|
|
Post by defiant1 on Nov 18, 2010 17:20:59 GMT -5
This isn't what I remember reading in the first hardcover at the comic book store. Regardless, I read it again. My thinking is "Yawn". It just moves too slowly and as G said, these are not the things I'd be discussing or the things I'd be doing. To me, it's just a huge leap to capture this chain of events and record it in a story as the most important events in his life. I'd be evaluating the infrastructure first. Phone, power, food sources, gasoline etc. I'd be doing that before I got out of the hospital. If that was a lost cause, I'd be collecting a backpack of necessities and tools. Guns are not the most important things he needs. Shelter, food and water are. They are far too laid back and the smile or two I saw just disturbed me as being out of place. I would not be complacent. Every word out of my mouth would be "what happened." If the guy could not give details, I'd be asking for a backtrack of the chain of events. Plausibility is a huge factor in a story for me. On a scale of 1 to 5, this is just a 2.5 for me. It's just conversation for the sake of conversation. It's visuals for the sake of visuals. I'm not shoked or horrified, but I get the impression that all the dead people were supposed to evoke that emotion. I don't like looking at characters and thinking, "why are you acting this way." A story needs to make more sense than this. It needs to enlighten, educate, inspire me a little more than this. I think someone said that a story has a beginning and an end and the middle must involve a change. Since I don't relate to the characters and the way they act in the beginning, it's hard to care how or why the story changes them. Reading this story does not make me want to pick up the second issue. I did see the movie Zombieland. I relate a hell of a lot more to the guy in that movie looking for twinkies and food. I won't say the movie excited me, but it did have more going on. Again though, zombies aren't my cup of tea. Explain how the zombies are animated and coming to life in a plausible manner and I might be a tad bit more vested in what is transpiring. Blind acceptance or this horror-fantasy setting just isn't my cup of tea. It definitely leans towards a fantasy type of story and I don't like fantasy. That's why I'm not a Star Wars geek. Give me something based on Phillip K. Dick's novels in a heartbeat over this. Give me something that makes me think. This is like a slow motion kiddie ride at some amusement park.
df1
|
|
|
|
Post by bigw1966 on Nov 18, 2010 18:46:39 GMT -5
As a first issue, aside from the cornyness of dialogue, it still had enough mystery to make someone buy the next one. Also, Kirkman was already a hit though with Battle Pope and Invincible (which is a great book) so people already had a predetermined idea of what to expect from him. except that this stuff plays a lot different than his other work. This really delves into human psyche.
Resident Evil did a similar thing to the standard zombie fare which is either evil corporation or Government screwup.
In the show, the first issue plays out pretty much in the show. The part with the zombie torso that he sheds a tear for, that was pretty dramatic on the show. just for what it meant to him. He also gets the same explanation from the dad and kid.
The people he meets in the camp get really fleshed out...so to speak. Most of the first six issues are building them up. That and doing crazy intense crap.
If episode 6 ends the same way that issue 6 does, its going to knock people out.
|
|
|
|
Post by Joe on Nov 19, 2010 8:20:03 GMT -5
I watched the first 3 episoded on AMC...I like it. I was concerned because it is somewhat of a cliche topic but I think they nailed it.
The tank scene at the end of episode 1 hooked me. This was not in the comic. ;D
One thing I find pretty funny for almost all zombie moves/comics:
Nobody knows a zombie when they see one. The idea of a zombie never existed prior to the event that caused them. If I saw a zombie in RL I would scream "ZOMBIE!!" and run...lol.
The dialogue in the first comic was slightly awkward but I moved past that with my imagination. I am willing to bend at times for the sake of the story. Page 20 drove me almost insane though:
You take that one on the left. It doesn't run as good as the one I'm taking but it'll run better than that hatchback your'e driving. If I'm going to make it all the way to Atlanta I'm going to need the newer one.
And then he proceeds to tell him not to put many miles on it because they will need it back later...LoL
I am really not sure how this adds to the story but maybe it will be addressed in future issues. Either way, I feel it should have been written better.
