‘The Walking Dead’ finds ‘Better Angels’

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In its next-to-last episode of its second season, “The Walking Dead” continued to thin the ranks of survivors of the zombie apocalypse and demonstrate to viewers that no one is safe in this new world.

Some spoilers ahead (not the finale of this episode however, if you haven’t yet seen it).

After last week’s shocking demise of Dale, the group’s conscience, Rick speaks at his funeral and maintains that the group — which Dale had agreed was “broken” — can be repaired.

And for a while, it looks like the group will become a cohesive unit again. The survivors begin making preparations to settle into Hershel’s farm and defend it against either walkers or human interlopers, including those in hapless Randall’s group.

Ah, Randall. Rick still insists on taking the subject of so much recent disagreement miles away from the farm and setting him free. The decision infuriates Shane, of course, who’s been inclined to kill Randall outright.

The stage is set for a fatal conflict when Randall “escapes.” Rick and Shane and Glenn and Daryl set off into the woods to find him.

Randall hasn’t escaped, of course. Shane has taken him into the woods and killed him with the intent of luring Rick out into the wilderness to kill him too, paving the way for once again setting up housekeeping with Lori and Carl.

The last third of the episode, as Glenn and Daryl pick their way through the woods — with Daryl becoming more suspicious of Shane’s story as they go — and Rick and Shane inexorably moving toward a fatal encounter is among the best sequences of this season.

The woods and, ultimately, the meadow in which the showdown occurs are bathed in eerie blue moonlight that makes the inevitable blood seem black as night.

Spoilers for the ending of the episode have been circulating for a few days now. For people who’ve been following news of the show and its actors, the ending probably isn’t a surprise.

The previews for next week’s season finale looked in some ways as low-voltage and small in scope as the entire season has been. Nevertheless, I’m looking forward to it.

And I’m really looking forward to next season and new horizons and new characters.

The Great Newspaper Comics Challenge Part 4

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Here’s our latest look at what’s funny in the funny pages. There’s something fun in the post-“Calvin and Hobbes” era, right?

This week: The return of Ida Know and Not Me!

“Classic Peanuts.” Okay, spring is definitely here. The estate of the late, great Charles M. Schulz gives us the first (?) Charlie Brown vs. kite strip of the year.

But oy vey, this is a lame one. Good ol’ Charlie Brown talks to the tree that’s eaten his kite for, let’s see, six panels, ultimately giving up and acknowledging, “You can’t argue with a kite-eating tree.”

Moving on …

“Zits.” Okay, good stuff here. “Ridiculous stuff moms say” includes “Wear a coat” and “Does anybody want some kale?” As Homer Simpson would say, “It’s funny because it’s true.”

“Garfield.” Jon talks to Liz on the phone, fretting about what movie they’ll watch because he doesn’t want a weepy chick flick. He’s happy she’s picked a monster movie! But she’s chosen “When Godzilla Met Sally.” Ladies and gentlemen, my nominee for funniest newspaper strip of 1989.

“Dilbert.” The pointy-haired boss spouts techno-gibberish like “Do we have enough room in the cloud to Skype?” and Dilbert explains that he “slips in and out of understanding basic technology.”

Dilbert reassures him, “We have plenty of space because we upgraded to a cumulonimbus cloud.” Good stuff.

“Foxtrot.” One of the kids gets ideas for “John Carter” sequels once they run out of Mars stories, including “John Carter of Tattooine.” Extra geeky!

“Blondie.” Dagwood and Blondie continue their master class on household budgeting and economics. Dagwood buys Blondie an expensive necklace at the jewelry store.

“Did you see anything new at the golf shop today?” Blondie asks. “You won’t believe the amazing golf bags they just got in,” Dagwood replies. ‘Cause it’s okay to spend as much money as you can when everybody shares the loot.

“Curtis.” Curtis gets good grades so his dad takes him to buy a reward, “something called an iPad,” Dad says. They return later, sans iPad, at odds over spending money. Counting this and the “Blondie” strip, I think this week’s theme is household spending.

Finally — and I am so excited about this, “Family Circus.” Mom has the kids — have they always had four? — lined up for interrogation.

There’s a broken dish in her hand and a disappointed look on her face.

“I think I know the answer but I’ll ask you anyway,” Mom says. “Which of you broke my good plate?”

