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Sunday 20 October 2013

'Doctor Who: 50 Years' Trailer - The Day of the Doctor - Doctor Who 50th...


First shown on BBC TV last night 19/10/13
Looks Epic!!!!!

Tuesday 15 October 2013

Walking Dead Days Gone Bye





With the up and coming new series of the Walking Dead set to appear on our TV screens at the end of this week I have started to re-read some of my older Walking Dead comics and graphic novels starting with Days Gone Bye.

Days Gone Bye collects the first 6 issue of the on going comic book series into one place.
The comic starts at a very fast pace with the opening page shows Rick and Shane pinned down behind there police car being shot at by some I think (book never explains in full) escaped convict.
Rick ends up being shot in the chest and falls into a coma.
The book then cuts to Rick waking from his coma in a deserted hospital. Rick starts to stumble about the hospital looking for help and stumbles upon a canteen full of zombies.
It Transpires that between rick getting shot and waking from his coma the town and possibly the whole USA has been over run by the undead, this is another thing about the series which I find really interesting it is never explained how the undead take over or in fact if they have taken over the whole country or in fact the whole world.


Rick manages to escape the hospital and starts to make his way home on the way finding the town and mess and deserted but for a few Zombies (walkers).
Once Rick arrives home he finds his home empty his Wife and Son nowhere to be seen and then BANG he is back to being unconscious again after getting smacked over the head by the spade wheedling Duane.



Up to this point the comic book and the TV series is more or less a match like for like after this they start to go off in different directions.

The next part of the book Rick comes to and explains to Morgan what has happen to him and how come he knows nothing about the walkers. Morgan tells Rick the government advised via the media everyone to move to the bigger cities but he and Duane had decided to stay where they were.
Rick decides to head to Atlanta where he thinks his wife and son had headed as that's where his in laws lived. After sharing the police stations supply of guns ammo and supplies with Morgan Rick heads out for Atlanta in a Police Car.

At this point again the TV series and the comic differ in the TV series at this point a lot is made about the fact the Morgan's wife had been turned and was haunting them by turning up at there place and trying to get in most nights plus Rick gave Morgan a walkie talkie and said he would turn it on everyday at dawn to tell him whats going on in the comic there is non of this and to be honest it was a bit of a dead end part of the story line in the TV series anyway.


Rick makes his way to Atlanta in the police car but half way there it runs out of gas and in search of more Rick comes across a farm inside he finds a family that had committed mass suicide after finding no gas he force open the barn to find a horse that had been left there when the family killed themselves.
Rick and the horse then make there to Atlanta.

On the way Rick in a lazy conversation to the horse reminisces about the happiest time of his life the day his son Carl was born but he finds that this just makes him sad.


Very soon Rick and his horse are on the outskirts of the city of Atlanta which is a mess. Rick ventures further into the city but it is pretty obvious that the city is lost to the walkers. He is soon surrounded and falls from his horse which is quickly set upon by a large group of walkers.

This bit is pretty much the same in the comic as in the TV series and is the end of the first episode with Rick trapped in a abandoned tank.

In both the Comic book and the TV series Rick is saved by the sudden appearance of Glen who guides him out of the city.
Glen Takes Rick to the camp he and some other survivors have been staying since Atlanta fell to the walkers. On his arrival at he camp he is relived and and surprised to find there his wife Lori and his son Carl both of these had been protected by is best friend and police partner Shane.


This is the first time that we meet a lot of the main characters of this and the next couple of books.
Allen, Dale, Jim,Carol, Sophia, Amy, Andrea, Donna, Billy and Ben along with Glen, Shane,Lori and Carl are by the looks of it the only survivors from Atlanta and have set up camp around dales RV.

The book has no Darrel, Merle,T dog, Jacqui and there are Two more children. 

