Monthly Archives: August 2014

Gotham – Cast on the Zipline

It is hard to believe San Diego’s Comic-Con International was a month ago!  This coming weekend DragonCon will be taking place in Atlanta Georgia and FanExpo Canada will draw a crowd in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  The three conventions have a lot in common, but for many San Diego’s Comic-Con International is still seen as kicking off the summer convention season, and it becomes understandable when you consider the displays and demonstrations that take place each year.

One such example was the cast of FOX’s Gotham taking their turns on the zipline in front of the Gotham City Skyline, and the Gotham City Police cars that were roaming around the gaslamp area offering rides to convention goers.

That’s what happened last month, here’s looking forward to my first trip to Fan Expo Canada, and hoping to hear from friends about DragonCon which I have not made it to in far too long.

On Monday, Sept. 22, origin story GOTHAM (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) kicks off.  The series follows one cop, destined for greatness, as he navigates a dangerously corrupt city teetering between good and evil, and chronicles the rise of the great DC Comics Super-Villains and vigilantes. The entirely new, untold chapter comes from executive producer/writer Bruno Heller (“The Mentalist,” “Rome”) and stars Ben McKenzie (“Southland,” “The O.C.”), Donal Logue (“Vikings,” “Sons of Anarchy”) and Jada Pinkett Smith (“Hawthorne,” “Collateral”). 

Guardians of the Galaxy – Movie Podcast

John Mayo, of ComicBookPage,  and Kay Kellam, of PopArtsPlace, have a spoilers filled discussion about the 2014 Marvel Guardians of the Galaxy movie.

Time Codes:
00:00 Intro
00:36 Spoiler filled discussion
51:16 Wrap up
51:46 End of episode.

Links:
Guardians of the Galaxy (by Abnett & Lanning): The Complete Collection V1 Trade Paperback @ Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Guardians-Galaxy-Abnett-Lanning-Collection/dp/0785190643
Guardians of the Galaxy @ IMDB.com: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2015381/
Discount Comic Book Service: http://www.DCBService.com
Comics Podcast Network: http://www.comicspodcast.com
League of Comic Book Podcasts: http://www.comicbooknoise.com/league/

Email us at TheGuys@ComicBookPage.com

Join the discussion on our forum at: http://forum.comicbookpage.com

This podcast episode originated on the Comic Book Page feed and website: http://www.ComicBookPage.com

Longmire – The Cold Dish

For three seasons on A&E Walt Longmire (Robert Taylor) has been the determined Sheriff of Absaroka County Wyoming.   His friend Henry Standing Bear (Lou Diamond Phillips) has shown audiences what a true friend is, being the man who will stand by Walt when his world feels as though it is falling apart, because his wife has passed away, and having his back in all situations.

Vic Moretti (Katee Sackhoff) if a no nonsense deputy (undersheriff?) with the skills the county needs in the Sheriff’s department to help solve crimes and uphold the laws, but also to support their Sheriff and balance his skill set.  She may not be a local girl, but she brings city cop training, knowledge of ballistics and Crime Scene solving into the mix.

These are all characters that Craig Johnson brought to life in his series of novels that began with The Cold Dish.  With nearly a dozen Longmire novels, seven of which were in print before the series began airing, the characters had taken form and the relationships were clearly defined… and many aspects translated directly to the show beautifully.  Yet there are aspects that were clearly changed, noticeably and yet not in a negative way, just in a way that as I read I stopped and said, “hmm, I see what you did there,” and took a moment to wonder why.

In the Longmire from Book To Screen Deluxe Teaser, which predominantly contains sample chapters from the books, there is a foreward by Craig Johnson which talks about some of the changes that took place, and the process of going from his original books to the Television series.  He specifically addresses the age change of the title Character Longmire, who is older in the novels than on the TV show.  The change was made, quite simply, to afford the show more seasons, and while they did make him younger, they did not do it so dramatically or drastically that I found it distracting.  And I felt that while they shaved some years off of his age, they did not shave off so many that negated the possibility of his back story, they simply changed the details of it, and it still works, because he is old enough to have still had time to have had a job before he was Sheriff, to have lived a complex life, etc.

