098 – Inside The Walking Dead With Jack

The Walker Stalkers: A Podcast for Fans of The Walking Dead

Who’s Jack? Well, he’s a little bottle we shared during this podcast. James handled it better than Eric. Are you surprised? In this podcast episode we share our review of the AMC “Dead, White & Blue” Special, the :30 Sneak Peak of Season 5, Inside the Walking Dead special and a Comic Book review of The Walking Dead comic and the new Robert Kirkman comic, Outcast. Lots of fun on this one. It gets better with every shot of that Tennessee Whiskey. Enjoy Walker Stalkers!

Warning! There are Spoilers, but we save them until the end.

FULL TRANSCRIPTION OF THIS PODCAST BELOW:

Episode 98- Inside The Walking Dead with Jack

[Music Plays]

Eric: It’s big ole 98. Welcome to the 98^th episode of the Walker Stalkers. We are back live after what seems like forever. Here we are man..

James: It has been forever..actually how long has it been?

Eric: I think the last time we actually got on live was I know May.

James: WOW!

Eric: Yeah

James: WOW

Eric: I know…it’s pretty pathetic.

James: You had to like learn that computer thing again.

Eric: (laughs) It took me like 5 times to get this opening right…sorry about that. But here we are. How you doing neighbor?

James: I’m doing awesome.

Eric: Whatcha been doing , whatchu been up to?

James: ummm We did Walker Stalker Con Boston..

Eric: Yeah- you did it without me.

James: I know..

Eric: and of course it was the best one

James: It went off wonderful. However we did a week at the beach and back and ramped up and ready to roll on everything Walker Stalker

Eric: That’s right and I took a little trip across the Atlantic. Spent a month in Europe and got to see my homeland, watched a lot of World Cup Soccer which ,by the way let’s give it up for Germany, way to go, Deutschland ,wins the World Cup, …only 4 billion people were watching it.

James: It was a great game.

Eric: Did you watch the whole thing?

James: I did

Eric: I watched it with your son.. he was over. We had a good time. It kind of put a cap on all of the soccer we watched over in Europe.

James: I watched a ton of soccer too. I mean it was on, if there was a game on it was on in my house. Doesn’t mean I was glued to it but I was watching. I loved it, it was great.

Eric: For you guys it was on in the afternoon, for us it was on late at night. Well for the first game it was on at 7 and on at 10. We didn’t go to bed until 1 o’clock every night.. it was worth it. Anyway this is not a podcast about soccer.

James: Did you get a Germany Soccer Jersey?

Eric: I actually got Germany underwear. I am wearing it right now.

James: I was going to say you can wear them in public but you can’t wear them in public.

Eric: I show it to very few people, top part because that is the flag. I won’t show the bottom part [laughs] We won’t go any further than that. Alex wore his Germany T-shirt. We are in the spirit man…I am 98% German

James: What’s the 2%?

Eric: Um you know, I don’t really want to talk about it. It is kind of a sore subject. It happened a long time ago…many ,many generations ago. We don’t want to go there..

James: Ok

Eric: Let’s move on.. something else…

James: Alright…

Eric: We’re having whiskey, Tennessee whiskey..

James: We are back to Tennessee

Eric: and let me tell you everybody I told over in Europe, I told them I was from Tennessee, “Oh Ya the whiskey, the whiskey” The all knew about Tennessee whiskey.. I thought for sure “The country music” but no it was the whiskey….ok here we go. We are going to take another shot..

James: in Walker Stalker shot glasses

Eric: Yep, Walker Stalker con shot glasses

James: Ok here we go, ready?

Eric: here we go

Eric: (coughs) ahhhh WoW, James… I think you might have to take over.

James: (laughs) Das Boot! of whiskey!

Eric: Das Boat..

James: Boat or Boot?

Eric: Das Boat.

James: But you drink it out of a boot…

Eric: Oh that’s what you are talking about… Where’s the beer stein I got you? I got you a really nice stein actually..

