Book Review: The Walking Dead: Fall of the Governor part 2

It should come as no surprise to anyone reading this blog that I’m a fan of the Walking Dead franchise; whether in comic, television show, novel or video game form, I find the characters compelling and the storylines fascinating. Taking a quick search on my blog I’ve found at least a dozen posts focusing on various aspects of the franchise, so to read more of my opinions, just search “The Walking Dead” in the little search window on the upper-left-hand corner of my blog and get cracking.

Today I’m going to talk about The Walking Dead: The Fall of the Governor part 2, by Robert Kirkman and Jay Bonansinga, the fourth and final novel they co-wrote about the popular villain character, The Governor, and his town of Woodbury.

First things first, although I’m sure the books could be read on their own without any previous knowledge of either the television series or the comics, but I would strongly recommend reading the comics first. Knowing how the events surrounding Woodbury and The Governor ahead of time made the read (for me), but more tense, as I knew how things were going to turn out, but from an entirely different point of view.

In the main series The Governor is an incredibly charismatic, but deadly person, pretty much from the beginning (I can definitely see why the character was dressed differently in the TV series, as he looks pretty villainous in the comics), but there is very little knowledge given about how he, or the currently existing town of Woodbury came about since the beginning of the undead outbreak. These four novels work to fill in those gaps, to make the characters written off as villains much more three dimensional and in more than a few cases, really tragic.

Although I wouldn’t necessarily recommend them for newcomers to the franchise, for fans of the comic there is a lot to offer here, and for fans of the TV series a very different view of how the events of season three and four could have gone down.

Waiting on the Governor

I knew it had a release date of February 17, 2014, so rather than try to push through it at the end of February, I scheduled it for my March horror selection.

The latest book in The Walking Dead, The Fall of the Governor Part II.  I special ordered it from my local comic book store and waited.  Now here I am, March 19 (over a month later), and I'm still living without the book.

Not that I need the book to live - actually I read these and then they get re-gifted to a friend, so it doesn't even get added to my own collection, I just really enjoy reading them.

They take the story I know (based on the comics, rather than the TV series - which I'm also digging!), of the small town of Woodbury, and its leader The Governor, and tells it from another point of view.

On the positive(?) side, my local library still lists the book as "On Order" so at least no one else around here is reading it ahead of me - but as March begins to slip by, I'm becoming more and more sure that this story will end up being my April Horror selection and I'll end up picking something else out to scare me this month.

The Walking Dead is Back!

Although I've spent a lot of my last month working my way through various films nominated for the Best Picture Oscars (8 down, 1 to go - I'm looking at you Nebraska) today marks the return of one of my current favourite television shows currently on the air.

The Walking Dead is back!

Tonight's episode had me pretty excited as it's quite (sorry, mild spoiler here) Carl-focused, which is really nice, because the story of this kid growing up in a world overrun by zombies is one of the more intriguing ones to me.

Anyway, although I'm enjoying the various Oscar-nominated films a lot (haven't found one I regret yet - also go see Gravity in theatres if it is at all possible for you to do), there is something really great about being able to look forward to some great quality television.

Fables or Zombies? What's a Bookmonkey to do?

Sometimes a Christmas present can be a double-edged sword - not literally (well, yes, technically I suppose you could get a double-edged sword for Christmas, but that's not what I meant), but metaphorically, like the $20 Playstation Network gift card stocking stuffer I received.

The problem is, there are actually two games I'd like to get.  A few months ago I did a post on the Telltale game The Walking Dead which I really loved - a game focused less on the run and jump aspect of the majority of video games and instead on building trust and relationships was a really neat idea, and one of my favourite gaming experiences of 2013.

So then when I found out the same company was creating a new game based on the Vertigo series Fables (which is one of my favourite comic book series, period), I got pretty excited.  Early reviews were really positive and you get to play as Fabletown's sherrif, Bigby Wolf (who I've posted about here) and I've always been a sucker for the world created by Bill Willigham.

