Walker, Infectious Danger

CRUISE FUNDRAISER: About 55/100 prints are sold and I only have until Dec 15th (10 days left!) to meet my goal of selling all 100. Help me get on a nerd boat and get some neat art for yourself in the process!

ME AND WIL MADE A NEW SHIRT HOLY CRAP I LOVE IT!

How is Zamby formed? How does girl get infacted?

Sweet decapitated, yet still teeth gnashing Father Christmas I am SOOOO pleased with The Walking Dead‘s return to form this season. I consider it a television tragedy of the highest regard that they basically took an entire season off, but with season 3 the show has done such a fierce and rewarding 180 as to almost allow forgiveness for wasting our time for 13 Farm-tastic episodes.

In all honesty, season 2  had maybe 4 episodes worth of compelling story and content, but they decided to spread it out over 13 hours with nearly an hour of it jammed in the finale. It made for an uneven and uninteresting season and prompted many fan (including myself) to mark the show as dead in the water. I know it had a lot to do with the budget cuts, increased show order and crew departures, all of which make it even more shocking that Season 3 has been so enjoyable. Enjoyable is the thing where you’re so tense it feels like your temples are being crushed under a forklift and you bleed uncontrollably from your ears and scalp, right?

COMMENTERS: What do you think about The Walking Dead’s comeback and the midseason cliffhanger? There are 8 episodes left in this season. Can they spend all 8 killing Merl and The Governor over and over and over and over? Alternately: Please continue the fan in panel 3’s review of Season 2 of The Walking Dead or any other terrible season of an otherwise great show.

I made you a LoFi comic about Jack Reacher. Don’t forget to check the thumbnail to the right of the comics to see if there’s a new LoFi. I’m updating them more often now.

AUSTIN, TX FANCY BASTARDS: Webcomics Rampage is THIS WEEKEND!

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged , , , .

30 Comments

  1. Hey, Potato Brain Syndrome is a very serious condition, and it has severe effects on the world. It singlehandedly fuels nearly all reality TV ratings, AND crappy drama shows.

    Also, Argument Farm sounds like a reality show

  2. I’m going to do my best to avoid spoilers here and assume people haven’t read the comics (the series still loosely follows the comics, even if it has quite cleverly taken off in its own intriguing direction at several points).

    I’m loving season 3 (or book 4 as I keep thinking of it) and its actually one of the story arcs I’ve really been looking forward to. I think season 2 could have been better if they had spent less time trying to force the tensions between the various characters and just let them occur naturally – it did feel like there was someone stood behind Rick and Shane flicking their ears occasionally just to make sure they stayed at that continual level of simmering rage the entire season. Kind of like a fluffer, but with less hand cream.

    The moment the phone rang in season 3, a big smile crossed my face. It reassured me that the show is going to remain more “slow slide into hell” and less “angry-sexy times in zombieland”. The casting of David Morrisey as The Governor was a masterstroke! If did half expect him to introduce himself as The Doctor instead though. I haven’t watched the mid-season break episode yet, but I have it to watch tonight. I’ll be intrigued to see how far they follow the comic on this story arc, because there are some parts that I just can’t see them being brave enough to put on tv! We shall have to wait and see.

  3. I stopped watching halfway through season 2, or "argument farm" as I shall call it from now on. They cut the budget from season 1's $3.4 million for 6 episodes to $2.7 million for 13. It is pretty obvious that they cut too severely and couldn't afford any zombies. Or sets. Or writers.

  4. Count me among those that also liked season 2. I think in part because it felt like something I think I would want to do. Find someplace that seemed safe and defensible and hole up. And then like a good story should, it began to erode from the inside.
    The story arcs were also very powerful. The hunt for Sophia. Shane and Otis' supply run. Hershel's Barn, Shane's breakdown. All were very gripping.
    I read in one of the blurbs during the follow up show, Talking Dead that the title Walking Dead refers to the survivors, not the zombies. That idea is brought home in season 2 with the gradual deterioration of lives, conditions and mental states of the characters and culminates in the silencing of the groups conscience, Dale. From that point on it's a free for all.
    I don't think it was a perfect season but for someone like me, who is more interested in the story arcs of the individual characters than in watching zombies getting whacked and people running for their lives, it was quite fulfilling.
    The arcs in season 3 seem more succinct. It seems more about this bigger spectacle and the divided focus between the prison and the governor doesn't lend itself as easily to the same kind of character introspection. It's like looking at the forest not the trees. This season has me wondering more, what is going to happen next, and not, what is x character going to do next. Not good or bad just different.

    • I also liked season 2. It doesn't have the anguish and adventure of season 3, but I enjoyed it for the reasons stated above. There was some suspense, often due to characters being stupid, but isn't that what makes the show more believable? Whoever you could pick to accompany you in a fight for surviving an apocalypse would inevitably infuriate you. Unless they were almost exactly like Maggie.

      It's also an indispensable season for picking up woodsman tips from Daryl and learning to dislike Andrea.