James: I use it actually as a coffee mug (laughs)..

Eric: (Laughing) Finally something big enough!

James: It’s porcelain like a coffee mug..

Eric: It is, it is…alright..so guys, we have got a lot to talk about today. First of all it is the middle of the summer and we are not going to talk a lot about the con but we will talk about it afterwards.

James: But we are going to talk about a con that we are going to in a couple of weeks.

Eric: Yeah…. This little thing called San Diego Comic Con…

James: oh my gosh…

Eric: I can’t believe it. James, everybody has kind of been making fun of me on the Walker Stalker Con core team that I am a SDCC virgin, which I am. You have been many times, you are mister experience and I am kind of new at this. So I hope you will take good care of me.. and show me the way.

James: oh you are going to have a blast. You are going to be in awe because it is like nothing you have ever been to.

Eric: It’s not like our con?

James: It is nothing like our stuff.

Eric: It seems like it is going to be very promotional…all the films, all the production companies.

James: It is, it is but it is just like going to Disneyworld. It is just this massive thing and you know, to do stuff you have to stand in lines. . There is so much Walking Dead stuff for us to go take in which is going to be a really cool thing.

Eric: My understanding is that you have to wait overnight to get into the Walking Dead Panel.

James: yes I have got people that will hopefully be helping us by sleeping out on Thursday night…

Eric: So we have stand in sleepers..

James: yes- so when we land hopefully we can just meet them in line and get in.

Eric: That would be amazing..

James: would be Huge..

Eric: We got to get into that so we can watch the trailer.. will we be able to watch the trailer for season 5 anywhere else.

James: Last year when I was there I wasn’t able to get into the panel. So I was on the convention floor so almost simultaneously when they revealed it in the panel it got released online so I watched it that way.

Eric: Right….excuse me….I am starting to burp up some whiskey (laughs)

James: OHH! (Laughs)

Eric: We will see how the rest of the podcast goes. Um… so we are going to SDCC and I can’t believe it. It wasn’t in our plans..

James: No. It kind of came together. Everybody knows that we did some Walking Dead Escape promotion stuff, um, so we are going to go check that out too. Kirkman has got several panels we are going to go watch. Hopefully finally get the chance to meet or interact with the guy. Um, we are coming up on episode 100…How cool would that be?

Eric: If we got him (Kirkman) to join us for episode 100?

James: Friday, we have the Walking Dead panel, right after in the same room is the Game of Thrones panel.

Eric: Wow

James: so if we are in the room for The Walking Dead we are in the room for Game of Thrones

Eric: Will we still be able to stay?

James: Yeah, they don’t clear out the hall. Then later on in day you have the Arrow panel and Orphan Black..

Eric: In the same hall?

James: No..they are in different rooms

Eric: I have no idea how big Orphan Black actually is.

James: I don’t either actually and it’s interesting the room they put them in is not as big as the ballroom 20 or Hall h which is where everyone goes. I really got to think that show is picking up steam. It is so good!

Eric: It’s great, it’s really great…you are into season 2 already..

James: yes..that is all Friday. If we get in to see walking dead and maybe orphan black we’ve done really good to get into 2. If we get into 1 I am going to say we are pretty fortunate.

Eric: right, right

James: It’s just so many people wait hours…people will go to panels in a room like 6 hours before just to see the panel they want

Eric: right…so you have to sit through all the ones you aren’t that interested in..

James: Yes. So it will be interesting to see how that works.

Eric: So those of you from last year remember we did a meet up. We won’t be doing that this year. I don’t think.

James: Friday night we have been talking about getting together with some people and hanging out. Friday evening.

Eric: Pay attention to Twitter and Facebook..

James: by the way there is this lady by the name of Evangeline Lilly that will signing autographs Friday and Saturday ..

Eric: Oh no…. you met her last year

James: I did..

Eric: You want to meet her again?