So things looked pretty simple, spend my $20, get a Fables game - awesome.  Only then I found out that Telltale games was releasing a second season of The Walking Dead and this time you get to play as Clemintine (the girl that the main character works to protect in the first game), so now I'm in a tricky place:

Do I pick the Fables, or the Zombies...

Genre Character of the Week: Lee Everett

Over the last few weeks I've worked my way through the five episodes that made up the 2012 video game, The Walking Dead.  Unlike pretty much every other zombie game I've ever played, the 2012 game, created by TellTale Games focuses almost entirely on the interactions between people in a world based on Robert Kirkman's comic book series, The Walking Dead.  In the game, you play a character, and this week's Genre Character, named Lee Everett (voiced by Dave Fennoy).

It's tricky to say why I like the character of Lee so much, as the way he acts and reacts in the game was pretty much up to me - rather than focusing on how many zombies you can kill, the game changes the focus to how you (as Lee) deal with a number of other survivors and try to either get along with them, ignore them, or act horrible towards them.

The first person you meet in the game (after the zombies take over) is a young girl named Clementine (voiced by Melissa Huchison), and together the characters travel across Georgia in an attempt to stay alive in a world overrun by the walking dead.

For my first time through the game, I basically looked towards the kid and whatever she seemed to like was the way my character chose to act - it seemed like kind of a strange way to go through the game, but at the same time, I felt pretty good being honest to this kid throughout the horrible events of the game.

If you've never tried a zombie game before, I would highly recommend it, and as very little of the game requires you to move with lightning speed, even newcomers to video games should be able to navigate their way through the game.

Season Review: The Walking Dead Season 3

Okay, my wife and I just finished the mid-season finale of season three of The Walking Dead and it was pretty freaking awesome.

Obvious spoilers to follow.

Unlike a lot of folks out there, I actually liked the second season, yes it was slower, yes it all happened at a single location, but you know what, I really liked the opportunity it gave for character development throughout.

Season three starts a few months after season two and zombie killing stated less than a minute into the first episode.  As a long-time fan of the comic book series, I was thrilled that this season finally gets the group to the prison and introduces the characters of Michonee and The Governor (one I love, the other I love to hate).

Throughout this season I really enjoyed the juxtaposition between the nasty people living in the lovely town of Woodbury and the nice people living in a nasty (and still partially zombie infested) prison.

I'm really enjoying where the show seems to be taking the characters and was happy that the series kept one of my favourite parts from the comic (Rick and the phone call).

I know I've got a couple months to wait before the season continues, but so far I'm really happy with the third season.

Season Review: The Walking Dead Season 2

Last night my wife and I finished watching the second season of The Walking Dead.

Oh yeah - Mild spoilers ahead.

So season two could basically be considered the Farmhouse season - which honestly was fine with me. After the amazing (but obviously super-expensive) first season which involved a zombie-infested Atlanta, I actually thought going smaller worked.

I wasn't a big fan of the season split however (where the first half of the season aired from October through December and then we were treated to a large break followed by new episodes in February), but mostly that is due to my fear that the second season will be split up for the DVD sales.

As with the first season, I was thrilled with the acting, the look and the zombie effects, and as a long-time reader of the original comic, I found it pretty interesting to see where the story changed and where it stayed the same.

If zombies are not your thing, I'd probably stay away from the series, but if you like a little scare on TV, this might be right up your alley.

I can't wait for season three this fall!

Things I've Noticed: 2011 was a good year for genre

Happy New Years Everyone (a little early, but my next post would be a little late).

As we move towards the end of 2011, rather than looking forward to the new genre films and stories of 2012, I want to take a quick moment and look back at my favourite stuff from 2011.

In Fantasy, 2011 was definitely the year of Game of Thrones, from those with the cash to get HBO I heard a lot of great things about the series, but I'll have to wait until it's available on DVD to make a judgement of my own. Personally I'll always think of 2011 Fantasy as the year of Thor, whether in the comic series I read in the spring, or in the motion picture. In addition, a special mention for Bill Willingham's Peter & Max, a tie-in novel to his comic book series Fables which I loved, and surprisingly a nod to the Gallager Pub trilogy of romance novels by Nora Roberts that I read for one of my book clubs (romance is definitely not a genre of choice for me) and totally fell in love with.