Wait, the Keenes have only one good plate? Times must be tough in the newspaper comic strip industry. But I digress.

Joining the line-up of kids being grilled: The see-thru forms of Ida Know, Not Me and Nobody.

Nobody in particular is unfamiliar to me and has me a little worried. He’s got a moustache, for Pete’s sake. How old is this imaginary blame-taker? What’s he doing hanging around with a bunch of school-agers?

 

 

Libraries I have loved

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I spent about an hour at my current favorite library this afternoon, picking up a couple of books and reading a magazine. It was as familiar and comforting as my house.

Libraries have been a part of my life for as long as I’ve been able to read. I have an unwieldy collection of books in my household, including a few that belonged to me as a kid. But the majority of reading materials I grew up on — not including comic books — were borrowed from libraries.

It’s not news to anyone that libraries are as important to our society as armories or banks or schools or factories. Libraries are where our history, our knowledge, our pleasure, our thoughts, our fantasies live.

But while a great library can be a private library — the kind of wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling bookshelves I have always wanted — the greatest libraries are public libraries.

It’s the library’s pool of shared art, knowledge, ideas and stories, truly available to everyone, that makes a community complete.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Cowan School library: When I was old enough to read more than basic kids books, my school library was the center of my reading universe. I devoured as diverse a bunch of reading materials as I could: Bullfinch’s Mythology, books about great horses like Man o’ War, showbiz biographies, history, hardcover collections of newspaper comic strips, current news magazines.

At Cowan’s library I learned to love the card catalogue and figured out the mysteries of the Dewey Decimal System.

Cowan’s library, shared by elementary and high school alike back in those days, was small even in my memory. But librarian Lois Jeffers and her staff kept students endlessly amused and informed. And she maintained summer hours so I could check out a stack of Hardy Boys books every week.

Grace Maring Library, South Madison Street, Muncie (above): I didn’t live in Muncie and didn’t have a library card, but my cousin had one and we spent some pleasant days in this beautiful old library. The building still exists although it hasn’t housed a library for more than a decade. It still holds a lot of memories, though.

Carnegie Library, downtown Muncie (top): I probably spent more time in this beautiful library than any other. I haunted this library on a regular basis when I was working as a freelance writer in the early 1980s. In the days before the Internet and frequent updates on the entertainment world on TV, issues of Variety were the resource for news about the industry, so I spent a lot of time looking at Variety’s listings of new movies going into production, release dates and so on.

And there was no better place to do it than Carnegie, with its gunmetal blue stacks, ornate ceiling and semi-comfortable seats around a collection of wide, flat tables. I loved settling in to read about movies and TV from an insider’s perspective in a library that was the closest thing to a movie library setting.

Bracken Library, Ball State University, Muncie: Bracken supposedly was designed to look like stacks of books. I’ve never quite been able to figure that out. But it’s a good university library and has great resources, including a great collection of old photos and newspaper archives.

I’ve explored a few other libraries to a limited extent, including the stuffed facility in downtown Asheville, North Carolina. And of course there’s no fictional library more beloved than the Sunnydale High School library overseen by Rupert Giles in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”

Luckily, I’ve never been in a real-life library that’s built over a Hellmouth like in “Buffy.” But as “Buffy” fans know, nobody ever checked anything out of Giles’ library anyway. Except maybe a crossbow.

Spoilers are out there (not here) for ‘Walking Dead’ ‘Better Angels’

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Be careful what you click on between now and Sunday night.

Spoilers are all over the Interwebs for the “Better Angels” episode of “The Walking Dead,” airing Sunday night on AMC.

The episode is the next to the last for this season of the zombie apocalypse show.

If you’ve remained spoiler-free this season, I won’t change that. But if you’re determined to find out what happens in Sunday’s night’s episode, spoilers are out there. Big time.

One site I came across this afternoon even had a photo of … wait. I’m not gonna say.

Needless to say, this episode will be a pivotal one, nearly as important as the one to follow, the last episode of this season.

According to online reports, the final episode of the second season of the show will reveal what the CDC scientist whispered to Rick in the final episode of the first season.

So anyway, I plan to be watching Sunday night. Not quite as spoiler-free as I would have liked, but watching still.