James: Of course (laughs)

Eric: I would love to meet her…one of my bucket lists

James: Buy one of her books..

Eric: Did she just write a new book?

James: No…the same book again…like Willy Wonkers or something..

Eric: yeah. I still haven’t read it but I can’t wait to meet her. Let’s try it. Let’s try to meet her. Is there a Star Wars thing going on?

James: No there is no Star Wars panel

Eric: There is so many mock trailers out on Youtube

James: some of these things are amazing

Eric: they look great I was like “ here is an early trailer” but there is no way because they are just filming right now. But anyway..

James: So we will be there Friday and Saturday. We are flying in Friday morning and flying home Saturday night.

Eric: that’s right.. thank you to our wives for letting us go. Allowing us to go. So we are going to be missing the Diesel filling Station event here in Atlanta but we are going to be sending a crew because they are going to be having a big Zombie Pub Crawl.

James: Right- we will have a tent so everybody in the Atlanta area should go to this thing. It is going to be nothing but zombies, bar hopping, music, zombie activities

Eric: Jason and the guys at Diesel Filling Station just do it up. We will be back there later at least one other time for one other event.

James: right we are going to do the Braves Zombie night. I gotta think that we will be back one maybe two more times for planning.

Eric: Right so we will doing a promotional zombie night on August 15^th at the Braves game so definitely join us for that if you are in the Atlanta area and then we will do a whole bunch more. We have a great team of people in the Senoia/Atlanta area really thankful for them, so big shout out to them…you know who you are. Another thing that we are going to start doing in this podcast.. we are all caught up on the comics. I am. I am very proud to say that I am all caught up on The Walking Dead Comics. Finally taken Chris Pendleton’s advice and read the darn things and you know what? They are pretty good.

James: They are pretty good.

Eric: Not just pretty good they are very good and I love where this is going so we are going to do a review of hopefully each comic as it comes out. These are coming out how often now?

James: They are back to once a month.

Eric: Right

James: second Wednesday of the month is when they come out. They were going every 2 weeks until All out War.

Eric: So my plan is to record this podcast on a Wednesday and then have it release on a Thursday morning for you guys. So one of the things that we really want to do better is do these on a regular basis from this point forward so you guys can know to count on us and of course since this comes out on a Wednesday, why not do it. We always do a Thursday podcast during the season.

James: It will still come out on Thursday we will just have it ready

Eric: Some Thursdays we will just play a panel interview and some Thursdays we will try to get a live actor from the show…cast/crew to talk about various things going on. So, uh, here is what we are going to do. We are going to talk about these bits of video that have come out. I want to talk about The Dead White and Blue that happened over 4^th of July weekend. I want to talk about that little teaser video and I also want to talk about behind the scenes of The Walking Dead because that was phenomenal.

James: that was great

Eric: So, in case you don’t know..we loved it. We want to talk about that in detail because that was awesome Then we are going to get into review of the comic, we are going to talk about a new comic that Robert Kirkman has coming out cause I really do want to touch on this a little bit. The Outcast comic-pretty awesome- and then we are going to talk about news and if there are any spoilers in our conversation we are going to try to keep them to end. That is why we want to keep the comics to the end because that is kind of a spoiler for you guys that don’t read the comics. So if you don’t want to listen to that part that’s fine, we want to try to do a good job of keeping spoilers away. Alright so let’s have another, so during this little musical interlude- we are going to have another shot of jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey. This is our third one. Here we go..

James: Number 3..to the news..

[MUSIC]

Eric: Alright in the news , James, here’s what has been happening lately in The Walking Dead, thankfully I got Google alerts that alert me with anything happening with The Walking Dead..you should too.

James: [laughs] Thanks Eric

Eric: You’re welcome, your welcome Google…you needed my advertising.. Here we go. The Walking Dead brick building [laughing] here we go guys. We are going to start with the most important news…The Walking Dead brick building sets are now available. Have you heard about these James?