In Horror, 2011 was my year to understand the remimagining of slasher films that has kept horror in the cinema for the last decade. Looking at the books I most enjoyed, Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead, Tim Seeley's Hack/Slash, and a number of non-fiction works about the genre definitely stood out, and in movies my favourite two were both horror comedies, Fright Night and Tucker & Dale vs. Evil.

Finally in Science Fiction I found a lot in comic book series that totally amazed me; Starman by James Robinson may perhaps sit as my favourite superhero comic to date, and a series I just started in December Elephantmen by Richard Starkings was a stand out as a wonderfully drawn and intriguing look at a future in which human-animal hybrids are raised to be warriors. Although they came out earlier, 2011 was the year I read The Hunger Games series and out of new stories, Stephen King's 11/22/63 was a personal favourite as well. Also Dead Space gives me hopes for the sub-genre of Zombies in Space.

So there you go, my 2011 in genre stories, television and film. Thanks for taking the time to check out my blog and I'll see you all next year.

Bookmonkey

Things I've Noticed: The More Anticipated the book, the less time to read it

Over the last couple days I've been working on the novel The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor by Robert Kirkman and Jay Bonansinga. I ordered the book from my local comic book store a few months back and shifted things around so I could read it as soon as I got it added to my collection.

The thing is, it seems that the more I anticipate reading a title, the less time I actually have for reading it. Considering I read more than half a dozen books a month, it always seems that whichever book I look most forward to reading, the more busy my life tends to get.

Case in point, over the last few weeks I read the Starman Omnibus six volume collection by James Robinson (now don't get me wrong, I totally enjoyed that series and strongly recommend it here, but the books sat on my shelf for months - or in some cases years while I waited to own the entire collection), and overall things were going pretty smooth; I was on top of my assignment for my course, things were going good at both home and work and I moved through that series at a pretty good clip (roughly ninety comic issues in about five days).

Since I started this newest book, I've had a massive workload increase (both at my job and at school), people continue to walk up and chat with me every time I crack open the book (and yes, of course I stop reading to chat with people - I passed out of my moody, "Leave me alone I'm READING!!!" phase a few years back), and a pretty terrible snow storm added to a crowded bus ride home mean that I've had no time to read on my commute for the last couple days.

People often talk about a work/life balance, but for me there is a work/life/reading balance that requires extra work, and until I have that balance perfected, I will just have to resign myself to the fact that the books I'm most interested in reading will end up taking me three or four times the amount of time to read that all of my other books do.

Series Review: The Walking Dead

My wife and I finished watching the first season finale of The Walking Dead about fifteen minutes ago and as a huge fan of the comic series I have to say, This show is awesome!

I love the fact that the television adaptation goes in its own way, making this surprising for fans of the comics but stays true to the key relationships in the original story, that of Rick's immediate family (his wife and son) and then his extended family of fellow survivors outside of Atlanta in the wake of a zombie apocalypse.

This series was definitely horror, giving me both tension and gore, as well as great characters and some very haunting visuals. Trying to give only mild spoilers is a little difficult, but I love how much story they packed into these six episodes. We watched the pilot, then took two weeks off and watched episodes two and three back to back and tonight we watched the final three, I like watching a lot of shows on a weekly basis, but the tension was so effective with this show I needed to pack the episodes a little closer for my own well being.

Do I want to own this show - heck yes! Do I recommend it to anyone who likes horror (or my favourite horror sub-genre post-apocalyptic horror)? Absolutely. Considering how graphic the source material is, I wasn't sure a television adaptation would do it justice, but just a few minutes into the pilot and I was blown away by how true to the source material the show was.

This show was great, my only problem is that I'm going to have a long wait until season two.

Things I've noticed: Sometimes Less is More

Last Sunday my wife and I watched the second and third episodes of The Walking Dead, and in the preview of the next episode our narrator began by stating “With only three more episodes left...” which means season one will be six episodes in total.