Johnny Depp as … Tonto? New ‘Lone Ranger’ image

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This is not your grandfather’s Tonto.

Today’s release of the first image from the new Gore Verbinski “Lone Ranger” movie has a few people doing double takes.

And it no doubt has some longtime fans of the radio and TV Masked Rider of the Plains and his Faithful Indian Companion perplexed.

I’m willing to wait and see if this new take on the Lone Ranger and Tonto will be a hit or a miss on the order of “The Green Hornet” (coincidentally a descendant of the Lone Ranger. But that’s a story for another time) remake.

I grew up on reruns of the “Lone Ranger” TV series, like a lot of late Boomer boys. I was born well after the show ended its run in 1957, but by the mid-1960s the half-hour Western adventure series was an after-school staple in TV syndication.

I even got to meet Clayton Moore, who played the Lone Ranger during most of the TV series, in the early 1980s when he was making personal appearances in wrap-around sunglasses instead of a mask. Moore had been appearing in public as the Lone Ranger for years after the show ended and Jack Wrather, who owned the rights to the character, sued to prevent Moore from wearing the mask.

When Moore appeared at Ball State University here in Muncie, I covered it for The Muncie Evening Press.

It was hard not to be touched — and a bit amazed — by this earnest man, whose greatest role had typecast him, but who was still turning out for 50 or 100 people at a time in cities all over the country, demonstrating his quick-draw skills (all the while advising kids on gun safety) and talking about the Lone Ranger creed:

I believe…

  • that to have a friend, a man must be one.
  • that all men are created equal and that everyone has within himself the power to make this a better world.
  • that God put the firewood there, but that every man must gather and light it himself.
  • in being prepared physically, mentally, and morally to fight when necessary for that which is right.
  • that a man should make the most of what equipment he has.
  • that ‘this government of the people, by the people, and for the people’ shall live always.
  • that men should live by the rule of what is best for the greatest number.
  • that sooner or later…somewhere…somehow…we must settle with the world and make payment for what we have taken.
  • that all things change but truth, and that truth alone, lives on forever.
  • in my Creator, my country, my fellow man.

Moore was one of a kind. I’d be surprised if Armie Hammer, in the new movie, erases any longtime memories of the original actor.

As for Johnny Depp and Jay Silverheels …

Silverheels, who died in 1980, played a character who I’m sure many consider undignified today, even though, as sidekicks go, he was hardly the laughingstock that Watson was to Sherlock Holmes in old Basil Rathbone movies. Silverheels’ Tonto was a brave, intrepid companion to Moore’s Texas Ranger character. And yes, he was definitely the secondary character.

It’ll be interesting to see what Depp does with the character. The look, as seen in this photo, is a variation — to say the least — from Silverheels’ buckskin-and-headband style. I honestly can’t comment on the makeup or the bird, but I’m guessing there’s a historical basis for their addition to the costume.

I’m more worried about Depp’s vow to make Tonto the more dynamic, more interesting of the two characters. Armie Hammer is no Seth Rogen — Hammer, from “The Social Network,” was set to play Batman in the “Justice League” movie that got canned a few years ago — but I’m worried the plan for “The Lone Ranger” is to make Tonto as cool as Kato and the Ranger as bumbling as Rogen’s Hornet.

Here’s hoping the movie doesn’t take a (silver) bullet.

 

More thoughts on “The Walking Dead” whisper

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Is there such a thing as a possible spoiler?

I guess there is, particularly when it comes to “The Walking Dead” whisper.

You remember the whisper. At the end of the first season of the AMC series, the doctor at the Centers for Disease Control whispers something to Rick. But what?

You might remember that I wrote about speculation concerning the nature of the whisper here. I’ve been reading up on it since and came across some interesting speculation.

Ready for those potential spoilers?

The prevailing speculation online — and we know how reliable that can be — is that the doc told Rick that everyone is already infected.

Presumably that means that everyone will eventually become a zombie, no matter if they avoid getting bitten or scratched.

That would explain the emphasis placed, in a recent episode, on Rick and Shane speculating on why two walkers had become walkers despite showing no visible signs of being bitten.

The “Walking Dead” comic book doesn’t solve the mystery and neither does creator Robert Kirkman who, when asked by The Hollywood Reporter, says, “Sure. Maybe. We’ll have to see (laughs).”

