book in initial orders for any publisher since 1997…could it be on the path to breaking even more records?

I spoke with a local shop owner who also owned one of the busiest booths at this years San Diego Comic-Con and he went on to state that the book was flying out of his hands at record numbers on the first two days alone and he was even selling the limited variant covers at a couple hundred dollars a pop.

I even decided to check out eBay and variants such as the one above are even cranking out averaging about $400 a piece. With such a high demand we could see this book going into multiple printings much faster than usual. With this many copies sold in just one week since its release this issue could very well be on the path to breaking even more records and setting a very high bar.

Why We Need To Chill On Zombies And Why We Probably Won’t

by Jamie Saxon

Jonathan here. Yes. We know that we just announced our co-producing partnership for ‘Doc of the Dead’, but what you probably didn’t know was that my interest in the movie stems from my complete exhaustion from all things zombies. It’ll be a challenge to see if we can approach the subject from a fresh and interesting perspective. So of course when our new writer Jamie Saxon pitched me this idea for an opinion piece I was overjoyed to share it with you all! Jamie’s new, but I think you’ll see he came ready to get down… Geekscape style!

It’s the terrifyingly pathetic shadow of what a human is, without all the pesky humanity. Easy to dislike, distrust, and fear. Anything alive, sentient, and possessing even a reluctant survival instinct can agree that Zombies need to re-die or whatever your world-of-choice solution is to make them all stop.

Zombies are the easiest enemy ever. And as well they should be. Zombies typically have an appetite only satiated by the flesh of the living and possess no loyalties outside of their own survival…such as it is. Plus, typically again, they’re a fairly easy target since they are not intelligent.

I like the idea of Zombies because I’m afraid of the idea of Zombies. Simply put, their existential possibility opens the phobia door to what our idea of safety in death has come to be known. With a Zombies “reality”, there is no “peace”, even after we’ve expired (just imagine your Double-Double Animal Style™ fighting back). Tack onto that the absolute lack of control over our urges and how fucking grody it would be to eat another human, and usually one that is screaming and begging for it not to. As a human, no matter how hungry I was or if I was in a plane crash in the goddamn Alps, I would likely not try to eat a human if it were alive, screaming, begging, all that good stuff. But if I were a Zombie, there would be approximately zero fucks given as to even the slightest bit of empathy afforded to the future victim/snack. Tummy hurt = person is food. Easiest math class ever. Puke dismissed.

Who needs pants when you have a death like this?

Zombies, the idea of them, I mean, are goddamned brilliant. We can move past the original notion of them being popularized (such that cult horror can be, at least) from George A. Romero’s early depiction. I know, I know, there’s a whole swath of info and evidence that they’ve been a part of almost every culture’s lore since there was a desire to pee behind a tree rather than hanging from it. No, let’s stick with current-era Romero-legacy usage since that’s what we’re currently being fed, if you’ll pardon the expression (you probably shouldn’t, and I’ll respect you more for it). You know, the whole “representative of communist and consumerism” ideal. We’re talking about the shambling, inarticulate, sort-of mindless being that is the ugly shell of what a human once was, but a reminder of what any human can be even without being one of The Living Dead and shit.

These Living Dead remind us, the Living Living, also of our own humanity. However, while being surrounded by the inhuman we need other story elements to inject sympathy and keep us grounded on what we identify with. The Umbrella Corporation in Resident Evil was so shitty they knowingly infected living people to run an experiment. Same for Dead Rising, and they even threw another shot to “evil corporations” by alluding to the plague being perpetuated in order to maintain sales of it’s incredibly expensive Zombrex temporary vaccine. Ya gotta wonder how hard it might have been for the design team on that series to not tie it into AIDS and the currently available and insanely-expensive medications being prescribed these days? Romero used Zombies to address the then-current concerns just as we use them now. Horror imitates life imitates horror and so on.

Story elements and arcs relating to jogging corpses have a wide berth to play with. However, the one thing that is absolutely necessary for us to give more than zero fucks is the addition of the non-infected. Being the audience, that is our anchor into immersion in their world. What would you do? Sure, if it’s some John Undead Doe than a whack on the noggin or gunshot would be fairly easy once the realization of them-or-you takes hold, preferably before the biting. But what if it was your mom, friend, or *SPOILER WARNING* (brilliantly but gut-wrenchingly depicted in The Walking Dead): Your own child. Killing a child is like killing a pet in the world of story mechanics – it serves as a broader example to give the reader a taste of how bad some thing or some things are in the world they’re witnessing since even the “innocents” can be victims. *END SPOILER WARNING*

Oh sure…it’s all fun and brains ’til someone never-dies.

Our emotions are always ready to be tied to something that we can either directly identify with, or would like to identify with. If you’ve ever seen the director’s cut ending of “I Am Legend”, then you’ve seen an evolution in the case of Zombies as more than a soft-target plot device (I’ll leave the spoilers out of it, I recommend checking it out).

As a physical and metaphysical plague, it’s a fucking horrendous scenario. I already gave the example of “no peace even after death” up there, but let’s drill that down further to note that it can be even more aptly stated that we, if turned into a Goddamned Zombie, would possess none of the self-control we have over ourselves right now. The things we currently care about, the rules we will not break, the relationships we work hard and suffer over maintaining like marriage, siblings, or cellphone providers would be chucked out the window faster than a Zombie chucking itself out the window in pursuit of something more alive and edible than it.

Pictured: Priorities.

Aaaaaand…witnessing such a singular priority in “life” is horror via boredom on a scale that isn’t just morbid curiosity like car crashes or Tyler Perry films. No. Zombies do not follow the money, nor do they have a routine for chores, worry about vacations, or research the web. And they are unencumbered by benefits packages, sexual urges (ew), or politics (ew again). But part of their attractiveness, so to speak, is that it is an incredibly simplified existence.

On this side of Dawn of the Dead, Zombies have come a long way to give us a glimpse of a sickening and almost all-encompassing form of “freedom” in the simplest and most alien way imaginable. I don’t mean the patriotic rallying cry or contractual subscription-based streaming services taglines (they all have caveats, dontcha know?). I mean being a vessel that only adheres to it’s basest desire to maintain it’s existence by not only ignoring the “rules” set out in it’s surrounding environment, but being outright unaware of them. No friends, no goals, no long-term retirement plan. An entire “life” spent on only short-term solutions totalling exactly one thing: eating whatever has the shit scared out of it at the sight of a Zombie. It is difficult, if one were either a Zombie or a Robot (speaking for the understanding of humans, of course), to argue that besides consumables and air, absolutely nothing else is “essential” for personal survival (I won’t expound on procreation because we already had the “ew” thing in parentheses up there).

Alrighty, so there’s the case of Zombies in an undead nutshell. It’s what we have and more or less how they’re utilized in current mythology (movies, comics, malls). All of those points up there are why I would also like to see them go away.