Although I’ve always been a fan of having lots of things I like (Star Trek, Coffee, Novelty Mugs - or all three, pictured right), I have to admit that I like the idea of the season only being six episodes.

As I’m working my way through the backlog of TV Seasons on DVD I own, I have to admit that the Showtime/HBO/FX series, which all tend to have 8 – 12 episode seasons, are far simply to watch and tend to be higher quality per episode than the 26 episode seasons of mainstream network television. I’m still happy to watch a good 26 episode season (I’m still working towards Millennium season 3), but the concise, tightly packed seasons of say True Blood or Dexter tend to have a bigger wow-factor for me.

As a quick note – I am LOVING The Walking Dead at the moment, it is both really good drama and really, really freaky. Just thinking about poor Merle Dixon up on that roof gives me the heebie jeebies (and for the series to make me feel anything for such a horrible character – played amazingly by Michael Rooker – just goes to show how well they are doing at telling me a captivating story.)

In the end, although I love big, sprawling epics, there is definitely something to be said for a tightly packed, well-paced series that keeps it to a dozen episodes or less per season.

First Impressions: The Walking Dead

Last night my wife and I watched the pilot of the new AMC series The Walking Dead, and I've got to say it was pretty awesome. Here are my key impressions of the show:

1) The show works as horror! Having just spent a month reading and viewing a "horror" series involving both vampires and werewolves, I was ready for something that might actually scare me and The Walking Dead delivered. From the opening sequence to the escape from the hospital and the exploration of Atlanta, this show had me pretty freaked out.

2) The acting was great, Andrew Lincoln stars as Rick Grimes, a deputy Sheriff and a man who has woken up into a terrifying new world. I bought the portrayal completely and I am a pretty big fan of both the comic series that inspired the show and the character specifically.

3) The zombie effects were amazing - feature film quality stuff. I was consistently impressed by just how good everything looked, from the abandoned cities to the creatures themselves.

Overall the show was pretty amazing and yes, I will watching the entire series.

Things I've noticed: The new genre TV lineup is getting lean

Last year with the end of Lost, the networks were filled with possible replacements – from Flashforward to V and The Witches of Eastwick to The Vampire Diaries, there were a lot of new television series with a significant Genre focus.

This year there are just a handful (to my knowledge, be sure to correct me if I’m wrong); No Ordinary Family on ABC, Lost Girl on Showcase (a specialty cable network up here in Canada), The Walking Dead on AMC, and possibly The Event on NBC (Although if they are a genre show, they are playing it really close to the vest – I guess we won’t know for sure until the pilot airs).

There is a deluge of Police and Legal shows this year (as compared to last years overwhelming Medical offers), and although there are a number of these shows I want to check out (most notably Terriers on FX, but I’ll have to wait for the DVD), I am starting to feel like the offerings for genre fans are starting to get pretty lean.

I guess it’s good in a way, as it lets me focus on the massive backlog of genre shows I’ve got on my shelves and still haven’t got around to (I’m still at season seven of The X-Files, and I’m really hoping to watch both the original Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits someday too), but like with any genre fan, I wish there were more shows specifically made for me!

Hmmm... (The sound of Bookmonkey imagining a bored TV executive coming across his blog and deciding to base a show on the things this blogger talks about – and yes that is a specific sound – the sounds and behaviours of the bookmonkey are a sadly underrepresented science!)

Executive: Perhaps if we made a show focusing on storyline and intriguing concept mixed with well thought out story arcs and perhaps nods to classic genre stories of the past... matching this with any number of up and coming actors, with a significant Canadian percentage... yes, I believe this show could definitely be created at a reasonable charge and it would impress one lone Canadian blogger (and possibly the readers of his blog), we will call it, The Wisdom of Bookmonkey – quick let’s send this blogger an offer to option his blog!

...or maybe I’ll just have to wait and see which of the new shows I’ll like best like everyone else.

Keeping on top of Genre, The Monthlies

Keeping on top of genre news once a month comes down to reading some magazines and visiting some web sites. Basically I like to think of it as genre maintenance.