James: I have

Eric: did you ever play with Lego’s when you were a kid?

James: So first of all, when I first heard the news Macfarland has come out and tried to clarify what the product actually is..

Eric: Yes, let’s clarify this

James: When I first heard the news I just thought that they were coming out with more action figure sets with back drops and settings. This is like all out almost lego’s

Eric: it is almost Lego’s but it’s different than lego’s , it’s better than lego’s

James: They are painted..

Eric: It is like a piece of art

James: right, things are painted onto them and you build them. However what I am disappointed with is that it does not appear that there is much flexibility with the sets. It looks like..

Eric: Once you put it together you can’t play with it

James: Right it’s a setting.. You can’t create whatever setting you want. Like this is a road. You got a road.

Eric: Yes, that’s what it is…It is pretty cool though, I mean and it’s kind of like one of those things that you put together once and you never take it apart again. It’s probably not something you want to “ Hey Junior… here’s the Macfarlane Walking Dead Set for you”…

James: “Here’s the Governors fish tank setting…Just add Water”

Eric: Just add water! (Laughs) “Here’s the prison scene..”

James: “Here’s Lori giving birth” (laughing)..”Glenn and Maggie in the drug store”

Eric: Yes!! Before and after! Oh Lord, it does include Daryl’s motorcycle and a bunch of zombies. There are parts of the prison, in fact I think you can put the whole prison together which is pretty cool. So Macfarlane good job I’d say. Now if Lego’s is doing this they would make it completely different..

James: They would

Eric: Do you think Lego’s would ever do a Walking Dead Theme..

James: Not now, obviously not now. But didn’t they do a zombie thing?

Eric: No they didn’t do that.

James: they have like a vampire thing.

Eric: They have like a Medieval thing..

James: They did Munsters

Eric: did they really? The actual Munsters

James: They did..not the actual munsters

Eric: Ohhh Monsters..

James: Oh sorry, pronounced differently…MOOONSTERS.

Eric: I remember you used to do that when you drank the Monster drinks. You would say Munster drinks..and I was like “What?? The Adams family?”..

James: Speaking of toys though. You know what I saw today that was cool?

Eric: Uh-oh you are reaching for the Whiskey…

James: Hershel Pop Vinyl where his head actually detaches and he comes on crutches with missing one leg.

Eric: I have had several people ask us if we are picking that up at SDCC..

James: We are picking that up at SDCC

Eric: let’s give a shout out to Jason Hill one of our great volunteers. He was one of the first to ask me personally if I could pick some up for him

James: Sure…I don’t know what the limitations are because sometimes those things at SDCC you can only buy so many per person. Last year they had like 3 or 4 unique ones, well they weren’t unique, just painted different or something.

Eric: I am liking my little collection here

James: It looks good

Eric: The only thing that stands out is Miranda sings. It doesn’t make any sense with the bobble head.

James: No it makes no sense.

Eric: you know one thing that we haven’t done for a while is light our Jesus catholic candle.

James: Our Mexican candle/

Eric: We need to do that sometime.

James: How about now?

Eric: No I would have to go upstairs (laughs) I keep my pack of cigarettes up there

James: Does Krissy know this…

Eric: No I am breaking it to her (Laughs)So next in the news great little change up here. Walking Dead Comic Con plans ahead for season 5. No. we don’t need to talk about this..

James: no we don’t need to talk about that

Eric: The rest of the news is actually spoiler news. So we will talk a little about that at the end.

James: ok at the end of what?

Eric: at the end of our podcast. There is some spoilers..

James: You know when we talk about the comics the whole thing is full of spoilers

Eric: Right so it will be right on the back end of the comics. But there is this theory going around. This Star Wars Terminus cannibal theory. So we will give you a little preview..

James: Oh Gimple talked about it.

Eric: Gimple talked about it so I want to make sure that we talk about it ok? So that’s it for the news, lets get into our video segment. Talk about all of the latest stuff that AMC has been throwing out there to get us excited about season 5. So Dead White and Blue did you watch it?