Oh, no he didn’t!

Yes, I did. Stick with me, rockstars, because it’s not as wacky as you think. We’ve made it this far.

Zombies are an easy target, they don’t come across as “innocents”, which hits some of us with more delicate sympathies (animals aren’t inherently “evil” so when they’re offed in a story, some get squirmy), and they’re not really like regular people with goals and objectives that you’d feel bad about ending if you had to decapitate one. Paraphrasing Dexter’s dad: “When you kill someone, you are ending everything that they can ever become.” Truth. With Zombies, they are only one thing, and that thing is bad. “Bad” is easy to kill off and most would maybe even sleep soundly after the fact.

The plot devices where humans are set in employ some or all of the following: Human betrayal (kill a living person to guarantee survival); Loss of innocence (my mom is a Zombie and now wants to eat me no matter how loud I sing our favorite lullaby); End of the world (no more pizza delivery via internet order); Self-sacrifice (I love you all too much to let you get overrun, plus I really miss pizza delivery). These are standard and have been used effectively since they are simple and hard to fuck up. But they have all been utilized for millennia in other stories as well. Zombie stories did not invent them.

Some plot devices don’t die.

But we as a society or species or global tribe or whatever the latest pc term is, with information and opinions evolving so rapidly these days, deserve a better enemy. A smarter one. Take a look at your own past or maybe even your own current events. Every one of us, unless you lived in a cave and are still living in a cave and therefore don’t have internet and aren’t reading this and therefore I say again “every one us”, have experienced an outside entity that had the opposite of good intentions in mind for us. Maybe you slighted them or their interests in some way, whether you know it or not; maybe they were threatened by you somehow (like your parents loved to tell you to understand and pity bullying); maybe they were just fucked in the head and you were the nearest earth object for them to act out upon. Hell, maybe YOU were the enemy for them and it got all feudal with tats and tits and stuff.

Even if the fire was put out quickly, those experiences change who we are. It’s painful most of the time, but it’s an addition to our arsenal of getting through life. Hannibal’s quote from “Hannibal” is appropriate, if not creepily sterile: “People don’t always tell you what they’re thinking. They just try to see to it that you don’t…advance in life.” The human reality of our lives on this planet includes being affected by “enemies” as either obstacles or foes both seen and unseen. Just the knowledge of them, ninjas or whatever, changes how we handle ourselves. Even the act of ignoring it is in itself effectual to our actions.

Now, in movies and stories there is only so much time that a character has to develop. That character faces the second act and must work through to it’s resolution in the third act. We, as the audience, get sucked into story elements ESPECIALLY with enemies that cause our hero or protagonist to evolve as something “new” is brought to bare. Vader is Luke’s dad, Hans Gruber’s brother planted a fake bomb in a school because he’s not a monster, that hooker in Total Recall had three tits. Those are surprises and we can identify with them changing our personal understanding of the rules, because it (normally) evolves the understanding our favorite character has of the world around them. Just like we should evolve if confronted with a new understanding about an Enemy element in our lives. I say “should” because most of us can agree that a grudge runs deep and the need for punishment…to some…outweighs the relief of forgiveness. Trying not to be preachy, I’ve been on all four sides of that fucked up coin as maybe you have, too. Tyler Durden didn’t want to die without any scars, and neither do we. Plus we have the advantage of actually existing.

And as it turns out, he was just fucking crazy.

But Zombies. They are just the one thing. The changes a character goes through in facing a mobile corpse usually mean having to behead a thing that they know was once human. The first takedown, the first acceptance of a “Zombie Reality”, are the plot points that the story needs. After that, it’s running/panicking/trying also to not let the other non-Zombie humans get all fucky on them. The most horrifying thing that a Zombie has so far given to a living person is the knowledge that said Zombie was a familiar, in life, to the living person. We watch as their brains register the connection with the memory, and then acceptance, and then it’s a matter of their own sensibilities (probably tied into ours, as well) that the “holy fuck what would YOU do?” moment comes and inevitably goes with the live-or-die decision being made by said now-incredibly-sad living person.

The Enemies we are used to dealing with in our regular (so far) non-Zombified world are much more complex and intricate. Regardless of our responsibility as to why they feel whatever-shitty thing about us or whether we deserve whatever they’d like to or have inflicted upon us, they are also human. Our enemies in life are grey just like us, but Zombies as they are now normally remain the black to our audience’s perceived white. We don’t need to lift a finger to be “better” than them, all we have to do is root for the living to stay alive. In those stories, as long as the Alive don’t kill anything that’s similarly alive, we allow them to keep their humanity. There is little that we “earn” or grow from while witnessing these plights, no matter how empathetic we can be to whatever is unfolding on the screen or pages. We get to reaffirm ourselves but we don’t change, partly because the effort to do so isn’t really required.

This is certainly not an end-all rant that Zombies aren’t fun and some awesomegasmic stories have not or will not be experienced by us where they are utilized. But books and movies like The Road give us the human-obliterating Apocalypse, character struggles, and maintain the focus on survivors outside the need for the Undead. Even the Book of Eli avoids the magnifying glass on “horror” (kind of) and keeps us trained on the hero’s journey. The other side are things like 28 Days Later, Dead Rising, Resident Evil, [Whatever] of the (Living) Dead movies, etc. which ARE great fun and I by no means wish their end. But soft targets are no challenge.

They missed.

Here’s something I’ve always found interesting working in the games industry: Do you know why Zombies remain so popular in games? Because Zombie AI is easier than having to deal with coding cover systems, scripting, and survival instincts for non-player characters (computer-controlled antagonists, thugs, various and sundry “enemy” types), along with multiple objectives that have to pay constant attention to what the player is doing – rather than just where they are. For developers, they’re fun to make (sloppy, walk funny, vacation shirts); and logistically you only need a fraction of good voice-over artists for the grunts and howls. Any good VO person can tweak their range to pull off half a dozen or more near-completely different voices – and Pro Tools can multiply that to cover hundreds more. On the publishing side, it’s usually a safer investment because consumer familiarity and popularity with anything “Zombiepocalypse”- related is easy to get press for, and a good visceral game of “killing without killing” keeps it morally ambiguous in PR’s favor. The best targets are cheap, easy, plentiful, and safe to put into the crosshairs.

Zombies, at least in the manner they have usually been employed in modern storytelling, cause our Heroes to be as stagnant in their mindset and growth just about as much as Zombies are trapped in theirs. Since we are evolving and changing so rapidly these days: shouldn’t more of the Heroes and Enemies of our mythos be able to do the same?

Then again, it would be nice if our enemies were so easy, wouldn’t it?

Now do you dare me to tackle our obsession with Bacon next?

