The Walking Dead, Vol. 10: What We Become by Robert Kirkman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was a step down from the past few volumes, but only a small step. There was a little too much whining from Dale and a little too much talking about how much Rick has changed. We did see a certain character return that I had been hoping to see again, so that was good.
The Walking Dead, Vol. 9: Here We Remain by Robert Kirkman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I really enjoyed this volume. It starts out focusing mostly on Rick and Carl, but other characters come in later. We find out the fates of the characters that we were unsure of at the end of the last volume and we meet some new ones. It seemed mostly like a setup volume, but it was still great.
The Walking Dead, Vol. 8: Made to Suffer by Robert Kirkman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Another great volume. It started out in the Governor’s camp right after our survivors escaped and showed the intervening time from their point of view. It quickly got the point where the last volume ended. There was a lot of action and the death toll was high. The fates of a lot of characters are up in the air. Once again, I can see elements that the TV show borrowed but changed up a little. My goal is to get caught up on the comics before the show resumes in February.
The Walking Dead, Vol. 7: The Calm Before by Robert Kirkman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
It’s been well over a year since I read volume 6. I had trouble remembering what was going on, but I enjoyed it overall. It did well at continuing the story along, but I feel it was mostly setup for what’s going to happen in the next issue [I just looked up and saw the title of this volume]. There was something here that just happened in the season 3 premier of the show, only to a different character. It has a nice cliffhanger that makes me want to read the next volume soon.
My first Comic-Con was a blast. I had so much fun. I got to meet people in person that I had only known online before, go to plenty of panels, see some celebrities up close, and do a little partying at night. It’s definitely something I intend to do again one day.
I did a lot of reading before the event on what to expect. Yes, I had all the supplies that I needed and I was expecting plenty of waiting and little sleeping. Even so, Comic-Con is something you have to experience for yourself before you can fully understand what it’s like. I was overwhelmed at times by all the people, the walking, the long lines, and trying to get so much done in so little time. It was a little stressful. I don’t mind big crowds. I kind of like being in a large crowd of people. However, I got frustrated sometimes when I had to walk 10-20 minutes in the wrong direction while carrying a backpack and a bag of swag just to find the end of the line. Then I had to go in the right direction for however long until I got to where I was going. I got so much exercise that I didn’t feel bad about missing gym time. I was back for 5 days before the soreness went away. Oh well, I guess that’s what you have to do at Comic-Con. I heard regular attendees say that some things were worse this year than previous years as far as lines and registration are concerned, so I wasn’t the only one feeling frustrated. I have a feeling that the system will be tinkered with like they do every year, so some of my frustrations will go away.
I spent the most time at Comic-Con sitting in panels. Some I really wanted to see. Some I was sitting through just to see ones that came later. The ones I was most interested in were in Ballroom 20, the second biggest room at the convention. Once I got in there, I just stayed until the last one I wanted to see that day was over. My favorite ones were the Game of Thrones and Fringe panels. I was most excited about those beforehand and they’re the only ones I HAD to see. I ended up enjoying 2 panels that I sat through to see later panels so much that I’ve decided to start watching those shows myself. Those are Psych and Futurama. People have been telling me about both of those shows for a while, but I’m finally going to take the plunge. I like that I got lots of swag from the panels that I attended, even if I had to go to a different place to claim it. What I liked most about the panels were being that close to the casts while they joked and answer questions and seeing whatever footage they aired.
One day when I didn’t feel like waiting in line for Ballroom 20 and camping out in there all day, I went to a random panel taking place in one of the smaller rooms. It was a Star Wars comic book panel. The panel was boring, but it was crashed by Seth Green, which made it cool. Before a Locke& Key screening that night, I saw a panel on Reign of the Dinosaurs, which will premiere on Discovery in September. They showed a few clips and it looked good. I’ve never seen a dinosaur get high on mushrooms before. Werner Herzog is involved with it somehow and he made a surprise appearance. Back to Locke & Key. It was so good! It’s a shame that Fox decided not to move forward with it. Hopefully, it’ll get a lot of buzz coming out of Comic-Con and another network will pick it up.
When I wasn’t in line or in panels, I spent a lot of time on the Exhibition Floor. I had heard that it would be chaos and it was. Once you get on the floor you really just have to keep moving. There was so much to see and so many people. It took a very long time to get from one end to another. This was a good place for random encounters with celebrities. I saw Joss Whedon (Buffy, Angel, Firefly, etc) and Robert Kirkman (author of The Walking Dead) signing autographs. I walked past Brian Tong from CNET. One time I wasn’t paying attention and almost ran into Stan Lee while he was talking to several people. Unfortunately, my camera didn’t work when I tried to snap a picture and he was quickly taken away when he finished his conversation. I got so much swag from the floor and from the panels that I had to ship it back before I left. There’s no way I could’ve gotten it all in my luggage.
