At New York Comic Con I was not only able to pick up a copy of Crossed in the exhibit hall, but I was also able to shuffle some three feet to my left to have it signed by artist Jacen Burrows.
I, unfortunately, did not ask him if his gory art makes it difficult for him to sleep– though I’m sure it does.
Crossed is a super-violent story of a world not simply gone mad, but gone to live out their most depraved and violent dreams. Continue reading “NYCC: CROSSED Post Apocalyptic Ultra-violence”
This week I was able to preview the full first issue of the new comic from Dark Horse Orchid.
I can safely use my new favorite phrase to describe this comic because it’s recommended for 18+ audiences– Orchid is an Amazeballs Apocalyizgasm.
The preview on the Dark Horse site is mildly misleading. It starts of very slowly with a lot of backstory and foreshadowing. No characters for the first four pages even. We learn that this world is set far in the future of our world, which has been ravaged by flooding, wide-spread animal mutations, and the general demise of human society.
At first I was a bit skeptical, thinking I’d be reading a storybook with a James Earl Jones-esque narrator telling me about how things were once and how sad they’ve become and that, maybe one day, there’ll be a hero fight against the corrupt power and rage against the machine[1. Pun totally intended. ORCHID is the creation of Rage Against The Machine’s former guitarist, Tom Morello].
Then exciting things started happening. There was suddenly a band of rebels I found myself cheering for and a cause I vaguely understood and wholly supported. Continue reading “Post-Apocalyptic Comic: ORCHID #1”
I find it hard to get on-board with shows where the first person to die is Unnamed Black Bad Guy. Quickly followed by the group to teenage idiots suffering the serious injuries of Frantic Black Girl Who Flees and Black Guy Who Serves as Useless Main Character’s Shield.
Do you ever watch a new show and get the feeling you shouldn’t get too attached because it won’t last? Thinking in the back of your mind, maybe six other people in the entire world are watching this.
This is how I feel about Terra Nova. I’ll watch for as long as they air it; though I’m not expecting that to be longer than half a season. Why? Because it’s really expensive and just really okay.
The story and characters aren’t so gripping and compelling that I’m forgetting to eat or even forgetting to fold laundry so I can pay full attention.
The family the show focuses on is a family of five and I can only remember the name of the youngest daughter –because she’s a source of conflict by existing. She had maybe five lines, but Mom, Dad, Daughter 1, and Son are just not super engaging.
In Y: The Last Man Yorick is the last man alive on Earth after a random, sudden thing kills all the men in all the world, and shit if I don’t wish he’d just kill himself so those poor women could just wither in peace.
Never before have I been so against a protagonist’s survival. He’s so dumb in a gross know-it-all way that I want him to get shot by the heavily stereotyped Republicans’ wives.
I want his poor monkey, Ampersand, to run away and maybe be the father of a new human-monkey hybrid species of the future. I want anything but for stupid Yorick to continue being a walking, preachy, tropey, asshole.
Frist there’s: “Wahh, I’m in love and that’s important.”
Then he’s all: “You women need to band together and act like civilized last people alive and do our forefathers proud.”
(Lady President promptly shut him up saying: “These women have suffered more than you can imagine. They don’t deserve to be lectured by a self-righteous child.[1. That, unlike the others, is actually a direct quote from issue #3]”)
Then he’s like: “I get that people are actively trying to kill me but I don’t want to hide from them. They’re just angry women. Is that a bear? Let’s poke it with this stick to check.
”
Continue reading “Post-Apocalyptic Graphic Novels (Comics): Y The Last Man”
I watched Contagion this weekend with Husband. Duh, I loved it. It wasn’t a hype machine for crazy-pants pseudo -science or mutants or zombies. It was crazy-pants really, real.
Unlike most of the post-apocalyptic stories we see in entertainment, there was an unsettling realism to Contagion. The fear that was so easily fueled and exploited just made sense. There are enough people in the world with enough mistrust to easily create chaos unrelated to the direct source of danger.
The movie followed a number of people in different places as far as the virus’ path, place in society, and ability actually do something for themselves or others.
It was interesting (and disturbing) seeing the little things break people down faster then the actual virus. The idea that the dead were only about 1%, give or take, of the population (maybe, as they only alluded to it), was scary. Society just fell apart. That’s one (maybe two) out of every one hundred people…
I might sound insensitive but, I honestly didn’t think I’d notice. The thing isn’t how long it would take us to notice though, it’s how long it would take the government to respond. Once they start hiding the President and organizing the national guard people start too panic.
We only know what we see on the news and we assume the government knows so much more than we do. We assume they know about science, suspects, cures, and have more than enough food for almost everyone. We assume they, like we would, well take care of their family and friends first and everyone else will have to prove themselves. When we take a good, hard look at ourselves we’ll realize that we probably don’t have the whatever-it-is that someone’s looking for when they decide to save a life at the expense of long term planning for people they actually give a shit about.
Contagion was more about the infectious nature of rhetoric and rumors than the damage done by actual the virus itself.
I say it’s definitely worth the watch but maybe not worth the money to see it in a theater.
In honor of anninyn being away on some steampunk adventure business, I bring you steampunk finds for post-apocalyptic life!
An amazeballs free guide to apocalyptic living steampunk style from the talented folks at steampunk magazine. This 56-page guide covers water filtration and storage, assessing your surroundings, self defense, an overview of contagions and much more.
There are plenty of survivalism blogs out there- you can see a few of the best in our links folder- but in general they’re very serious. You may have guessed by now that while we’re serious about surviving the end days, we’re a little more focused on the post-apocalyptic living bit. We’re sort of a post-apocalyptic lifestyle blog at this stage, and we’re OK with that.
And as a result of that focus, I’ve become a bit obsessed with online post-apocalyptia. By which I don’t mean the other survivalist blogs, I mean people tweeting and blogging as if they already live in an apocalypse. I love these. I love them so much.
If your job disapproves of the ole ultra-violence, then this is not safe for work (NSFW).
Woop. Looks like they’ll still be killing zombies in season 2. Hopefully season two is a little more… something. I don’t know what was missing, but there was something lacking. It was somehow both awesome and listless. Continue reading “Walking Dead Season 2 (violent) Preview”
This is not a review. I just bought a book and am too excited to wait until after I’ve read it to spread the word.
I generally get excited about bout books; but gosh, I love facts and short bursts of information. Those fact a day calendars were made for me [1. except I always binge and cheat by looking ahead to learn more.]. And this new book, is right up my alley.
At times, I can have a handicapped attention span. The worst is when I know I only have a little bit of time, like on the train on my way to work. It’s difficult for me to get into a book knowing I can only read in sprints here and there or risk missing my stop because I’m engrossed [2. I know, woe the problems of the first world citizen].
Jason Boyett’s Pocket Guide To The Apocalypse: The Official Field Manual For The End Of The World is a perfect cure for not only my morbid fascination with the apocalypse, but also my love of sample-size facts and short-burst reading.
(Also, it fits in my purse. I love books that fit in my purse. [3. Has anyone realized I’m a huge nerd yet?])
Continue reading “Post-Apocalyptic Reading: Pocket Guide To The Apocalypse by Jason Boyett”