Geekscape Games Reviews “The Walking Dead: Chapter 2 – Starved For Help”

by Jonathan

Back in late April, I brought you my review of the first chapter in Telltale Games’ entry into The Walking Dead universe, an episodic adventure game that takes place alongside the storyline from the original Image comic books. At the time, I said some pretty bold things and if you haven’t played the game or read the review, I implore you to do so before you continue reading here. It’ll help to familiarize you with the game’s setting, gameplay and mechanics, all of which I said were incredible. I even went so far as to say that Telltale’s iteration of The Walking Dead is THE BEST iteration that is out.

And having played through the second episode, entitled “Starved For Help”, I can only say that it got even better. The choices that the game asks you to make become more stressful, the world in which the story takes place gets bleaker and the responsibilities that your main character takes on become greater as Lee begins to inherit his role as the leader of the group of survivors. The Walking Dead videogame really does the best job of putting you in the shoes of a zombie apocalypse survivor in a way that the comic book and the TV show can’t and Telltale has used this second chapter to move beyond the introductory phase of the first and ratchet things up a few notches.

The episode begins 3 months after the ending of the first, in which the survivors have made a well-guarded camp for themselves out of an abandoned motel. The problem that they now find themselves in though is a dwindling food supply. During a hunting trip through the nearby woods, Lee and his new companion (who’s name I forgot because his character is new and doesn’t make much of an impression beyond being potentially expendable) come across some new survivors, one who has his leg stuck in a bear trap. As the undead begin to close in, Lee must figure out how to either get the trap open or use his axe to make one of the most hardcore decisions the game will force you to make. The fact that the scene plays out in a timed quicktime event really adds the stress and makes you feel directly responsible for the choice you must make in trying to save everyone’s lives.

This guy is new… and he’s lame. And he shouldn’t get too comfortable with that gun.

Upon returning to camp, the game doesn’t make things any easier when you’re tasked with choosing who among the group (of about 10 survivors) gets 4 remaining food items. Again, as I said in reviewing the first episode, the choices that you make not only effect the other characters, they are permanent and are carried through to the other chapters. If you choose to give food to one character, another might feel slighted and not come to your aid later on, while choosing wisely might earn you the respect of someone else. The problem is, in Episode 2, there never seems to be a right answer. You will always end up pissing someone off.

The clearest case of this is in the dynamic between Kenny, whose son Duck you may or may not have saved in the first episode, and Lilly, whose father knows about your questionable past and rides your ass like nobody’s business. Both Kenny and Lilly step up to make opposing decisions for the group and you are quickly forced to try and play peacemaker while the game asks you to take sides. Regardless of your choices, it’s almost impossible for your relationship with Kenny to come out unscathed and your never sure if the choice you made or the dialogue option you chose was the right one (hint: there will never be 100% right answers and you are pretty much screwed no matter what you do). And as the episode progresses, the rift between Lilly and Kenny only gets greater and leads to one of the biggest “holy shit” moments of the episode. I’m serious. I literally yelled it out loud.

This dairy farm should offer some safety… right?

The writing and design of this game have to be continually commended. As the episode progresses, and the group is led by two brothers to a nearby dairy farm, everything in the game seems to escalate. The omnipresent sense of paranoia and fear that began the episode soon give way to downright panic as the entire safety of the group is threatened by new surroundings. Each character has a unique voice and opinion and the story takes a ton of unexpected twists and turns. There is more action, character and consequence packed into a single two hour episode of this game than there is in an entire season of the AMC show or storyline of the comic book and that’s a feat in and of itself. And it isn’t shy from going to places that are much darker than either the TV show or the comic have ever explored.

This dinner scene is the best scene in the episode… maybe.

And beyond being an engrossing, dynamic experience, this game is just fun to play. The adventure game mechanics are well designed, the quicktime events are appropriately stressful and the choices you are forced to make are each pretty challenging. And there’s a lot of blood. Way more so than in Episode 1, as the larger world of The Walking Dead is explored in this second episode, the horrors that accompany it begin to come into full view. We get our first real glimpse of human survivors beyond our group and just how desperate they’ve become since the onset of the zombie outbreak. And things do not look good. There are some seriously gross, intense and horrific moments in this episode but never did they seem forced or inappropriate to the story or the characters.

What Telltale is doing here is really building upon the world that The Walking Dead comics have established and then improving on it a few times over. If you’re a zombie fan, a Walking Dead fan or just a fan of adventure gaming in general, you owe it to yourself to just get the $19.99 Season Pass and enjoy each episode as it comes out. My wife, who watches and helps me navigate the game’s choices as I play,  and I have been enjoying the heck out of these new, enhanced Walking Dead experiences and I can neither recommend them enough or wait for the third episode to be released.

This game scores a clear 5/5.

First Image Of The Governor From Season 3 Of “The Walking Dead”

by Scott Alminiana

TV Guide has just released the first image of David Morrissey as The Governor from AMC’s The Walking Dead. The Governor will be introduced in Season 3 of the hit show.

The Governor, real name Philip Blake, is the vicious leader of the small town of Woodbury. He becomes one of Rick’s (Andrew Lincoln) greatest enemies in the series and brings with him more death than the walker’s themselves could.  I’d tell you more but then the walkers would have to eat me…and you!

Robert Kirkman, creator/executive producer on The Walking Dead had this to say regarding Season 3 and The Governor:

“Seeing The Walking Dead come to life on AMC has been a real thrill for me, obviously, and moving into Season 3 I’m even more excited than ever because now I feel like we’re really getting to ‘the good stuff…”Having The Governor in the mix is going to fundamentally change the show in all kinds of awesome and exiting ways. And David Morrissey totally rocks!”The Governor in the show is definitely going to be The Governor in the comic, “I think that he’s definitely going to be a character that people love to hate and are absolutely entertained by, but also somewhat terrified of. He’s definitely going to be a very important character and a very nuanced character. We are not going to be watering him down.”

Season 3 of The Walking Dead Premieres on AMC this October.

 

First Image Of Michonne From Season 3 Of “The Walking Dead”!

by Scott Alminiana

The first picture of fan-favorite Michonne from “The Walking Dead” has just been released via the folks over at EW. Fans of the comic book about lost their minds when a mysterious katana wielding cloaked figure showed up at the end of the season 2 finale. Well, here’s just a little taste of what fans are in store for come season 3 of “The Walking Dead” when it premieres in October.

Relatively unknown actress Danai Gurira as Michonne

“The Walking Dead” creator/executive producer Robert Kirkman had this to say regarding the casting of Danai Gurira, best known for her role on HBO’s “Treme”,  “We looked at a lot of talented people that were really fantastic, but we were waiting for that one spark, that moment where everyone was completely in agreement and completely excited, and we felt like we had found the essence of this fictional character that just randomly appeared in another person, and that person was Danai Gurira. She kind of came in and really just blew us all away. She’s got incredible presence, and she’s got a theater background, and is very physical, and was just perfect for the role.”

