OK, it takes kind of a lot to get me to gush, but AMC's new series, "The Walking Dead" is an adaptation of one of my favorite graphic novels (comics)... and it's friggin' fantastic.

You really have to love zombies, which I do. But it's only been two episodes, and already I can't wait for Sunday nights. The show is filling the role that Battlestar had for me: best show on TV.

DGMW (Don't get me wrong), I like Caprica, it's interesting, but I'm not over the moon about it.

Walking Dead is a fine combo of ensemble drama and scary zombie story. It's not jump-out-of-your-skin scary, it's more a slow burn, disturbing kind of scary, like zombie pictures should be. That feeling of claustrophobia and dread when the zombies overwhelm a victim... that's what this show has in spades.

It also has the unique angle of being compassionate toward zombies, who were of course once people. I know we've all seen zombie movies where a main character, somebody's beloved turns... but this one gets you to really feel it. There's one scene where the main character, Rick Grimes, sees a pathetic half-torso of a woman crawling by her arms through a park... he returns later to put the poor creature out of its misery. A quite surprisingly powerful scene.

Another where an african american guy's wife turns zombie... and she's wandering around outside the house he's barricaded in. He just can't bring himself to off her. Great stuff.

And for basic cable? Really great stuff. Highly recommended.

I'll have to check that out. Also, I heard great things about the 3-part Sherlock Holmes adaptation that was on PBS. Anyone see that?

NO! I didn't hear anything about it. Love Sherlock.

But the Walking Dead is shaping up to be a phenomenon. AMC, after showing only two episodes, already picked it up for another season, so the ratings must be through the roof.

Have you been watching any of TCM where they've had a short feature on the ongoing restoration of "Metropolis"? It seems they found some footage in Argentina and have been able to piece together most of Fritz Lang's original version.

Footage Restored to Fritz Lang's "Metroplolis".

I have never seen "Metropolis". I will have to wait to see this full version.

I watched episode I of "The Walking Dead" last night. AMC is streaming it online. It definitely looks like any zombie fans wet dream.

I have seen Metropolis a bazillion times, including the LAST big restoration. It's one of my favorite silent pictures. I can't believe they found 25 more minutes of it. That's friggin' awesome.

Oh man, I can't wait for Sunday and The Walking Dead. I'm a zombie fan from way back. My only problem is that, because I love the graphic novel (comic), I pretty much know what's going to happen. There's one thing that happens to the main character, that I have no idea how they're going to carry off. I think they will probably just, er, cut it out.

The only thing that can pull me away from the new computer: The Walking Dead. I really can't wait.

Loves me dem zombies.

Caught a bit of this tonight. I think it was a rerun. Some black guy is in the second story of his house with a rifle picking off what looked to be Obama voters. They all had that vacant, stupefied, one-step-at-a-time stumbling zombie look to them. Some had their arms twisted and held cocked to the side like the posture of a mentally challenged person. Very funny. These were not your Harvard grad zombies, for sure. Or maybe they were.

But the old sentimental softy didn't have the heart to blow the head off of this one woman who I assumed was his wife or some relative. Looked a bit like Michelle Obama.

LMFAO!

Yes, that was the first episode. Last night was great. I thought the actor playing Merle did a bang up job. I think I know what they're going to do with his character. It's a departure from the comic, but it'll be even cooler.

The thing about the comic that is so great, is how less-is-more it is. Roughly drawn, black and white with grey in washes. Bare minimum art (except for cool zombie deaths), bare minimum writing (usually dialog only). One of my favorite panels, from early in the series.
Here's a page showing how minimal the art gets.

I don't usually advocate any peer-to-peer sharing, but you can find digital versions of the comics via bittorrent. Most digital comics are in .cbr and/or .rar format. There's an OSX comic reader called "Simple Comic" that's fairly low profile and less-is-more that will read pretty much any comic you throw at it.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: thalo,

I was thinking, I don't really get the modern fad of the girly-man vampire, although I think some of youse guys have given some plausible explanations.

And I wonder what it is about the living dead that is so intriguing. They had zombie movies back in the 40's. It's by no means a new genera. I don't think it's about wanting to live forever, or even the joy of killing monsters. Best I can determine is that REAL LIFE tends to resemble zombieland. Go to France. They are French zombies compared to how we think. Go to Iran. Same thing. Go to Jersey. Well, I won't go there because some of you may be from that area. Go to California. You definitely get zombies. Go to a devout religious congregation. Same thing. A Mac forum. Yep.