James: I did, it was on in the background.

Eric: at least it wasn’t in black and white this time

James: Although some of those episodes were cool…. I didn’t sit and watch . I kept it on hoping they would show a clip. They did the same thing last year so I didn’t have high expectations.

Eric: Did you watch season 4 at all again? Because we need to do a season 4 rewatch sometime later on in the Summer, August/September leading up to this season. We will re- watch season 4 again.

James: I watched bits and pieces.

Eric: did you watch The Talking Dead at the end?

James: I did

Eric: what did you think?

James: Disappointed..

Eric: Really? Why? I was in Europe so I have an excuse.

James: yeah, First of all I enjoy The Talking Dead but I am not a huge fan. The reason why is I don’t really care what the celebrity actors have to say when they come on the show.

Eric: You care but you just don’t care…its all just the same thing

James: No, I don’t . Honestly it is no different than you or I giving our opinion. What I enjoy is when someone affiliated with TWD is on and they are giving their thoughts or insight

Eric: immediately after the episode

James: when they show little factoids and stuff like that. That’s the stuff I really like. I really don’t care about the celebrity.

Eric: you love the celebrity..you don’t care I just want to clarify because people get mad and write bad reviews

James: right…Gimple ..we know Scott… He is not going to let anything leak, unless he intentionally does it. It really turned into this whole recap of season 4 there was nothing presented about season 5…Gimple gave up nothing. I guess the only thing leaked was we will see Emily again- we will see Beth.

Eric: surprise not really

James: Kirkman said that already. One day we will see Neagan

Eric: Alright great and it won’t be Jon Hamm

James: Beyond that they gave nothing and they build it all weekend long. Preview of Season 5.

Eric: and what did we see?

James: We got a 30 second clip that could have been an outtake from Season 4!

Eric: It was carol and we know it was a scene from the 1^st episode of season 5/ there was nothing about it. There was a lot of walkers..

James: I kid you not someone wrote an article on that 30 second clip and said “we don’t see Daryl, we don’t see Andy they must have all died”

Eric: (laughs) Really? Oh come on.

James: really. Someone sent me a link.. ”This is a real article”

Eric: they are all dead… they are all out of contract

James: my least favorite thing that now happens is that anyone with a website and keyboard writes walking dead articles because they know people are going to go to them. And people write the dumbest shit in the world.

Eric: Wow, James. That was the whiskey talking..

James: No that was me talking…the whiskey will talk in a little bit after a couple more. It really is just stupid stuff to draw people to their website. Crazy theories on people dying “Steven Yeun is dead he hugged somebody on the lot as he was leaving for the day…oh my gosh he hugged somebody”

Eric: “An extra 3 seconds he hugged somebody” come on guys

James: “they patted his back… he never gets his back patted”

Eric: “They patted his butt…he never gets his butt patted” I don’t know where I got that from.

James: you know, not spoiling anything, and not actually talking about anything but there has been some really crazy things coming out of Senoia the last couple days

Eric: we will talk about that…we will save it for the spoilers at the end

James: should we do that?

Eric: Just some of it. I don’t want to talk…I don’t like spoilers. I am trying to control my tongue. I tend to spoil stuff throughout the podcast and I am tired of bad reviews. Darn it I am determined! No more bad reviews on iTunes

James: anybody that complains about bad reviews deserves to get bad reviews on itunes. You just got us another one.

Eric: Oh no…I think the Jack Daniels is calling..

James: Going back to what were talking about

Eric: No I am serious..

James: What number is this one?

Eric: number 4 and it will be one of my last…

James: One of your last.. (laughs)

Eric: here we go…

James: Ugh HAHA! Ok so we saw Carol and Tyrese running from zombies on the railroad track

Eric: that’s the teaser everybody!

James: watch them not even use that in the episode.

Eric: Whatever, its nothing new.

James: No, its not new at all.