 

Geekscape Games Reviews “The Walking Dead: Chapter 1 – A New Day”

by Jonathan

If you’ve been following Geekscape for a while now, what you’re about to read might astound you… I’m about to heap some serious praise on The Walking Dead. Now please keep in mind that I do like The Walking Dead. I’ve read the entire comic series, have watched every episode and this past weekend played through the first chapter of Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead episodic adventure title. We’re even good friends with one of the show’s supervising producers, a recent Geekscape guest.

But like the actual dead having returned to life, the various Walking Dead iterations have each felt surprising at first, then compelling, then slowly a bit laborious and as they continue along, less and less fresh. I like The Walking Dead. I wouldn’t put myself through it if I didn’t… but it’s been a while since I consistently loved The Walking Dead comic or TV series.

Well, and I hope that I’m not predicting impending decay, I LOVE The Walking Dead video game, at least the first chapter, recently released by Telltale Games for PSN, XBL and PC. In fact, and please leave your crazy accusations in the comments, it might be my favorite version. And I’ll explain why (because those are some pretty big statements right there!).

First off, it follows the more compelling storyline of Kirkman’s original comic book series. It actually takes place just as the Atlanta of the comic book series is going to hell, being evacuated and Rick lies unconscious in a hospital bed. It doesn’t as much parallel the events of the comic book as much as give it a bit of a prequel or alternative point of view. In the first chapter, A New Day, you do run into some characters and locales from the comic book series, but this is before Rick and his group encountered them… and you actually take part in setting the stage for those characters. This is a huge plus for anyone who’s a Walking Dead fan, because you feel as though what you’re doing matters to characters that you care about. It gives you a responsibility to protect what will come later.

Which leads me to the greatest plus of this series and why it’s a much different experience than the comic book or TV series or even other zombie games like Left 4 Dead or Resident Evil. The Walking Dead game, more than the comic or the series, really strives to and succeeds at putting you squarely in the shoes of the survivors, in this case through the eyes of the controllable character Lee Everett, who is always at the center of every decision the group must make within the story.

The artwork and writing are fantastic, easily the best we’ve seen from Telltale and the game play is intensely compelling. This is very much an adventure game, but it doesn’t come without some action sequences (and you can definitely die while playing). In fact, a lot of the decision making processes, even conversations with other characters, give you the same adrenaline rush as the game’s quicktime events. The Walking Dead autosaves, so if you flub a conversation, leading others to mistrust or lose faith in you, those decisions are immediate and permanent. I found myself just as stressed out by doing what I perceived was the right choices in the conversations as I did while stuck between saving survivors, knowing that whoever I didn’t save wasn’t only dead in this episode but the rest of the series. The choices that you make in this game haunt you and I was soon playing the game with trepidation, weary that I’d make a wrong move and get someone permanently killed or lose an ally I would need later. Hell, I was also scared that I’d miss some detail in scouring the environments that would end up keep us alive down the road!

This is where the writing and the characterization really differs from my recent experiences with the comic and TV series. I find myself really caring about the characters involved, probably out of this engaged responsibility for them. Even characters that you don’t get along with strengthen the group, just by being able to help move a car or hold a weapon. The game’s characters and situations all live within a gray area, Lee having escaped from the back of a police car in the opening sequence of the game, and it keeps you there, so decision making is sometimes difficult. Not only are you immediately responsible for yourself, but when Lee discovers the young abandoned girl Clementine early on, your responsibility to make the right choices grows.

In Left 4 Dead or Resident Evil, things are very black and white. Here, nothing is very clear. Even when you think that two choices in a dialogue tree would lead to the same result, the way that you choose to word things might give you a result from another character that you didn’t anticipate. This not only makes them more realistic but gives them relatability. Everyone seems to be in a state of shock at their surroundings and it makes the story that much more compelling. You don’t see Carl lazily wandering the farm or someone making dinner. They are all driven by the need to survive.

The gameplay and situations all elaborate further on this concept of responsibility to the group. You control Lee’s movement with the right trigger while exploring the environment’s objects (or what he can see) with the right. Like other adventure games, you sometimes you have to search for items or enter areas to solve puzzles, but very early on you start doing this with other members of the group, putting them, or mainly Clementine, in harm’s way. The game forces you to work carefully in these areas, even if dying means resetting to your last save, because you don’t want them to die, or they’ll be gone from the game’s story forever.

And when a zombie (or in many cases zombies plural) DOES come at you, the game’s quicktime events are more than just button combinations or quick button tapping. You’ll usually find yourself temporarily dazed when the zombie knocks you down or surprises you and you have to move the right reticle towards your attacker just to instigate the quick time event. This really does a great job of forcing the player to “get their wits about them” so they can take back control of these intense situations. I didn’t die much while playing The Walking Dead, but in the moments in which I did, it scared the hell out of me because my shock at having these events thrown at me and not being immediately or obviously prompted to do button mashing gave me that immediate sense of “crap! What do I do!?!”


If I have to talk about the downsides of the game, and there aren’t many, it would be towards the end of the chapter, not necessarily because of the story or character work, but because the “scour environments for objects, use objects” redundancy that plagues all adventure games isn’t completely cured here. If you don’t like adventure games, you might find yourself wanting something more in these areas. But considering that adventure games are my favorite genre, I took these conventional sections of the game as an acceptable byproduct of the chosen form. Telltale do enough fresh things in The Walking Dead, and do them exceedingly well, that this never feels like a tired adventure gaming experience. In doing so, they’ve also injected new life into the Walking Dead brand, which up until now, you could only read or watch as it played out in front of you on a string. I hope that with the release of each of the next four chapters, Telltale continues to effectively expand not only the Walking Dead gameplay and story but the adventure game genre itself.

AMC Developing TV Series Based on Robert Kirkman’s “Thief of Thieves”!

by Jonathan

According to Deadline Hollywood, AMC is developing a new series based on Robert Kirkman’s new comic series “Thief of Thieves”. As Deadline states:

“Much like The Walking Dead brought horror to television in a unique and groundbreaking way, I feel Thief of Thieves can do the same thing for heist stories, showing the humanity of all the characters, including the criminals,” said Kirkman, on whose 2003 Walking Dead comic the hit AMC zombie series is based. Thief of Thieves, which Kirkman based on his experience in the writer’s room of The Walking Dead, centers on master thief Conrad Paulson who, while attempting to reconcile with his estranged wife and son, vows to walk the straight and narrow, only to discover he’s completely addicted to the thrill of stealing. Now he must feed his addiction by stealing only what has been stolen, as the “Thief of Thieves.” The first arc of the comic is being written by Nick Spencer; Shawn Martinbrough is the artist. Eglee will serve as showrunner of the potential TV series and will executive produce alongside Kirkman and Walking Dead executive producer David Alpert.

The first two issues are good, with Nick Spencer’s artwork being the definite star so far. The story is a little bit of a slow boil, with master thief Conrad Paulson’s past and present issues feeling a little bit too much like “what if Don Draper was a thief?” What do you guys think? Are you reading it?