Maybe the real live (dead?) zombies of cinema make some sense. Their motives are clean and clear. They generally want to kill you. That is, they want to make YOU into one of THEM. That's it. Welcome to society in almost anyplace in the world.

I think the reason TWD was such an effective comic, was that it became more about the problems of the LIVING, who are often infinitely more savage and vicious than the zombies.

The zombies become a symbol of an unthinking mass of single-purpose horror, there is no individual expression, no reason, just danger and hunger.

But the living are left with all their foibles, their human nature, their soaring hopes and their darkest nightmares. To survive they have to reconcile self interest with group interest, without oppressing opponents, or they fail.

The title actually becomes a warning metaphor for the LIVING. Without the individual stuff, without the humanity, as dangerous and terrifying as it may be... the alternative of a shambling mass of mindless monsters is much more horrible.

I can live with that explanation. Or un-live with it. Whatever. What do you think are the best zombie movies?

I think "The Night of the Living Dead" is magnificent. "Dawn of the Dead" (1978) is almost as magnificent.

"Planet Terror" is still the best movie ever made, lol.

"Let Sleeping Corpses Lie" (1974) This is a personal favorite. The first zombie movie I ever saw in a theater.

"Dead Snow" is a brand new Nazi zombie movie that's funny and great.

"Dead Alive" funny as hell. You will never eat vanilla pudding again.

"Shaun of the Dead" also funny, a charming campy brit zombie movie

I'll check that comic out via .cbr files. I downloaded the reader now to take the time to find the files. I also gotta boot into 10.5 because that seems to be the minimum requirement of the reader.

This page has the TWD cbr files by issue via Rapidshare or Megaupload.

Start with issue #1 of course, because it's a serial. I think the series is up to issue #78 now.

Thanks. I look forward to taking a look at the first few issues at the very least.

Is it okay to talk about this series even if I don't love it?

I watched last week's episode last night and about 1/2 of the new one. Some of the subtle humor is hilarious. They're sending the Asian guy out to retrieve the guns. The one guys says something like, "Gotta hand it to those Chinese. They got balls." And the Asian guys says "I'm Korean." There was also a great line that Merle's brother throws at Jeffrey DeMunn. It was something like, "Take off that 'On Golden Pond' hat and do something useful." I obviously don't remember the exact dialogue.

But, good god, shove a fork into my eye when all those women are sitting around talking about their "war stories." If I wanted to watch Oprah, I'd watch Oprah. It seems to me this series is too much a typical "relationship" series instead of a zombie series. I eyeroll so bad at that stuff. I really don't give a rip that this one woman slept with another guy because she thought her husband was dead. I kept thinking this was just the typical "Airport" disaster movie with zombies.

But this series does have its moments. I love when all the women are sitting around the lake doing the washing and they're wondering about the division of labor. One of the women says, "That's just the way it is." And then of course (and I can't say I saw this coming but it makes sense in context) the one guy a few moments later gets the living bejeezus punched out of his face by the other guy (who definitely had a case of blue balls) for manhandling the women. To me, that was political correctness snuck in. They should have left the "women's work" thing hanging without trying to immediately counterbalance it.

I would have worked on the handcuffs a little longer before sawing my arm off. But that's just me.

Have you had a chance to look at any of the comics? Some of the fireside "war story" chat stuff is right from those. And one of my favorite laugh-out-loud moments from the comics is that the women go on and on blah blah blah, and they get to Jim and he says:

quote:

Mechanic.

Brilliant.

This is definitely a zombie soap opera, rather than a campy gorefest like "Planet Terror." Much more pathos and interpersonal/survival themes. There is a baseline humor at even putting those things together, but I feel it works. It makes it interesting that sometimes the most terrifying creatures are the living.

Haven't looked at the comics. Something tells me I would like that. I just saw that I can convert ".cbr" files to work on the Kindle. Being a black-and-white comic, that might work. I have to boot into Leotard to get the comic viewer working. And I just might do that. I've downloaded it. But my main work setup is in 10.4 so I don't often make it to 10.5. I'm going to download a .cbr file from that link you gave and see if I can view it on the Kindle.

What a pain in the ass to get some .cbr files. But the MegaUpload finally worked for me. It crashed Safari trying the second one. Couldn't get "Bits on Wheels" to download the torrent versions. What torrent downloader do you guys use?

Now trying to use Calibre to convert to mobi format for the Kindle. Say that three times fast.