Eric: I don’t remember last season when they started talking about a new enemy in the camp, in the prison. There was something…what were they saying.. there was a sickness.

James: no we didn’t know what it was..

Eric: It was a new threat

James: Right it was a new threat and..

Eric: we haven’t gotten any of that yet. That will probably come in August

James: Teasing? I think well actually it will be interesting to see what happens with the footage from the season 5 premier which we will get at SDCC

Eric: we need to do some kind of live streaming podcast thing there,

James: It would be cool, I am not sure how we would do that.

Eric: so I could record stuff throughout the day and we will create our own sort of podcast at night.

James: we could pretend like were interviewing people

Eric: We could pretend… So that is kind of our negative review about the 30 second teaser

James: and The Talking Dead and the teaser..Now..

Eric: let’s talk about what we loved. That Episode Inside the Walking Dead from last Tuesday behind the scenes and then this week Tuesday we will have Zombie School. That is going to be interesting. We are are going to watch this very closely. We still have a goal to be walkers on the show.

James: Someday

Eric: So we are going to be paying attention

James: We will practice

Eric: You guys take notes and we will have another episode next week or this week about this. But anyway let’s talk about Inside The Walking Dead. What I loved about this is that we got to see some amazing crew. All this crew that just blows it out of the water. And by the way let me just mention that is crap that we did not get any more Emmy nominations.

James: It is it really is and what is disappointing is that some of the shows that got Emmy nominations are just really bad shows.

Eric: They are terrible shows. Terrible. I was very disappointed. No actors got nominations.

James: I really thought Melissa McBride was going to get best supporting.. Like if I had to bet on one..

Eric: She would have been it. Absolutely she deserves it without a doubt. No but The Inside the Walking Dead was amazing. Of course it starts out with Greg Nicotero and KNB effects group. I had no idea that he did over 700 films and that he has a 20,000 square foot building where he keeps all this stuff. Everything from his Jaws days to current zombie stuff. It just blew me away to see some of the behind the scenes stuff with KNB effects.

James: Yeah, I would love to go there…

Eric: Where is that?

James: It’s in LA

Eric: we will have to do that some. This episode had a lot of Denise Huth. Which we have never had on our podcast.

James: No and here’s my thoughts on Denise. Denise is the on- set executive producer.

Eric: Yes- she is very involved

James: She is in the middle of it. Her, maybe next would be Gale, I think there are some other people that we are not so familiar with. I think they named one of them now as an executive producer that I did not know..

Eric: I have never seen him before

James: Then we have Dave Alpert

Eric: I think Dave is from the other side the Skybound side, from Robert Kirkman’s side. He is involved in that.

James: he’s involved of course Greg is an executive producer

Eric: Tom Luse (spelling) is another one that we saw a lot of. But no I think it was awesome. I saw Jason from The Walking Dead Cast did you see him?

James: No, no..

Eric: they showed scenes and he was right there prominent right in the screen

James: Oh really?

Eric: yeah

James: How did I miss it

Eric: from when he was a zombie in season 2

James: the barn stuff? You can see Jason.. I will have to go back and watch it tonight.

Eric: Yeah I told him about it

James: I had it on but I wasn’t paying complete attention to it, I was doing some work

Eric: You don’t actually work James, come on

James: No, no

Eric: Costume design was really cool with Eulyn and Hollis (laughs)

James: Hollis (laughs)

Eric: That was so cool!

James: Yes!

Eric: Now Hollis is her…

James: He is another..

Eric: Another costume design guy. So that was kind of fun to see those two because we have gotten to know them through Walker Stalker Con…Eulyn looking beautiful and fabulous as always does a great job with costumes. And Hollis is really funny just sitting and talking with him and then seeing him get all made up that was really awesome. Of course Eulyn judges all of our zombie bash parties. She is awesome, she is a trooper, love her. And then they went into locations. They talked a lot about.. there was a lot of guys that are involved in locations…blew me away

James: What is it like, what did they say like there is 150 people?