First off the magazines - I collect Realms of Fantasy and Cemetery Dance - this keeps me up-to-date with most Fantasy and Horror news out there, but for SF I haven't actually found a magazine that works for me yet (any suggestions would be welcome). Both of these magazines have sections that update new movies, books, games, and even comics that relate to their fields, so by taking a quick look once a month, I can see some of the newer stuff out there that I might otherwise miss.

The first website I check out on a monthly basis is Previews, which is basically a catalogue of upcoming comic book releases. You can search for monthly releases via publisher (for comics), sections (like toys, calendars, or RPGs), or even a helpful Staff Picks section. My local comic book store takes orders from Previews by the 23rd of each month, so I have a good excuse to check out what's new - This month I ordered the newest Walking Dead trade paperback and a comic called Mouse Guard: Fall 1152.

The other website I check out each month is TV Shows on DVD which is basically exactly as advertised; they have a release schedule for soon to be released shows (it tends to run about 5 months ahead) which allows me to plan out which series I plan on getting for the next couple months - as I don't have cash for everything I have to keep it down to one every other month - the next one I'm looking forward to is True Blood, season 2 which gets released in late May.

So there you have it, my monthly schedule for keeping on track.

Bookmonkey's Top 5 Current Comic Series

I'm one of those people who likes to wait until a comic, novel, or television series are finished before I start buying them. I want to see where the story ends before I decide that it needs to be on my shelf, but certain comics are so good I can't wait. Although I love reading super hero comics, they make up a pretty small part of my overall collection.

Here are my top five currently published comic series that I'm snapping up as they come out (in graphic novel format).

5. The Dark Tower

Okay, this is the one I actually buy issue by issue but the reasons are pretty simple. The Dark Tower series of novels by Stephen King is possibly my favourite genre series of all time (Sorry LOTR, but you come a very close second). The series is written by Peter David and illustrated by Jae Lee. It works to fill in the gaps between the novel series and although I've had a problem with Lee's art in the past - it fits this series so well I am consistently blown away by it. If your a fan of the novels, check out the comics, they are simply that good.

4. Fables

You have to read this series. Bill Willingham is simply an amazing storyteller. Take all of your common knowledge of nursery rhymes, fairy tales, fantasy books and myths, then turn it into a series that is by turns violent, wonderful, epic, sensual, urban, hilarious, and a war story and you begin to get the idea of how good this series is. In addition, the spin-off series Jack of Fables, is also incredible. I'm not even sure why you are still reading my recommendation, go and read this now.

3. The Walking Dead

Last week I talked about how the protagonist of this series is one of my favourites in horror fiction. The series does exactly what I want to know after every zombie film - What next? Where does this go? What happens six months later. This series is pretty grim, what with all the zombies, but there is also a lot of hope in it, and for me hope is a pretty big part of what I like in any story. I just read that the series is being made into a TV show for AMC next year, and as I'm a fan of both of their other big shows (Mad Men and Breaking Bad), I am really jazzed about how they will adapt this amazing series.

2. Hellboy / BPRD

In a way, part of why I like these series is the same as why I'm a fan of Fables - they take classic folklore and give it a modern twist. Hellboy is simply an incredible character. I think I decided on loving this series when I read the two-page story, Pancakes, which shows a defining moment in the characters life, when he chose good over evil. The stories are incredible, the artwork is amazing (although BPRD's takes a little getting used to), and the graphic novels are actually decently priced (thanks Dark Horse!). The movie adaptations are great, but the original material is fan-freaking-tastic.

1. Scott Pilgrim

All right, I'll admit it, a huge part of why I love this series is because I'm Canadian. It takes a basic story (young man growing into adulthood and finding his first love) and then adds in the fact that in this world, if you date a girl you must battle each of her evil ex-boyfriends - in seriously awesome, martial arts battles. The series owes a lot to manga for its style and is incredibly funny. Scott's world is so well developed you end up caring for all of his friends and their stories too. Simply put, this is my current favourite comic book.