Geekscape Casts The Invincible Movie!

by Matt Blackwood

Between the increased interest in comic book adaptations and the success of AMC’s The Walking Dead, Robert Kirkman is poised to become a real force in Hollywood. So it’s only a matter of time before we see a film version of Kirkman’s other hit comic Invincible.

With the right cast, it could be the next blockbuster franchise. So who would Geekscape like to see bring to life probably the coolest superhero comic book in the universe?

ZAC EFRON as INVINCIBLE

If only the goggles didn't hide those eyes...

Boyish good looks, perfect body, earnest eyes- has there ever been anyone more suited to play a superhero than Zac Efron? The High School Musical heartthrob has yet to find the role to propel him to super-stardom. Playing nascent hero Mark Grayson would require him to display both vulnerability and raw power.

For those who have their doubts about Efron’s acting chops, check out his charming performance in the little-seen Me and Orson Welles.

 

LYNDSY FONSECA as ATOM EVE

Pink is my favorite color...

Neither a female iteration of a male character nor a mere damsel in distress, Atom Eve has quickly become one of the strongest women in comics, and Lyndsy Fonseca is the perfect choice to convey that strength on film. Fonseca effortlessly lit up the screen as the girl next door in Kick-Ass, begging the question, “Wouldn’t it be more fun just to watch her kick ass?”

 

JON HAMM as OMNI-MAN

The moustache is fake. The rest is all Hamm.

Besides being the only man alive handsome enough to be credible as Zac Efron’s dad, Jon Hamm is also one of the finest actors working today. In the past few years, fans have suggested Hamm for the roles of both Superman and Captain America for the same reason he is perfect to play Nolan Grayson, the premier super hero of the world of Invincible: the steel authority he personifies in The Town and Mad Men.

 

BEBE NEUWIRTH as DEBORAH GRAYSON

Mom I'd Like to Film- wait, that still sounds bad.

Rounding out the best-looking family in movie history, Bebe Neuwirth is ideal to play Mark’s doting mother and Nolan’s long-suffering wife. The Emmy-winning actress is more than capable of portraying the pride and pain of the ultimate bystander.

 

PETER WELLER as CECIL STEADMAN

It's Robocop's turn on dispatch.

A former superhero himself, Weller has been alternating between good guy and sleazeball his entire career. The role of ruthless patriot Cecil Steadman would allow him to split the difference.

 

KANE HODDER as THE MAULER TWINS

Friday the 13th 2: Attack of the Clones

Kane Hodder played Jason Voorhees, the ultimate grunt, in four Friday the 13th films. He would be both fun and intimidating in a Social Network-style dual role as the contrary clones.

 

ORLANDO JONES as ANGSTROM LEVY

Mad Scientist TV

Funnyman Jones is one of those actors whose chameleonic range has kept him from becoming a household name. Playing nice guy scientist-turned-mutated villain Levy would give him the chance to show both his affability and acting chops.

So what do you think? Are you a fan of Invincible? Let us know who YOU’D like to see in a movie version!

‘The Walking Dead’ find its Michonne

by Matt Blackwood

Tonight’s season 2 finale of AMC’s The Walking Dead finally introduced the television audience to comic fan favorite Michonne. Actress Danai Gurira (The Visitor, HBO’s Treme) portrayed the enigmatic katana-wielder in a cameo appearance and will expand the role in season 3. Can Tyrese be far behind..?

TWD's Michonne and Gurira

 

Robert Kirkman: The (Not) Zombie Guy

by Gilmore

Robert Kirkman is one of my favorite comic book writers. He injects the perfect amount of humor, suspense, and emotion into his stories. Maybe that’s why they sell so well. You might have heard of some of his books: The Walking Dead, Invincible, Marvel Zombies…the list goes on. His books are largely accessible if you are trying to get adults into comic books. He brings the best elements of the medium to the table, so when I heard I was getting an interview, I was pretty stoked.

I caught up with Mr. Kirkman on an afternoon where we both had way too much time. We ended up shooting the shit about comics, horror movies, and possible casting for the Invincible movie. Sit back, relax, and enjoy a tour through the life and thoughts of one of our favorite comic book writers.

 

Gilmore: How’s it going?

Kirkman: Things are going fine.

What have you been up to today?

I’ve been working on comics, stories, and units. I’ve also been watching movie trailers.

Have you seen any good trailers?

No [laughs]. You see, that would just be me revealing that I wasn’t just joking, and I have been watching my fair share of trailers.

What do you think about the Hancock trailer?

I think it looks awesome.

You really think it looks awesome?

Ah, yeah. I really do think it looks awesome. Why? Do you not?

I think it might look a little-

You’re mistaken! [laughs]

I think I might have been turned off by the “Get out the way” song. You know, the song that’s on there. Move! get out the way! Get out the way!…

No. I completely tune that out.

Really?

Yeah, I’m proud of myself for doing so.

Well, that distracted me. Kind of like- What did you think of the Iron man trailer?

Is there a new Iron man trailer? Or is it the one that has already been seen?

It’s the one everybody’s already seen.

Yeah, I’ve seen that one. I just disliked the inclusion of the Iron Man song by Black Sabbath.

Thank you! Those were my thoughts exactly.

It just annoys the piss out of me.

Me too

I think it would have been better if they got rid of the part where they use the vocals of the theme song saying Iron Man for their title sequence.

Or even just the song. It’s just so cheese ball, isn’t it?

The song would be a guitar solo if we took the lyrics out. I think I can live with that. Most people won’t catch it, but GOOD LORD it gets annoying.

It’s really annoying. It just takes over and downs the quality of the trailer.

It really does. But other than that, I’m really excited for the movie. I’m sure it’s going to be great.

Yeah, I’m exactly where you are on that…so you’re a big comic book fan, eh?
[interruption]

Sorry, I had a few guys working on my house.

Oh, nice. What are you getting done?

I’m just getting some new doors on…they’re done now, so that shouldn’t happen again.

Did you kick in the door, or something?

Hmmm…yeah, I have a pretty bad temper. (Laughs)

Sounds good…Wolf-manning it up?

Yeah, it’s pretty rough.

So, I heard something on the internet, but I couldn’t confirm it. Did you really name your son Peter Parker Kirkman?

Yes I did.

That’s awesome. So, what made you decide to do that?

Well, I’m a gigantic comic book nerd. Also, naming things is not very easy.
And Parker is his middle name, so I don’t think people are going to make the connection.

Yeah, So Peter Kirkman works.

Yeah, it’s fine.

So, Spider-Man? Was that your guy? Was that your character growing up?

Yeah, definitely. I mean much more so than Batman, or Superman, or whatever. I mean, Spider-man was the coolest one of the bunch, right?

Totally

Yeah, and he also has the best costume in comics.

Hmmm, best costume in comics?…

Yeah, He has the flashiest and most unique costume. Superman and Batman are just wearing underwear.