Eric: 150 people on the crew. Then they got into special effects..

James: Think about that though..150 people and how really.. how much doesn’t get out.

Eric: No kidding

James: It really is impressive.

Eric: One thing about this episode that I thought was amazing they talked a lot about locations and special effects and visual effects and props.. they covered a lot of stuff and stunts. One of the things they didn’t talk about was any of the writing. They… I don’t think Scott Gimple…maybe once was shown. Goodness…You would think that he would be in there…or more of those writers would be in there..

James: Yeah-that would be interesting to see what the writers room was like how they plan things.

Eric: What the process is for putting that together..

James: Right. Lost used to do that.

Eric: Really?

James: Yes, in the video podcasts they would show some writers room stuff and they would show, they would have on this wall the professional headshots of all the actors and there would be these massive X’s over people.

Eric: (laughs)

James: and I remember pausing it and trying to go “alright anybody have an X on it did they let anything out” of course not.. no

Eric: No, its pretty cool. I was amazed at how much of the shots are being done.. 80% of the wood scenes are done on the production lot. That one lot..

James: yeah- that one lot is massive.. the acreage for that place

Eric: you can’t get in it.

James: we have kind of driven past

Eric: we tried to break through didn’t we?

James: noooooo

Eric: I’m just kidding ..no we didn’t

James: we have driven past. You can’t see the prison. I am disappointed that they took down the prison set.

Eric: I am too. I hope they put it back up but I don’t think they would

James: I don’t think they’re going to. It’s just disappointing that I am never going to get to step foot on that.

Eric: I kept thinking about Walker Stalker Con and how much we want to do in Atlanta and I want to get as many of these guys from Inside the Walking Dead at our con.

James: Yes. Well we have Eulyn and Eugene Paige- the set photographer..

Eric: Isn’t he in KISS as well..no no that is a different guy (laughs)

James: We also have another guy who is in the sound department. It would be great to have the special effects guy , the sets…

Eric: Oh yeah, I made a list…

James: Give me that list and we will see who we can get to come along.

Eric: In addition to Gimple and Kirkman of course

James: Those guys would be really nice to have (laughs)

Eric: It was just really great, just watching some of the behind the scenes footage. Some of that footage was from season 1 and 2 that they kind of threw in there….Did you learn anything from Inside the Walking Dead that you hadn’t learned before?

James: I don’t know if I learned anything of significance, just tid-bits stuff that I thought “that’s an interesting fact” but nothing that was “Oh my gosh that’s phenomenal that they do that” Cause some of the stuff they have covered on the Blue Rays. The behind the scenes stuff. I still love seeing the stuff and hearing more about it. To me the most interesting part was Eulyn’s segment to be honest. The things she sprays..

Eric: yes that was cool.

James: how she actually creates the costumes. I know she is actually going to doing something similar at her panel. She is going to do an demonstration this time in Atlanta.

Eric: Yeah the cool thing this time at Walker Stalker Con is that we are going to have two different panel rooms. We are going to have a celebrity panel room and have a… really for crew and maybe for other panels that don’t fit into that larger panel room. That panel room is going to be right in the middle of the convention hall and we are going to do a lot of demonstrations from actual people from the crew are going to be doing stuff…like what Eulyn showed/ demonstrated. I think it’s going to be neat. I can’t wait.

James: Me neither

Eric: Ah man, and it just got me siked for Walker Stalker con Atlanta which to us is like our comic con- our San Diego.

James: Right, That’s our Grand-daddy

Eric: yes that’s right- it’s our granddaddy

James: our granddaddy of them all.

Eric: alright, so that’s kind of Inside the Walking Dead and I am looking forward to this weeks episode Walker University- Zombie school. Going to be cool. I am going to take notes. Ok we will talk about that next episode. Alright so that is pretty much it for the video segment of our podcast. We are going to jump into our comics.

James: Let’s do it….

