Random The Walking Dead News and Kirkman Interview
USA Today recently did an interview with Walking Dead’s creator and we had a few interesting tidbids come up. Specially these first 2!
Frank has already hinted at the fact that we’ll be seeing Michonne as early as Season 2
and
The Governor is probably a little ways off from Season 2 — maybe Season 3 or beyond.
So we’ll be seeing everyone’s favorite samurai sword wielding heroine this upcoming season though no trips to a certain fun filled little town run by a madmen quite yet. No problems here! I can’t wait to see some undead get sliced up. Also in the interview was a comparison between the Rick Grimes of the comics right “now” and where Rick Grimes is on the TV show.
The Rick that exists in the comic book now that I am writing is very much different from the Rick Grimes that appears in the television show. It’s really like doing two completely separate things because so much time has passed and the characters have changed so much and, you know, a lot of the characters have died.
Very true. The Rick in the TV show of “now” couldn’t possibly do what the Rick Grimes in the comic is capable of, nor would he probably be able to understand or respect the man in many cases.
I like to call the one in the comic book ‘Crazy Rick’ because he will do anything he has to do to survive, even if it’s seemingly wrong, just because,” Kirkman added, saying that the television version of Rick isn’t quite ready to make the tough choices that “Crazy Rick” is capable of. “There were some times when I had to pull back, but I was able to rein myself in and not doing anything too crazy
There are a LOT of things Grimes ends up doing that is partially shocking though also with how the story progresses completely understandable to the character who just wants to keep his friends, and most importantly, his son safe.
The Phoenix New Times also had an interview with everyone’s current favorite zombie creator. While not as much ‘in depth’ new information there was still a lot of fun questions to read through!
Why are zombies so fascinating?
Aside from them looking cool and being fairly entertaining, I think there’s some kind of subconscious representation of our own fears of death in there that make it somewhat compelling. It’s kind of a physical representation of the unrelenting, unstoppable possibility of death that looms over all of our lives at all times. I think there’s probably a primal element to our personalities, and what kind of entertainment we like, and I think that kind of taps into that.How did George Romero’s zombie movies influence The Walking Dead?
Those movies always have tons of interesting characters dealing with zombies, and when the running time of the movie runs out, they either ride off into the sunset — or most of them die — but there’s always some kind of really hurried resolution. It always occurred to me that I’d like to see what comes next. I’d like to see where the people who get into the helicopter at the end of Dawn of the Dead land. I’d like to see how they continue to live in this world. Nobody had done a continuing zombie story that focused on the same characters and followed their lives for years and years, as they continue to survive. So that’s really where the idea for The Walking Dead came from.How does the post-apocalyptic environment in The Walking Dead influence and change the characters in your story?
Different characters are influenced and changed in any number of different ways. That’s part of the fun of The Walking Dead, seeing how these different people react to the same situations in different ways. You’ll see characters that start out being good twisting over to the dark side and becoming bad people, and you’ll see bad people doing the exact opposite and becoming somewhat heroic over time, just because of things that they’re living through. It’s just a lot of fun to see characters pushed to their breaking point, and some of these characters snap and lose their minds, and some of these characters rise to the occasion and find strength they never knew they had. So any number of things could be happening to any member of the cast at any point, which is part of the charm.Are you happy with the television adaptation of The Walking Dead? Is it true to the graphic novels?
Absolutely. It’s true to the graphic novels in spirit, in that all the characters are who they’re supposed to be and the tone is there, and everything is pretty well translated. But I like that the television show is going to divert from the story from time to time and tell new stories and new material that people who are fans of the comic book series aren’t familiar with and won’t be bored with. That’s what I wanted out of the show, was for it to be a good portion of the comic book getting adapted, but there’s always new stuff thrown in to keep everybody guessing.What do you like about coming to conventions like the Amazing Arizona Comic Con?
I enjoy being able to meet with the fans and talk with them one-on-one, and get their sense of what they like and what they don’t like, and have face-to-face meetings with all of the different people who support my books and watch the TV show…I’m really looking forward to meeting my bosses, I guess is a good way to think of it, and give them a chance to yell at me if they don’t like things, and be nice to me if they do.