Camp life is okay with Rick and Shane more or less in charge of things. Glen and Rick make a near disastrous run in to Atlanta to find some more guns using walker parts to mask there smell.
The group settle in quite well with Rick and Shane teaching the others how to shot to defend themselves from the walker threat.


All this time at the camp Shane has becomes more and more agitated with Rick. Shane saved Lori and Carl and protected them on there journey to Atlanta he started to see Lori as his lover now that he though Rick was out of the way. What we find out later about Shane and Lori on the road to Atlanta may not have helped this situation. Rick thinks it is not safe at the camp any more and he puts forward the idea to Shane to move the camp some place away from the city. Shane thinks this idea is crazy and wants the camp to stay put he thinks that when the government start clearing up they will be found quicker nearer the city.
Shane's jealousy of Rick is now reaching boiling point.

One night around the camp fire they are all attacked by a group of walkers Amy and Jim are both bittern with Amy is the shot in the head by Andrea before she can turn this cause Andrea to go into a deep depression bring her closer to Dale. 


Jim take longer to turn and he decides he wants to be left on the outskirts of Atlanta so if he turns he can wander off in to the city to find his turned family.

After leaving Jim Shane and Rick start of to go hunting Rick has the intention of talking to Shane to find out what his problem is but Shane Snaps and punch's Rick which then in turn makes Lori punch Shane.
Shane then runs off into the woods and Rick follows.
In the woods Shane has completely lost it yelling at Rick about he would have made Lori love him and its not his fault then Shane points a gun at rick and is going to shoot him but before he can Carl who had followed Rick into the woods shoot Shane in the neck.


The last page of the book see Shane choking on his own blood and Carl saying to Rick" it's not the same as killing the dead ones daddy" and Rick's reply is it never "should be son it never should be"

This book or the first 6 issue of the comic are a great start to the series and got me hooked straight the way the fast pace and the stunning conclusion makes for a good story.

When I heard that there was going to be a TV series and it was going to be made by the same people I was over the moon. Having watched now all of the episodes up till the 1st episode of  season 4 I am now getting feed up with how much they have messed with the story and the season 3 finally was just a bust for me.

Shane who was killed in the book before the end of the first graphic novel lives on till the end of season 2 of the TV series and to be honest there is just no need not even his decent in to madness was worth the full extra series his character gets. Then there is the bumping off of both Sophia and Dale well before there time season 2 is just a waste. Now I know that actors want out or get offered bigger and better things but it is now just getting stupid. 
Killing Sophia was so lame for about 4 episodes the whole watching audience were shouting at there TV's she is in the @$%*ing barn. By turning her into a walker we then lose some of the humor of the book with the interaction of herself and Carl. 
With the killing off of Dale we lose all the rest of his book story the leg loose the love story between him and Andrea and even the small part about him and the cannibals. 
Otis and Patrcia don't even become established characters in the TV Series which again is a shame as Patrcia has some good parts in the prison.
**Spoiler Alert**
Now if you have not seen the last episode of the TV series season 3 don't read any further.
The last character to get it is poor Andrea. 
I can't help but think that the TV series is now going to move completely away from the comic book.
I get the feeling that she was bump off because they had got rid of Dale how was a big part of her story in the book going to take place now? So she had to go.
This now leads me on to the fact that she has a massive part to play in Rick rehabilitation after Lori is killed and now another big chunk has been take out of the comic book story.


Season 4 of the TV Series starts in the UK on Friday 18/10/13 on Fox but to be honest I am only going to be watching it now to see how they recover the car crash that the story has now become or if they move it even further away from the comic book original. 

The comic book by image comics is still on going and it is up to issue number 115 and is available in most good comic book shops or you could get the collected issues from most large WH Smiths for Just over a tenner a book they are up to about number 16 or 17 at the minute I think.

The first issue in a very fine upwards condition can demand a high price on the back issue market  but here it is for free you will need to register to get it but that is free as well.

In most cases people say that the book is better the the film or TV series and to be honest in my opinion with the Walking Dead they were right.