I didn’t get a lot of autographs. For limited autograph sessions with bigger stars and the casts of TV shows, they had a lottery system. You had to wait in line for the lottery and if you won then you could get an autograph. I didn’t want to spend a long time in line for a chance at getting an autograph. The one time I didn’t decide to get in line, they capped the line ahead of me as soon as reached the end of the line. There were times when I’d hear about impromptu autograph sessions on the Exhibition Floor that I would’ve loved to have attended, but I was either already in line somewhere else or somewhere else not even close to the floor. The easiest autographs to get were from people who were set up next to the registration area. I didn’t want to pay to meet all of those people. I did get one from Steve Blum, who does the voice of Wolverine in the X-Men cartoons and video games. I could’ve met people from Buffy and Angel, Richard Hatch from Battlestar Galactica, and Virgil from the WWF/WCW, but I decided against it.
Other than at the panels and at the autograph area, I didn’t have a lot of celebrity sightings. When I was talking to a friend while wondering around the convention center, he spotted Joe Hill. Joe Hill is the author of the Locke & Key comics and Stephen King’s son. Cool!
I got to do a few things outside of the Con. Not long after I got off the plane a group of us went to Ocean Beach. I had never seen the Pacific Ocean before and hadn’t been to a beach in over 8 years. It was fun. The water was COLD! Thursday night I went to the live Revision 3 show at the House of Blues. A DJ, Mike Relm, had an entertaining performance. Then there was a recording of Epic Meal Time. Those guys are too intense for me. The show ended with a live Diggnation, in which Tony Hawk was a surprise guest. I watched the video and I saw myself once. I could be in there more. It was a great experience. One day I went to eat at Café Diem, which Syfy does every year. They take over a restaurant, name it Café Diem, and serve food named after characters from their shows. On my last night, I saw Nerdist Live at 4th and B with special guest Matt Smith and Karen Gillan from Doctor Who. Wil Wheaton was also a surprise guest. This was a blast! Great for any Doctor Who fan. It even made me like Wil Wheaton again. We got to see standup and songs that aren’t included in the podcast. Smith and Gillan handed out TARDIS burritos after it was over, but they had left by the time I got to the front.
One of my favorite memories of the Con was when I went to visit 2 friends, Matt and Meg, at the Suvudu booth on the Exhibition Floor. They are a married couple who live in Brandon, MS. I keep meaning to go down and visit them, but I don’t get out of Starkville much. I met Meg once when I was down there, but I had never met Matt in person. I promised them that I would see them in San Diego. The first time I went, Matt was at the booth, but Meg was gone. The next day I returned just as they were setting up to do an interview with George R.R. Martin and Christopher Paolini. Matt conducted the interview. I didn’t know who Paolini was. Meg explained to me that he’s the guy that wrote Eragon. Of course I knew who Martin was. He’s the author of A Song of Ice and Fire, a book series that I am a major fan of. The HBO show Game of Thrones is based on this series. The name “longklaw” that I use online comes from this series. It was so cool being that close to him. I was definitely star struck. He walked right past me at one point. Before the interview he saw me standing there and I got to wave and say “Hi”. I listened to the entire interview while they recoreded it. It should be showing up on Suvudu.com if it’s not there already. After the interview was over, some fan pushed forward and started talking to him. I knew he had somewhere to be, so I didn’t want to wait to try to have a word with him next. Maybe next time I’ll get to geek out and tell him how much of a fan I am. Next time.
My biggest regret is that I didn’t spend as much time hanging out with people after dark either at the hotel or at places as I wanted to. Because of other plans I made in advance of the convention (Diggnation, Nerdist, etc.) and needing to sleep because of the day’s activities or in preparation for the next day’s activities, I went days without seeing people that I had planned to spend to time with. Some people I didn’t get to see at all. I wasn’t able to keep my phone charged during the day, so it was hard to communicate. Also, I wish that I had taken more pictures of people in costumes.
I had a great time at Comic-Con this year. Next time I want to hang out more with friends and go to events that aren’t officially part of the Con. The Nerd HQ stuff would’ve been a lot of fun and I saw some video game stuff that I didn’t get a chance to check out. Also, I would probably go to more of the smaller panels. Oh, I would bring more batteries too. That being said, this trip was some of the most fun I’ve ever had. It was exhausting, but well worth it. I’m glad I didn’t come down with the con crud/nerd flu like a lot of people I know did. I took Halls Defense for 2 weeks leading up to the con, all during the con, and for a few days after I returned home. I’ll be repeating that next time. If I don’t go back to Comic-Con next year, I definitely want to go the year after that. Maybe I’ll even dress up. As much fun as I had, it’s good to be back home with Reese.
You can find my photo album on Flickr or on Facebook or Google+ if you’re friends with me on either of those.