Genre Character of the Week: Rick Grimes

This week I thought I would start looking at some of the many characters I love from genre fiction. As I focused on a personal favourite from SF last week, and as Halloween is a mere three days away, it's time to focus on one of my favourites in horror.

From the horror comic series The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman, Officer Rick Grimes, represents, to me anyway, one of the better role models when it comes to surviving a zombie apocalypse. Waking up in a hospital in the first issue, Rick is dropped head-first into the horrors that this new zombie-ruled world has in store for him. Over the more than 60 issues of this series (it is still ongoing) Rick continually, although not voluntarily, stands up for his small band of survivors and does everything he can to ensure their survival. This guy is simply a blue-collar every-man who is trying to do the best he can in one of the worst situations in genre fiction.

I find there is a lot about Rick I can relate to; he's married, a parent, likes to be proactive in problem solving - rather than simply running from the zombies he looks for a safe long-term location to live, and his solution makes perfect sense from a zombie-defence point of view. Although I am not a police officer, the main character as protector is easy to relate to as a dad, and the importance of getting people to work together is something that I think is relatable to most people.

In the end, Rick goes through more than I would ever, EVER want to go through. He does things for his family I only hope I could do if the world ever went to hell, but I think that is his greatest appeal, a regular guy who does everything he can to protect the people he loves.

Bookmonkey's Top Five Scary Comic books

As we get closer to Halloween I try to read or see some new scary stuff as much as I can. This is the one month of the year where you can proudly read all sorts of horrific titles on the bus and nobody minds. My biggest problem is actually selecting which stuff to read as there is so much of it out there. My solution - categories.

Two weeks ago I looked at the 5 horror novel classics I figure everyone should check out, today I'm going to look at comic books. So here goes, my five favourite horror titles in comic books:

5. Arkham Asylum, by Grant Morrison and Dave McKean

This comic was actually the first graphic novel I ever purchased. Flipping through it on the shelf at the comic store, I was simply in awe of the artwork; Dave McKean's painted panels freaked the hell out of me, each character looked different than the standard comic book versions but way WAY scarier. The basic idea is that the inmates at Arkham have taken over the Asylum and will only see reason if Batman comes to play. This story is a little hard to read, as each characters word balloons are very different, but believe me, it is totally worth a visit (or revisit) for Halloween.

4. Swamp Thing #1:Saga of the Swamp Thing, by Alan Moore

Really all I can say here (because if you haven't read it I am not going to wreck it) is issue 21 "The Anatomy Lesson." Go get Saga of the Swamp thing #1 (issues 20-27) and start reading. This is some of the freakiest, scariest stuff I have ever come across and for you first time readers I am completely envious of you, this stuff is simply comic gold.

3. Sandman, by Neil Gaiman

Like probably half of the comic book readers who started in the early '90s, this is were I started too. These books are so good I have difficultly trying to break it down into a synopsis. I think my friend Mike described it best as saying "In every issue there is at least one panel that I would classify as Nightmare batter." From Serial Killer conventions to the Cuckoos to the Devil himself, this comic has it all.

2. The Walking Dead, by Robert Kirkman

I started purchasing this series for my brother-in-law Jeff as he is a big fan of zombie stories, but while they were sitting in my house waiting for his birthday or Christmas to come around I would take a peak, and then another, and then I got hooked. Done entirely in Black and White, these comics go beyond the end of every zombie film you've ever seen and attempt to answer the question "What happens next?" I've been following the survivors of this zombie plague for the last five years and I don't want it to end!

1. Hellblazer, by Jamie Delano

This comic is one of my favourite titles over all, but with one simple rule. Read the comic issue by issue, rather than purchasing the graphic novels. I'm not exactly sure of what DC is trying to do here, each graphic novel is a collected story, but there isn't actually any attempt to label them vol. 1, 2, 3, etc. so if you want the whole story of this very broken, talented bastard, you will have to read them issue by issue. Frustrating, expensive, but totally worth it, as hands down Hellblazer is the scariest comic I've ever read.

So now that you have my top five, how about the rest of you? Any scary comics I should be reading? I'm always looking for more.