…And capes. You’re not a fan of capes are you?

I don’t really mind capes. I don’t really have a preference either way. I just think it depends on the design. I don’t think Batman would necessarily work without a cape. It’s just odd that the Marvel Universe is largely sans-cape, you know?

Definitely. I was just saying that because Invincible doesn’t have a cape.

No, no he doesn’t. You would have to talk with Corey [Walker] about that. I didn’t design that guy.

Oh really?

No, no. no. no. no. That’s why I co-created it.

Aaah, nice. I want to back track a little: as a creator, what are some of your favorite comics growing up? A lot of people throw out Miller’s Daredevil, Watchmen, and Dark Knight Returns, but do you have any inspirations that we might not have heard of?

Well actually I didn’t read Dark Knight or Watchmen until pretty late in my life. I think [I read it] when I was in high school. I didn’t know anything about that shit. I really liked the run on Spider-Man with MacFarlane and Larson. I think those were the first comics I read. I actually picked them up when Larson had recently taken over and back tracked to the atomic frontal issues. I am a fairly young dude, so I didn’t read comics very much in the…well…I didn’t read comics at all in the 80’s. So I started when I was about 13-14, in 1990, so my taste runs a little different than most people’s, I guess.

When Image started up I just kind of dove over there, pretty exclusively. I was a big fan of Young Blood, Shadow Hawk, and Savage Dragon; which is one of my favorite comic to this day. That was a pretty big influence on my work.

Savage Dragon is pretty much the best superhero you know, because it was all done by one guy, and there’s all kinds of unique and interesting stuff that happens and there’s real change. It’s kind of like – I don’t want to say a superhero comic for adults – but it’s definitely not your run on the mill “lets rotate the villains in and out” kind of superhero book; which 99% of comic books are. As far as interpersonal relationships and stuff like that, you can’t do any better than Minimum Wage, by Bob Fingerum. I was a really big fan of that book when I was in high school.

So, what are you currently reading? Give me your top three current titles.

Top three current titles…

Yeah, sorry for putting you on the spot there.

I really like the Umbrella Academy. I think that that book is remarkably well put together. And for a guy who has never written a comic before, that Rockstar guy, Gerald Lee [the guy from My Chemical Romance]. That book was really entertaining, it’s really good. I really like Jack Staff.

All-Star Superman is really good.

Oh, All-Star Superman is great.

Yeah. I feel like I’m learning when I’m reading that book; it’s kind of cool. It’s like “Ah, so that’s how that’s done.” “Oh, that is a very unique way of portraying that”.

So that’s kind of fun. I don’t know if I’m actually learning. It might not be improving my game at all, but I like to think that you learn a few tricks when you read that book.

Have you ever thought of writing a book like that? Where all the issues and stories are self-contained?

I try to do that every now-and-then in Invincible. I think I’m going to try to do that more and more as things go on. I mean, for the most part, every issue of Invincible is somewhat self-contained. There are very few where there’s a clear arc or where they’re fighting the same bad guy for six issues.

I mean, I do think that comics can stand to have a few more series out there that are pretty self-contained every month. So, I would like to do a series that is exclusively that but, I doubt it would be as good as All-Star Superman.

I think it could be. I mean, currently Invincible, not to rub my nose or anything-

I’m not going to denounce it. That book rocks.

Dude, Invincible rocks. It’s my favorite superhero comic right now.

That was going to be my number three choice but I thought it would sound too…

You should’ve squeezed it in there.

I really like New Avengers too. I don’t really think that it reads like an Avengers book, but more like a “here’s what’s going on today in the Marvel Universe today” book, which I think is a lot of fun. And I like the arc quite a bit.

It’s totally great. So, I want to ask you about-

And Ex Machina is really good. Every time you start to ask me a question, I think of this other book, which I probably should mention [laughs]

Ok. Keep doing that and I’ll ask the questions. You can squeeze in books, then we’ll talk about them and then I’ll ask more questions [both laugh]

I wanted to ask about the run-in you had with Todd MacFarlane in San Diego a little while ago. I remember you gave him some shit for no longer writing comic books. I mean, did you mean that with malice, or was it kind of an open thumb?

I really didn’t mean to come off like I was giving him shit, per say. I was trying to be funny and entertaining. I didn’t stand up to yell at the guy. I wanted it to be like a plea from a fan for him to do more in the comics field. A lot of people tell me “Oh, you really stuck it to him”, and I don’t really think I did. There is a video on YouTube; you can watch it if you want.

They also say that I was asking him to draw a comic, which I clearly wasn’t. I know that Todd may have moved on with his life and that he might never draw another comic – and that’s fine. I mean, at the end of the day, if his family is fed and has shelter over their heads, I think that’s what you really need to worry about. He doesn’t owe us anything. And some people turn it into that. What I was basically asking was: why doesn’t he participate in the creation of comics at all? He’s very hands on with his toys and also does designs for them. He seems to care about the toys, the toys have the Atomic imprint, and to a certain extent, I don’t see him doing anymore comics. I mean, he’s still kind of hands on with Spawn, but I was like “It’s been this long, and you’re still doing Spawn? Why don’t you make some new comics?” I mean, he doesn’t have to write, he doesn’t have to draw. Just throw some Todd MacFarlane ideas out there, I’m sure you have some, and do another comic. And I guess that resulted in him asking me to help him do that.

I remember that. Did you ever convince him to do anything with you? What happened with all that?

Well, that’s all happening right now buddy.

Really?

Yeah. He contacted me shortly after the convention (well, one of his people contacted me). I had a few conversations with him and we bounced some ideas back and forth and came up with one that we liked and we developed it a few months before San Diego and we’ve been working on it ever since.

There might be a book signing in 2008. He’s doing all the character designs. We’ve even been co-creating all the characters together and he’s going to draw all the covers while I write the book. We’ve also got another artist to draw the book, but we haven’t announced who that is yet. It’s supposed to be due this summer.

That is awesome. What it’s about? What it’s called?

It’s called Haunt. It’s kind of a ghost-themed superhero book. It’s about two estranged brothers; one dies over the course of the first issue and together the two brothers form a superhero. It’s a live brother and a ghost brother, and they team up to fight crime. It has a bit of a horror slant to it, but it’s very much a superhero book.

You write a lot of horror themed books.

Well, the Walking Dead was popular, so I figured that I should stick with that one thing [laughs].

Do you want to be known as a horror writer?

No, I really don’t. I don’t want to be known as anything. I actually got spotted in Best Buy yesterday and the guy [who spotted me] said, “Hey, it’s the zombie guy!”

[both laugh]

…And I began to cry. I mean it’s really just coincidence. I do Walking Dead, which is a horror book, and then I do The Astounding Wolfman, which is a werewolf superhero book.

And you also did Marvel Zombies.

…Ok you’re right, it’s all horror and zombies.