The The Girl With the Tattoo, Stieg Larsson. This is the first book in the Millennium Trilogy. I’ve heard a lot of great things about the books and the Swedish movies based on the books. Now, they’re coming out with an American version of the first movie. This book was nothing like I was expecting. For some reason I was expecting fantasy, but it’s actually a mystery/thriller. The fact that it wasn’t what I was expecting might be why it took a while to get into it, but after a while I had trouble putting it down for long. It has 2 separate storylines that ended up coming together. I know some people had problems with that, but I thought it was cool. I definitely recommend it.
The Walking Dead Vols. 5 & 6, Robert Kirkman. I’m still slowly working my way through this series. These 2 volumes were great. They were a change of pace from what I had seen recently, and I enjoyed them.
I’ve started on 3 or 4 other books. I can’t seem to focus on 1 for too long before something else comes along. Right now I’m focusing on A Dance With Dragons. My goal for this year was to read 15 books and Goodreads says that so far I’ve read 11 if you count the Walking Dead volumes. It looks like I’m going to hit that goal.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Philip K. Dick. I’ve been wanting to read this book for a while. It’s the book that the movie Blade Runner is based on and I wanted to read it before I watched the movie. It’s pretty good. I like these old school sci-fi novels. It’s set in a post-apocalyptic future. The main character is a bounty hunter whose job is to “retire” androids that have escaped to Earth. The movie was good too, but not quite as good as the book.
The Walking Dead Vols. 3 & 4, Robert Kirkman. These 2 volumes were just more goodness. I really liked Vol. 3. I didn’t like Vol. 4 as much as the first 3, but it was still good. I need to get back to work on this series. Maybe this weekend.
The Way of Shadows, Brent Weeks. This book is the first in The Night Angel Trilogy. It’s about a kid who is tired of being bullied and decides to become apprenticed to the city’s best wetboy. A wetboy is an assassin that has a magical power. I liked the story and I’m going to finish the trilogy. I doubt that it’ll be one of my favorite series, but it’s good enough.
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N.K. Jemison. This was the latest Sword and Laser selection. It’s the first part of The Inheritance Trilogy. I liked it more than most of the recent S&L choices. A young lady is summoned to appear before her grandfather, who is the ruler of the land. He names her one of his heirs, which sets up a competition between her and her 2 cousins. She’s placed in a power struggle she doesn’t want to be in and at the same time she’s investigating the mysterious death of her mother. I think this is the first fantasy book I’ve read that was written by a black female. The author does a great job constructing the world with all the gods and the political stuff. I liked her characters and the way that she writes. As much as liked this book, I’m not sure I’ll be reading the other 2 books in the trilogy. The first one ended like a stand-alone book and I’ve heard that the second one focuses on different characters.
I’m taking a different approach to talking about what I’m reading. This is mostly because I start of lot of books, but don’t finish them until much later. For the past couple of months, I’ve been spending more time than normal reading. I’m a little proud of myself.Some of these haven’t been touched in 2011, but I plan on getting back to them this year.
Towers of Midnight, Brandon Sanderson. I’ve made it about halfway through the latest Wheel of Time book. I’ll finish it eventually. It’s going pretty slowly. I have the same issues with it that I had with the last one. There’s stuff happening, but there are long stretches of nothing happening. I do think the stuff happening in this book is more interesting than the stuff that happened in the last book. Rand wants to do what!?!?
Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. This is the latest Sword and Laser pick. I’m almost finished with and I really like it. It’s about the end of the world. The forces of Heaven and Hell are getting their forces ready for the upcoming battle. It’s a pretty funny book, though some of the jokes don’t work. Maybe it’s a British humor (I almost spelled it humour) thing, since both of the authors are British.
Batman: Year One, Frank Miller. I really like this one too. It’s a retelling of the origins of Batman, Commissioner Gordon, and Catwoman. I liked the Commissioner Gordon storyline more than the rest, but it was cool to see Batman learning to become Batman, making mistakes, etc. Not surprisingly, the storylines of all three characters intersect in the end. This makes me want to read more Batman stories, especially ones written by Frank Miller.
The Walking Dead, Robert Kirkman. I started reading The Walking Dead last year in preparation for the TV show. I read the first 2 trade paperbacks, which is comprised of the first 12 issues of the comic book series. It’s so good! It’s about the aftermath of a zombie outbreak. Like everyone says, it’s less about zombies and scares than it is about how people interact with each other. Read the books and then watch the TV show.
The First Law Trilogy, Joe Abercrombie. I think I started reading The First Law Trilogy in 2009. It’s been about a year since I started on the final book, Last Argument of Kings. This is a great series for those who like fantasy series that are more adult than The Lord of the Rings or The Wheel of Time. If I were a recommendation engine, I would say something like “If you like George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, then you might like this series”. It’s a great read. I’ve heard that the last book isn’t as good as the first two. That might be the reason I’m not in a hurry to go back to it.
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