Kirkman is likewise mum on what caused the zombie apocalypse in the first place. He told “The Walking Dead” wiki, when asked about what happened, “…That starts to get into the origin of all this stuff, and I think that’s unimportant to the series itself, There will be smaller answers as things progress … but never will we see the whole picture.”

So while we might get an idea of what the whisper is, we’ll apparently never get a good idea of what caused the walker plague.

 

Shocker ending for ‘Walking Dead’ ‘Judge, Jury and Executioner’

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At some point in tonight’s episode of “The Walking Dead,” Daryl tells Dale, “The group is broken.” Dale, as the conscience of the group of survivors of the zombie apocalypse, doesn’t want to believe that’s the case.

Late in the episode, however, Dale echoes Daryl’s sentiments.

Tonight’s episode of AMC’s “Walking Dead,” “Judge, Jury and Executioner,” at first glance promised to be another talky, soap-operatic episode. Hershel gave Glenn his blessing in his relationship with his daughter. Dale appealed to the rest of the group for leniency for Randall, the hapless interloper they took prisoner. Andrea, who’s been closer to Shane than anyone recently, ultimately backed Dale’s stance.

But the episode was punctuated by a couple of notable moments:

Carl, Rick and Lori’s son, decided to go on a dangerous walkabout, encountering a zombie in a scene that provided some edge-of-the-seat suspense.

And the ending …

Spoilers ahoy!

After Dale makes an emotional appeal to spare Randall’s life in the show’s version of “Twelve Angry Men,” he succumbs to a random zombie attack out in a field on the periphery of the farm.

As Dale lays dying, Carl realizes the zombie who killed Dale is the one he encountered in the woods and couldn’t kill.

As if Carl didn’t have enough of a screwed-up future ahead of him.

Two more episodes remain in the season.

Cherie Priest says get ‘Hellbent’

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I have to admit the “urban fantasy” genre was new to me. Or maybe it wasn’t, but I just never heard it called that. I gather it’s a genre of fiction that involves vampires and werewolves and things of that nature (emphasis on the “things” part) but instead of hanging out in Transylvania they’re duking it out in the streets of NYC or San Francisco.

I became a Cherie Priest fan through her “Clockwork Century” steampunk books like “Boneshaker,” which is being made into a movie.

But I decided to try Priest’s urban fantasy book “Bloodshot” and was impressed. Priest is a master at finding the right tone for the period of her stories. The steampunk books are set in the late 1800s and “Bloodshot” and its sequel, “Hellbent,” are modern-day urban fantasies (there’s that phrase again) featuring a vampire named Raylene Pendle.

Pendle wears a lot of hats (not literally, although we do find out a lot about her wardrobe) here. She’s a vampire, a master thief, a kick-ass fighter and someone who acknowledges her own “issues,” including a healthy dose of obsessive compulsive disorder.

I don’t mean the “check the stove, check the door, check the stove” type of OCD (all too familiar to me). Raylene is self-proclaimed OCD in her worries over planning her missions. She acknowledges she takes too much stuff when she’s about to knock over a stronghold and steal some artifact (for a price). But Raylene doesn’t get bogged down in details when a case heats up. She’s got the super strength and super speed of a supernatural being and not afraid to take risks.

In “Bloodshot,” Raylene found her solitary existence in a made-over warehouse in Seattle changed by a couple of young humans she protects as well as a blind vampire, Ian, and a Navy Seal/drag queen named Adrian. About Adrian: Strangely enough, the character works and is totally appealing. A lot of pop fiction characters have a sidekick and Adrian is like Spencer’s Hawk — only he knows how to apply makeup.

In “Hellbent,” Raylene takes on one task for pay — the retrieval of several artifacts that are offbeat, to say the least — and one (maybe two) tasks that are personal in nature — working to clear up Ian’s status with his old vampire “house” (read family) and looking for Adrian’s missing sister.

That’s a lot of plot strands already, but Priest introduces another to the mix: Her competitor for the artifacts is the ultimate version of a woman wronged: A middle-aged woman with her own mental illness who uses magic to get vengeance.

The storylines don’t jell as well as they should, but there’s an appealing quality to the unsettled nature of the plot. “Hellbent” feels like a book that’s building to something, but there’s a good resolution to the story at the end so readers won’t feel cheated.