[Laughs] I mean, were you a big horror fan growing up? You have to have been a big horror movie fan.

I am now. I don’t really know if I was while I was growing up. I wasn’t really allowed to watch them until I was like about…too old to enjoy them [laughs]. If you don’t watch the Friday the 13th movies before you’re 13, you’ll realize that they kind of suck; while if you see them at a young age you’ll think, “Oh my god! This is so coolest thing ever!”

My son will be watching them at age 8.

So, I didn’t get into watching those until I was 15. I was allowed to watch Hellraiser every Halloween. When I was younger, I would go out and rent Hellraiser one and two, so that was the only time I felt that I was able to watch an “R” rated movie.

Why Hellraiser?

I don’t know. I like the guy with the pins in his head. It looked cool in the box. It was back when kids mostly rented videos at the video store based on the cover; it wasn’t like we were watching trailers. The only way I would find out about a movie would be that little gray picture in the news paper. I remember dying to see Robocop when I was little just because of that picture of the big robot guy getting out of a police car. That movie was not very underage appropriate at all…

Robocop was awesome.

Robocop was awesome, and I did see it at a pretty early age, so it terrified me.

Really? Wow.

No, well, it terrified me like “Whoa! This is totally great!”…

I remember whenever they took off his helmet, for some reason, it freaked me out. I think it’s because his hairline went up so high.

Also because his head looked like a giant penis.

Yeah! That was fucked up. That was weird looking. I didn’t like that. I also remember walking through the video store, and the one movie that scared the shit out of me was Childs Play.

I watched that. I watched a few of those movies (don’t mean to sound so sheltered). But yeah I did. I thought it was cool…It really wasn’t. I was watching it again recently and it’s not the best movie.

Yeah, not at all. Did any of these movies scare you? Does any horror movie actually scare you right now?

The Six Sense Scared the shit out of me when it first came out. It was ridiculous. I am a bit terrified of ghosts – I don’t know why. Movies with monsters in them usually don’t scare me because – well, they’re fairly unrealistic. But the ghost stories that you hear during Halloween like: “The guy who built this house and later died in it in 1774 will be walking next to your bed tonight”. I don’t want that to happen.

So, I’m basically a sissy with this kind of stuff. My wife loves watching those Halloween themed ghost shows where it’s like, “Oh my god! This house is haunted by this ghost!”, and they have to play this creepy music. The crazy reenactments, which are usually hilarious, are almost too unsettling for me.

Really? Wow. So like Mythbusters…Ghostbusters?

Yeah, like that stuff. But you know, my mom claims that she lived in a haunted house when she was younger and she has stories about ghosts chasing people around the house and stuff. Not to say I believe in ghosts. I’ve never seen that shit.

So you might believe in ghosts…

I believe in ghosts as much as I believe in Santa Claus. I’ve never seen him, who knows?

…So, you write Walking Dead and all of these other horror books; do you ever try make them scary?

I had people tell me that the books are scary, but I don’t really see how. I know people write horror novels all the time, and I think those are scary. But I think it relies on the person’s picture in their head of what they’re seeing, which is always scarier than what they put in the movies and stuff. And also, the sense of mood and eeriness, which I guess goes more with a novel.

So, with the comic it’s all there on the page and it’s all in drawing and there’s no motion and no sound to go along with it. So, comics in general are kind of a weak medium to do horror in. I think I said that on an interview before and Steve [Niles – creator of 30 Days of Night] got all pissed off.

I agree, don’t worry [because that makes it all better?…]

I’m not saying that his book isn’t scary. He’s a nice guy. His books are very good, very entertaining, they’re very…you know.

I don’t think people read a horror comic and can’t go to bed that night. The Walking Dead is supposed to tell an entertaining story. It’s not to really supposed to scare.

I think the book is not about zombies popping out and killing people, but more about how the people would naturally react in that situation. Maybe the reason people say it’s scary is because all the characters in it are just so realistic and everything that happens could theoretically happen in that situation. So maybe it puts them so realistically in that world that it scares them.

Yeah I guess a certain investment with the characters kind of makes you fear for their lives, I can see that. Thanks!

You’re welcome. So you write a lot of zombie stuff. Big zombie fan?

I’ve written two zombie books, jerk.

[laughs] Just kidding…The guy at Best Buy did say you’re the zombie guy, though.

I’m not the zombie guy. I’m not the zombie guy…[talking to himself] I’m not the zombie guy [mantra]…

[laughs]

My two most popular projects have been zombie books [long sigh]. I really do love zombies, though. I’m a big, big fan of the Romero films from way back. I could watch them right now. I’ve seen them a billion times and they hold up. They’re vastly entertaining.

As a subgenre of horror I think zombie movies are pretty kick ass. So, when I was putting together another creator-owned book for Image I just kind of hit on the idea of doing the zombie movie that never ends.

Do you have a favorite Romero movie?

I prefer Day of the Dead

Day of the Dead? Huh, that’s interesting.

The last one, yeah. I think it has the best zombies. It’s got a really good setting, and it’s got a lot of good scenes. I don’t know, I mean they’re all fantastic.

Definitely

You know Night of the Living Dead is the classic. It’s probably got the most poignant ending. It’s a really well put together movie, I think it’s better than Dawn of the Dead. Dawn of the Dead is awesome, but the zombies look like they’re made of toothpaste. It’s fun to think about “What would I do if I had free run of the mall?” So that’s a really good movie, but I think Day of the Dead is the best one.

How’d you feel about Land of the Dead?

I liked it.

Really?

I liked it a whole hell of lot. I really dug it. I didn’t like the spinal cord zombie.

The spinal cord zombie?

It’s like “I’m walking around and my head is dangling on my back…”

[laughs]

…and then he like whips his head all around?

Yeah

…and attacks the main guy! It’s near the end when they’re getting in the car. That looked a little fake to me

 

Yeah, that would never happen!

I think it’s a good movie. I think it holds up next to the other ones. I don’t know.

Meh

I guess a lot of people didn’t like it, I know you didn’t like it.

Oh I didn’t like the smart zombie. I didn’t like the smart leader zombie. I always think those types of characters – the smart leader monsters that exist even though every single other one is really dumb. I think they’re a cop out.

My only problem with him was that he looked more like a monster and less like a zombie.

Yeah

But I can forgive that. He had established with Bub in Day of the Dead that the zombies were evolving. So this is just continuation of that so I didn’t really have a problem with it. that’s the thing that makes the Romero films as a series unique is that you know he came up with the thing of evolving zombies and you know.

Good point

Civilization reforming and stuff like that, I mean that’s kind of cool.

Yeah

If you look at it as a series it’s kind of like a neat progression. You know, if that zombie was Bub it would have been a little cooler – but, you know, whatever.

Will your zombies ever evolve?

No.