The art is pretty good and it was worth the read.
|
|
|
|
Post by G on Nov 19, 2010 9:05:02 GMT -5
Yeah, that was another dumb line. I'm giving you a car to steal because you know, you might need it with all these zombies around and it'll be faster than your clunker, but don't put too many miles on it because this deserted town might need it back. I think they've got bigger issues than worrying about getting a cop car back. Like namely, they're ain't no real people left in town. I'm sure if everyone could peacefully come back, they can worry about their cop car then.
|
|
|
|
Post by G on Nov 19, 2010 9:06:04 GMT -5
Also, homey makes a nice recovery from the gunshot wound once he makes his way out of the hospital.
|
|
|
|
Post by bigw1966 on Nov 19, 2010 10:43:10 GMT -5
defient, I hear what your saying, but honestly you may think you would do all of those things, but in reality, you would be so confused at finding all that stuff without prior knowledge that you woldn't do much of anything except rely on instinct. You would look around. You would try to contact someone by phone but the phones are out. It may just be in the hospital though. so you make your way outside and start hoofing it towards home. Lots of devestation but no people to give you any real information. The first zombie you see is half of one that at first looks like a dead body until it moves. this freaks you out but that doesn't mean that you suddenly realize your in the zombie apocalypse. It doesn't mean that your Rambo/Teminator action movie tough guy persona takes over and you are suddenly able to handle any situation. Nope, your just more freaked out and going through denial that what you just saw was a dead person moving around. Because as you yourself stated, Zombies by their nature are pretty implausible. And no they could not exist as re-animated corpses rigidity would set in within an hour of loss of bloodflow. Muscle atrophy wold take care of the rest. so when he is giving the car to the other guy but tells him not to put to many miles on it, its his mind realizing things are not the same anymore, but his unconcious mind living in denial and thinking that somebody somewhere is working on fixing it. Which is explained easily by him thinking that the Military has Atlanta secured causing him to be ready to rush on out to find the fam. The guy explained why he stayed put by telling that the media went down in a couple of weeks and everything was pure chaos. Regarding the cheesy dialogue. Its cheesy because it is pretty true to life. We say cheesy shit all the time. Life is not scripted. We don't always have snappy dialogue ready to go. We are people who grow up on pop culture and fantasy, so we tend to be pretty cheesy. So it makes the dialogue more real. Bottom line is you shouldn't look at the beginning of the story as if you would automatically have every answer ready to go if you were in that situation. I mean, I am pretty quick, but even I would be freaked out a bit if it were me. joe; Yeah the tank was a nice add on to the downed horse scene. It also helped to set up Glenn's snarky personality. Which is caused mainly by his attempts at coping with the situation. |
|
|
|
Post by G on Nov 19, 2010 11:31:49 GMT -5
Unfortunately Mike, I'll say the story itself aint bad and it may warrant reading more to see if it actually turns out decent or not. But personally, I think the dialogue is bad, not because this is the way we talk, but because it's just plain cheesy. You know we've all seen better than this....
|
|
|
|
Post by defiant1 on Nov 19, 2010 12:35:13 GMT -5
I am quite confident that the "freak out" reaction would not overpower a self-preservation reaction as soon as I saw a lack of normal people walking around.
I stand by my first assessment.
Even if you factor that this guy would respond differently, I still find his actions implausible. I classify this as horror-fantasy and I don't care for fantasy based stories.
I saw Skyline last week and was disappointed that the movie had no foundation of science backing the story up. I classify it as horror-science-fantasy. Fantasy writers don't care about how things work or how things happen. They just throw ideas out and ask people to believe. A leap of faith or a suspension of reality is something that works maybe once or twice in a story. After that, the story just starts looking lame.
df1
|
|
|
|
Post by defiant1 on Nov 19, 2010 12:38:31 GMT -5
Also, homey makes a nice recovery from the gunshot wound once he makes his way out of the hospital. That is unbelievably common in fiction these days. A character is mortally wounded one moment and up to full functionality 10 minutes later. I still laugh about the heroine in one of the AvP movies walking around on the Ross ice shelf of Antarctica in a tank top at the end of the movie. So much fiction out there is utterly stupid. df1 |
|
joe
Selected for an Interview
Posts: 45
I Am Offline!
|
Post by joe on Nov 19, 2010 13:21:51 GMT -5
I think it is great that we are talking about what we would do in a zombie attack..LOL
Would you kill all the zombies you see or save them hoping for a cure?
If I was trapped in the department store with little to no ammo I would resort to dropping coat racks and stuff off the roof onto the zombies..I would be a busy guy clearing the city..lol
|
|