Above all, Priest’s characters are winning. None are more so than Raylene herself, who is as likable as an undead killing machine can possible be. How likable is that? Pretty damn likable, as it turns out.

It’s impressive that Priest has created two book series that feel as different as her steampunk and urban fantasy books. They read as if they’re by different authors, although both have Priest’s knack for appealing characters.

And “Bloodshot” and “Hellbent” have something else: A funny, dangerous heroine who will, hopefully, grace the supernatural world with her presence again soon.

The Great Newspaper Comics Challenge Part 3

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I’m way overdue for a look at the funny pages in this, an irregularly recurring look at newspaper comics.

The premise: The glory days of the newspaper comic ended with “Calvin and Hobbes” and “The Far Side,” but there’s still some good stuff out there. And if not good stuff, at least familiar. And you know the old saying: Familiarity breeds content. That was the old saying, wasn’t it?

In today’s Sunday strips:

“Garfield” talks about the weather. Seriously, this strip sums up my feelings about the transition from winter to spring. Standing outside, Garfield experiences sun, snow, rain, hail and wind. “I’m done with March,” he tells Jon.

Weather is the theme of the day. In “Classic Peanuts,” Linus grumbles about having to walk to school in the rain, worrying that he’ll catch  a cold. When he finally sneezes, he takes it as a sign to head for home. One more weather strip in my Sunday paper and I’ll take it as a sign the cartoonists collaborated like they do for those fabulous annual Arbor Day tributes.

“Pickles” actually has a pretty good joke that cat owners can relate to. Two people dispute the possibility that cats really care about people, noting that a neighbor with gourmet cat food could lure the cat away. “Muffin would never do that to me,” the lady says. “Would you Muffy?” The cat thinks — because cats don’t talk — “I’m doing it now. I actually belong to the lady down the street.” No weather.

In “The Wizard of Id,” campaign leaflets are tossed from a balloon and rain down on people below. Does that count as weather?

“Dilbert” features a robot with attitude that calls for a robot apocalypse. Does the end of the world count as weather? I’m sure the Weather Channel would claim it.

In “Hi and Lois,” one of the kids is sick and hopes he misses school. Hmmm. Counting “Peanuts,” maybe the real trend for today is childhood illness.

Meanwhile, Dagwood considers taking a nap at work.

In “Dennis the Menace,” Dennis and Joey try to hit Margaret with a snowball. I think that counts as weather.

In “The Family Circus,” Dad takes a nap and one of the kids gives him a teddy bear. Awwww …. and dammit. Now I think naps are the trend of the day.

“Non Sequitur” has the little goth kid complaining that it’s snowing when it should be spring. I think that settles the matter:

Weather: 6 (right? right?)

Kids too sick to go to school: 2

Grown men taking naps: 2.

 

‘Star Wars’ designer Ralph McQuarrie dies

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The man who shaped the look of the “Star Wars” universe has died.

Ralph McQuarrie might not be a household name like Harrison Ford and probably isn’t as familiar to movie fans as “Star Wars” creator George Lucas.

But McQuarrie — born in Gary, Indiana, in 1929, died today — is responsible for the designs and images we think of when we think of the “Star Wars” films.

McQuarrie was chosen by Lucas to create concept art for the first “Star Wars” movie to help Lucas sell the idea to 20th Century Fox. McQuarrie painted the figures, weapons, ships and worlds used in the film. They are images indelible in the collective memory of movies and pop culture.

For fans like me, caught up in the imaginative world of “Star Wars” when the movie was released in 1977, McQuarrie’s “Star Wars Portfolio” was a must-have item that’s still on my bookshelf. I spent countless hours studying McQuarrie’s paintings.

The portfolio collected prints of the paintings of McQuarrie, showing the early looks of the characters. His design for Darth Vader is surely one of the most familiar figures from movies — ever.

What always fascinated me about McQuarrie’s designs was the little differences between the concept he visualized as the finished movie: Pointy ears on Chewbacca. Headbands and beards on some of the characters. Gender differences (as Lucas refined his story and characters). Characters other than Jedi using lightsabers.

McQuarrie painted designs for other films, including “Close Encounters” and “Cocoon,” for which he won an Oscar. “Star Wars” made him a legend.

McQuarrie and his talent will be missed.