Cool

I have cribbed enough from Romero

[laughs]

But who knows, I may change my mind in twenty issues you never know. There are no plans for it right now. They are what they are and you know the books aren’t really about the zombies, so I don’t see doing a plot point that kind of centers around them like that. I don’t really see any benefit in it.

Alright that makes sense. I know you’ve been asked this a million times. But you know I guess as of now maybe…

You going to ask me about the ending or something?

Nah, I just maybe you’ve changed your mind about…

 

The origin?

Yeah.

[Kirkman laughs]

Come on!

It’s so much easier just to not have an origin.

[laughs]

Well, I mean, to a certain extent The Walking Dead is a very realistic book. Like you said: in the situation the things that happen to those people are all very realistic. Even the governor coming back and being alive. That could totally happen.

Riiight

So you’ve got that realism to the book and I think that’s what makes people respond to it like they do. Aside from the fact that zombies are running around, pretty much everything that happens in the book could really happen to these people. It gives them a relatable aspect. Explaining where the zombies came from leaves you with less options. You have to then push the book more into the vain of sci-fi. I think it’s going to hinder the realism of the book. That’s why I don’t think I’ll ever explain an origin. But who knows, maybe when the sales start plummeting…

[both laugh]

Walking Dead Origins issue one, you know?

Yeah.

I have no integrity,

[laughs] So why the hell not, right?

Yeah, but as it is right now, you know, on my high horse, I don’t see the need.

[laughs] Nice. So I wanted to switch gears over to Invincible. I love Invincible. We talk about it non-stop on our podcast. I even get crap for how much I talk about it.

Well I don’t think you’re mentioning it often enough.

[laughs] We recommend it to a lot of first-time comics readers. It has a lot of throwbacks to classics, too – for example: that like monstery Rorschach character.

Yeah, yeah that guy.

Was that your idea?

Yes of course.

Just wondering. You never know, Ottley or someone could have just thrown it in.

Oh no no no, no. Ottley has no ideas.

[laughs] Oh hey! Speaking of the art. I‘ve had an ongoing debate with my friend Ben. Is Invincible supposed to be Asian?

No…I think the answer is that when we started working on Invincible, Cory did not want to have to draw strands of hair. So everyone’s hair is just filled in black [SUCK IT, BEN!]

Heh that’s funny I didn’t notice that, I mean that makes sense. Um but it’s just he looks.

No it really doesn’t, but that’s how that happens

[laughs] So, he’s not intentionally Asian good to know. Cause it looks like….

No, no I actually hate Asian people as a rule.

Oooh ok. All right, good to know. So I mean I’ll make sure to print that and that’ll be the title.

[both laugh]

That’ll be the little byline under your name.

Yeah you’ll cut that out, right?

Uh yeah, oh yeah, we’ll cut that out,

Ugghh!

You’re about to get a bunch of shit from the Asian community.

Ok fine, I…. I’m kidding. He’s Asian.[laughs]

 

[note: this section was completely facetious and neither of us is racist. Except for Kirkman; who hates Asians.]

 

So I’ve heard you might be doing an Invincible film, is that true?

Might be. I’m not. Paramount has optioned the film.

So it’s still very pipeline, eh? Did they approach you to write it?

Yes, I have written two drafts of the screenplay. It all started in 2000…doesn’t feel like it’ll ever get made. The status of it is that it is currently just kind of sitting there. I

So, doo you have a maybe like a dream director or actor that would either direct or act in the movie?

Director or actor…for Mark I think Nicolas Cage and for the direction I think Uwe Boll. What do you think? Would that be good for me?

[laughs] think that sounds like the best film I’ve ever, I would ever see.

I think that you know, I don’t know. Whatever, Chris O’neal for uh Omni-Man. Anyone want that? I don’t know, Will Smith for Debbie. I like Will Smith.

Uh yeah that’s good just… just have Invincible be Will Smith I think.

That would be pretty awesome. And then have Will Smith also play his father. Make it like an Eddie Murphy movie.

There we go

Will Smith could also be Debbie. That’d be great.

Why don’t you… you know, why don’t you just cut out the middle man and just make it Eddie Murphy? Everyone is Eddie Murphy.

[laughs] Wow! You know you’re not getting any credit for this.

[laughs] Shit!

It’s going to be the best movie ever made and I am never going to admit that it was your idea.

Fuck. I always get fucked like that…um so…

You want a real answer or can we move on?

Real answer.

[laughs] George Clooney for Omni-Man…and I don’t know there’s some kid out there that would be a good Invincible.

So an unknown?

I like that Michael Cera guy, but I don’t know if he could pull it off. He does kind of have a bit of an Invincible demeanor about him.

Yeah I could see that.

There was a day I would have said Frankie Muniz, but that guy’s probably like 75 years old now. So…

He kind of looks like a fetus, like a walking fetus. He’s really weird looking.

[From there, we go into a thing where Kirkman starts asking ME questions. He learns a lot about my life and we make fun of Eddie Murphy some more…if anyone cares at all, you can just ask me for the full transcript. Send me an email: gilmore@geekscape.net]

Alright who would win in a fight: a Viltrumite or a Kryptonian?

Oh a Viltrumite by far.

Why?

Well first of all a Kryptonian’s really only going to have powers in a certain area of space right?

Right.

So it’d have to take place on earth. And you know, I don’t know how their powers fade, but a Viltrumite could pretty much just pick ‘em up and take them wherever and kill them. Also, if it’s a certain Kryptonian, they’re going to have the disadvantage. A Viltrumite is generally going to be able to do anything and everything to win where as Superman’s a bit of a pussy…I created Viltrumites so I have a preference.

So you could even add something that’s…

Sure, yeah and like during that fight they could be like “and we have Kryptonite hands””Holy fuck!”…Superman’s got the heat vision, though. Viltrumites don’t have that. I don’t know that the Viltrumites have ever done that blowing air thing that Superman does. So I mean [Superman has] certain abilities that they don’t have. So, I don’t know. Who knows? We’ll wait till Invincible meets Superman or whatever comes out and see… see how that works out.

I’ll be waitin’. So do you have anything else coming soon?

I’ve got another series at Image called Brit that continues from some Brit one-shots I did in… 2003? Those were recently collected into a trade paperback. Then I’ve got a new guy named Bruce Brown writing a series based on that character. So I think the fourth issue will be out very soon. So, that’s going on too.

That sounds great and we’ll look forward to your work. We’ll get it and read all of it like everyone already is.

Everyone is already reading it? Why am I doing this interview if everyone is already reading it? What a waste of my time.

I mean that nobody is reading it and you need this interview for publicity for someone to finally start reading.

[laughs] Exactly. Good job.

It was great meeting you.

Good, good chatting. It was a lot of fun. I hope it wasn’t too terrible.

It was awesome.

 

Initial transcription by Richard Lucas and Ashton Lauren. Thanks so much for your help, guys.

 

For an inquiries about interviews please contact Brian Gilmore: gilmore@geekscape.net