I felt they also changed aspects of the relationship between Longmire and Lucian Connally… and as so often happens when I have the opportunity to read source material I want to go back and rewatch the entire series from start to finish and get a better idea of how close the two works are to one another.

I started reading The Cold Dish, the first Longmire novel, days after I watched the season 3 season finale.  I was in awe of how the season ended, knew I had the Longmire novel at hand, and wanted to spend more time with the Longmire characters, so the timing, in that respect, felt perfect.

Throughout the novel I was aware I had seen this basic plot on the show, and yet it felt… different… there was a familiarity to it, without a full on sense of deja-vu, which I appreciated.  I felt like I was along for a ride with old friends, without feeling like I knew what was coming around every turn, and there were no surprises in store for me.  By the time I got to the end, I was certain I had encountered the crime before, and yet, while I have a fairly good memory for the who-done-its, Craig Johnson had surprised me, and I wanted to know what I had forgotten.

After a little digging around I found that I was correctly recalling similar plot points were in the tenth episode of the first season, and yet, I do not feel it would be fair to say that the episode was pulled directly from this novel — so while each might give you hints and things to think about while enjoying the other, I’m not convinced either will help you solve the who-done-it in the other.  And yes, to me, that makes each twice as powerful.

I for one am grateful there are nearly a dozen more books for me to read in this Penguin Mystery series.  While I cross my fingers, and join the multitudes hoping for a fourth season, at least I’ll have some reading material to keep me from missing Longmire and his pals too much.

For more info, you may want to visit: Craig Johnson’s Website

Longmire, A&E’s contemporary crime thriller set in Big Sky country, is based on the Walt Longmire mystery novels by bestselling author Craig Johnson. The series stars Australian actor Robert Taylor (The Matrix) as Walt Longmire, the charismatic, dedicated and unflappable sheriff of Absaroka County, Wyoming, along with Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Gallactica) as his right-hand deputy Vic Moretti, Lou Diamond Phillips (Numb3rs), Bailey Chase (Damages), and Cassidy Freeman (Smallville)

Outlander – The Way Out

Outlander – The Way Out, the third episode of Season 1, is a particularly interesting episode.  One of the subplots of the episode is directly from the book, and the entire episode feels like it could have been pulled directly from the book (and some scenes appear to have been shuffled into this episode out of earlier chapters of the book) but if you are reading along in the novel Outlander you need only finish chapter 9.

Chapter 10, approximately page 178 of the novel, is where The Gathering begins in earnest, and as it happens, the title of episode 4 is slated to be… The Gathering.

Episode three might be one of the best episodes for those wanting to get a feel for how the book is being translated to the screen.  The plot-point that was taken as a subplot directly to the screen was the one that, as a reader, struck me as significant, and telling about multiple characters.  In an earlier article I remarked that it can be interesting to see what scenes in the book are so significant that every person in the collaborative process that it takes to make it a tv show is struck by that scene and agrees it needs to be on the screen.  As a reader this was one of those scenes I hoped they felt the weight and impact of.

The subplot they added, the character they created, to me made perfect sense, and again spoke volumes about every character that interacted with him.

Episode three had a nice balance to it, some moments that spun on the intonation with which lines were delivered, and the body language that characters made sure only one or two others saw… it was this deliberateness in some cases, and subtlety in others that kept my eyes on the screen, and kept me interested from start to finish… and had me wanting to re-read the book yet again, wondering if there were things I had missed, things I should have noticed, things I might now understand differently because I could quite literally see them differently having just seen them on screen.

It is quite safe to say Diana Gabaldon’s series of Outlander novels stand alone quite successfully.  And the STARZ Outlander television series likewise stands alone, and can be viewed independently of the books and a compelling drama unfolds before your eyes.  But the two, in combination, create this extraordinary experience, where one sets you up with questions to ponder and ask as you experience the other… whichever you experience first keeps you guessing during the other even though you are pretty darn sure you know the journey you are being taken on.