WALKING DEAD - New Season & other stuff

Hope you have caught the first episode of WALKING DEAD this past weekend, or recorded it and already seen it.  I'm going to publish some Spoilers so if you haven't watched it you might want to skip this for a while.

In a fashion, the series is coming back around to where the comic series was a few years ago.  Months have passed since the previous episode, with Lori (Booo!!) very preggers and still whining about one thing or another.  The rest of Rick's group seems to be coming to grips with the situation, with even Carl showing that he can take down the undead in the same ruthless fashion as the rest.  His first scenes with him shooting a walker and then taking some cans of dog food are telling.  Carl has matured and obviously has gone beyond the "Carl, stay in the house" routine he found himself in previously.  This is the Carl that fans of the book have come to know, there are only some moments when he can be a kid with the situation that surrounds him.

In the book the discovery of the prison brought about a shift in the dynamics of the group.  As the series has already made some changes, it remains to be seen what characters (if any) that are introduced among the surviving prisoners will bond with Rick's group.  We only see some of the prisoners in the final scene of the first episode, so they have not been introduced.  Teasers for the second episode seem to indicate that things may take a ugly turn pretty quickly.

We also get to see Michonne (one of the best and favorite characters in the comic) demonstrating why she will probably be just as popular in the series.  She and Andrea are separated from the main group and it will be interesting to see how they finally join up.  As the "Governor" and the community of Woodbury have not been introduced yet, it may be that the pair meets up with that group first.  However it works out I'm psyched about this season.

This weekend I'm going to be heading down to San Diego for the first SD Comic Fest.  This new gathering was conceived and planned by some of the same folks to started the original San Diego Comic Con back in the early '70s.  The idea is that this will be a smaller gathering and similar in feel to those first few cons held at the El Cortez Hotel and other locations.  No flashy displays by the big companies, no major stars pushing their latest product, just fans and pros getting together to talk about comics and 'the old days'.  I hope to have some photos and some things to talk about regarding the show next week.

Ta ta for now!