  5. continued fan:

    BUT WITHOUT THE FARM THERE IS NO SUSTAINABLE FOOD, AND FAR TOO MUCH DANGER

    LEAVING IT MAKES NO SENSE, AND THE ZOMBIES THAT MADE THEM LEAVE MAKE NO SENSE

    I WANT THEM TO GO BACK TO NORMAL JUST LIKE THE REST OF US, BECAUSE I PREFER THE SOCIAL DRAMA COMMENTARY

    that said i love the return to zombie action based awesomeness, BTW i broke a glass earlier and i think i got a piece of it in my eye, can someone help me out with that

  6. I am a fan of season 2. Also a fan of:

    the current season of the Office
    this season of Glee
    only Episode I,II and II of Star Wars
    legitimate rape
    "Colored" washrooms
    New Coke
    Superman Returns
    X-Men 3
    prima nocta
    the non musical version of Les Miserables
    Gossip Girl fan fiction
    every movie Shia LaBeouf is in

    • Hey now, the non-musical Les Miserables is just fine. Plus, it's got Liam Neeson in it.
      Also, I really can't tell if your username was an extension of your joke.

      • I'm a Doctor Who fan. It's my twitter and other things name. I'm glad you took umbrage to that particular quip. I haven't even seen it. In theory it's a horrible idea. 2460111111111111111111!!!!!!!!!

  7. So what do you name people who haven’t watched any of it and don’t plan to?

    Also, Yam-headed bastards is now my favorite descriptor to use.

  8. If I want to watch a show about a varied group of people arguing with each other in a big house and NOT fighting zombies, I've already got Downton Abbey.

    Which, by the way, comes in 2nd, right behind The Walking Dead, in the "Creepiest Opening Credits" contest. Which is pretty impressive, considering its probably unintentional. Or is that just me…?

  9. I stopped watching Season 2 when they had the zombie Timmy stuck down a well episode. Seriously, the big storyline in that one was there's a zombie stuck in the well and they've got to get it out before it contaminates the water. If there's a zombie standing in your drinking water, IT'S ALREADY CONTAMINATED. Bloody hell, look at any zombie in TWD: open sores, gaping wounds. What were they thinking? "Gosh, this water tastes great now that we fished the oozing corpse out of it. Yummers!"

    Wait. I lied.

    I tuned back in to see five minutes of an episode when Lori crashed a car, which was possibly even stupider.

  10. Don't get me wrong.. I'm right there at the front of the 'thank god The Walking Dead has returned to us" parade. It is great!

    but.. and I don't want to spoil anything.. I am noticing that the show has a certain.. 'quota' that they seem to be maintaining. So much so that after the teaser of the last episode, both my wife and I successfully predicted part of the show's outcome.

    …I'm trying to figure out how to imply what I'm speaking of in a spoiler free manner… it has to do with a certain limit of a character type.

    • We all know what you're talking about wink wink. The subreddit for the walking dead also knows, and knew what would happen right after the opening for last weeks episode.

    • Yeah, I know what you mean. Especially when a character of that type joins the group in the same episode as another one died, not once, but TWICE in this half-season, it does start to seem kind of… off. On the other hand, they seem to have no problem increasing the number of a very similar character type (assuming neither of them get killed off as soon as the show starts up again), so I'm not really sure what to think.

    • I was pretty frustrated with the writers' insistence in playing this redshirt trope to the hilt. Being a standup kinda guy is apparently not a survival trait in the new reality. I guess we're going to see more creepy runts live to reproduce instead. "You're 17? Innnnnteresting… "

  11. I did not "enjoy" season 2, as one standardly enjoys things – like brandy or Brandy or cheesecake.
    But I did have a certain feeling that season 2 was necessary in order to break down everybody just enough.
    They started the group's breakdown at the CDC, but it was down-broken enough. Everyone still enjoyed everyone's company – and that was totally wrong. And seeing Lori play Lady Macbeth in a couple of episodes was worth her totally moronic car crash in which she should have died and didn't.

    I can't be the only person thinking, I know there's strength in numbers but do I actually have to LIKE these people?

    • I don't have a problem with Lori surviving that car crash (I assume you're talking about S2; I haven't finished S3 yet), but what truly pisses me off is that the car crash should have made her miscarry. It makes me really angry that she's still pregnant.

  12. I know there are lots of people who watch and enjoy the show not because of the zombies, but because of the relationships between people in times of extreme circumstances. That really is what the show is about: how the remaining people survive the apocalypse and the severe situations they're in while attempting to maintain their humanity, and not the people who are now dead (or undead). I am way behind in season 3, I've only seen 3 or 4 episodes so far, but we've noticed how unnecessarily bloody and violent, and disgusting, it has become, and I can't help but wonder if the producers are reacting to the fans complaining about season 2 being so "boring." I think there can be more of a medium between the two extremes. And while I thought it was a little unlikely that the characters survived on the farm so long without walkers coming to call, I liked season 2 and the respite from all the violence.

    • I don't think there is an 'unnecessary' level of gore or violence in a zombie show. Without the zombies and the associated violence, it's just a post-apocalyptic drama with no threat. And there is still plenty of the 'survival while maintaining humanity' but as it would be if the entire world was overrun by zombies, a lot of that survival depends on actually fighting for their lives.

  13. You have to remember, the comic has a habit of having long stretches of relative calm dealing with the relations between survivors before a burst of horrific carnage that kills half the cast.

    Besides, season 2 was pretty decent after the barn opened, but yeah first half of season 2 was a lil off.

Leave a Reply