autocosmica

George R.R. Martin and Max Brooks at the Avatar Friday Night Event.

The big reason I came to, and pretty much heard of, C2E2 is this guy, GRRM, author of one of the most awesome fantasy series today, “A Song of Ice and Fire.” He had made an announcement on his Not A Blog that he would be coming to Chicago, and I literally said out loud, “HOLY. SHIT.” I’m a really big fan of his ASoIaF series, and I really was excited at the chance to see and meet him in person. He usually does fantasy conventions, but he’s attending C2E2 to promote his newly published comic based on his book, “Fevre Dream.” HOWEVER, the really big pull for me was that he would be doing a reading from his not-yet-completed, years-in-the-making, I’m-waiting-patiently-but-dammit-hurry-up-and-finish-it book, “Dance of Dragons,” the next book in the ASoIaF series.

Before the reading, he was accompanied by Max Brooks, author of “The Zombie Survival Guide,” who did a small bit from his zombie lectures. Quite interesting. I also loved how GRRM would throw in his two cents on some points such as how Medieval knights were well equipped to handle zombie attacks (impenetrable suits of armor). But soon after that, GRRM read a whole chapter from DoD… I don’t want to spoil it, but it quenched my thirst of anything new on ASoIaF… for now.

Photo taken on 04.16.10

I finally bought the “Walking Dead: Compendium One!” It is totally awesome!

I’ve already extolled my love for this series, but I just wanted to show this baby off… I didn’t think it could be done, fitting almost 50 issues of comics into one graphic novel, at their original size. But they did it! And it is very easy to read and handle. Sure, it weighs a bit, but who cares when you get so many stories about surviving the zombie apocalypse, right?

Photo taken 01.19.10

Oh man… I just read the latest issue of The Walking Dead. They made it to Washington, DC and it looks like they finally found a safe sanctuary, but knowing Kirkman…

“This is not about zombies popping out of closets. This is a story about survival, and the dynamics of what happens when a group is forced to survive under these circumstances. The world [in Walking Dead] is portrayed in a smart, sophisticated way.” - Robert Kirkman, creator and writer of “The Walking Dead”

I probably don’t extol the awesomeness of Robert Kirkman’s “The Walking Dead” as much as I should. For those not familiar with this particular comic book, it tells the struggles of a group that tries to survive a world overcome by the zombie apocalypse.

The comic has been going strong for about 5 years now, and doesn’t seem to be slowing down (especially with a television series adaptation announced).

But the latest storyline, “Fear the Hunters,” was probably one of the best stories I’ve read in a while. The group is hunted by some cold, calculating cannibals. However, the cannibals are just a bit overconfident, and made a mistake picking a group of BAD ASS MOFOs. I mean, this is a group of mother fuckers that have gone through some serious shit now, seeing friends and family raped and killed, doing immoral things to survive. So once the hunters make their presence known to the survivors, they are eventually ambushed and overcome by the survivors.

And they are given no mercy.

The survivors kill, murder, and dismember these cannibals, who begged and pleaded with them to let them go. But the survivors know they have to kill them. They already threatened them. They know that they will hunt again. The cannibals even admitted to killing and eating their children when all other food supplies was exhausted and couldn’t be found.

When the story first started, I could never imagine such a scene being so powerful. But after 5 years of going through all sorts of trauma and shit, these are the hardened bastards that trust only their own and do whatever it takes to survive.

And what’s surprising is that this recent storyline didn’t even involve any zombies. It was humans vs. humans, as they’re both pushed to their limits and beyond.

If you haven’t read this amazing comic yet, they just released a compendium that collects the first 48 issues. That’s right, a 1088 paperback of zombie surviving goodness. Read it now and don’t miss out!

(via cubone)