[Music]

Eric: alright James. This comic. Thank you for pushing me to get into the comics. First of all I just want to give a heartfelt thanks to you.

James: I always felt that I knew what I was….

Eric: that you knew more than me

James: No, No no, I always felt that we couldn’t get into it on the podcast and we needed to or we would have guests on

Eric: and you would know the stuff and I wouldn’t

James: so it just never..

Eric: Oh no…you are pouring #5

James: Well we have to with each segment right?

Eric: Oh jeez..I don’t know if I can handle one more.

James: you can handle it…

Eric: this is my last one. I am calling it quits.

James: it always felt like I couldn’t really say as much and if I did someone would get angry

Eric: I know and we would get a bad review

James: Right? So listen I am glad you are caught up now, it’s really cool.

Eric: Thanks

James: and I was reading it and I was ahead of you when we picked them up at the store. So we are on 129?

Eric: this is 129 even now they still find new ways to dispose of the dead. That is what this one is called. First of all I really love these comics I really really have fallen in love

James: we haven’t talked too much about it. Let me ask you this.. .What do you think about the time jump?

Eric: I love the time jump. I think it is great because actually because there are time jumps in the TV show that we have to deal with. Like this one I really feel like we are going to have to deal with a lot of time jumps because there is a huge difference between Carl…and I really worry about the child actors…chandler Riggs because he is growing up…he is shooting up pretty big. I love the time jump. I love the change in hair styles

James: Yes, the looks

Eric: I didn’t know how long this time jump was but I think it was about 2 months in the future. I love the new look for Carl with his glasses…ones dark one is see through.

James: he is totally a teenager now

Eric: he is. He is totally a pubescent teenager, and I loved that he has actually been talking. Why the hell would Rick would let him talk to Negan?

James: I have no idea..

Eric: Why would you let your teenage son talk to …

James: Especially given all of the angst and crap that he went through with Negan..

Eric: yeah and the language (laughs)

James: yeah.. why would you want him down there if he cusses a lot. Um yeah, but I mean it is really cool. I mean we still haven’t seen a lot of people. We haven’t seen Michonne..

Eric: You mean in the new time jump?

James: yeah..We haven’t seen Maggie..right?

Eric: No but they were about to in 130 he is heading to Maggie. He is heading to the hilltop- Carl is.

James: so it is really interesting what is going on.

Eric: I love the new characters…I love Magna..

James: Magna is really cool

Eric: I love the Asian character…I cant remember her name but I love her. She is fantastic.

James: Magna is really intriguing. Especially because she has no clue with what is going on with anybody and of course where this book ends with her down there with Negan what it appears to be is that she going to let him out.

Eric: I hope not

James: first of all why would you do that?? Rick says “when I get back I will take you down and let you talk to him” so it wasn’t like he was really hiding the guy..

Eric: I know, I know, I just wish these people would trust each other a little bit more. Its frustrating (laughs) to me.

James: It looks like everybody else trusts them. Here is my only problem. I think it is the last book “We will trust you when we trust you” Why isn’t somebody watching these people? (laughs)

Eric: Of course there should be a spy or an assistant

James: a chaperone

Eric: a chaperone for these people….they shouldn’t be allowed to just roam around

James: no

Eric: there are some chinks in the armor going on in the new group. I like these new guys Marco and Ken on the road. Really curious to see what is happening with these two guys. Really surprised – I read it in 127 that Jesus is gay. Nothing wrong with that but I was surprised because he was such a badass so I guess that is why Kirkman did that

James: well, yeah, Kirkman did take a lot of flack from Christians for using the name Jesus and making Jesus gay.

Eric: From non-Christians too. He didn’t purposely do that. He explained it actually

James: right. He kind of took some flack. But actually I think Jesus is awesome

Eric: I love Jesus (laughs) in more ways than one…

James: Jesus in this book is so cool… his new look

Eric: I love his new hairstyle…his ponytail…Samurai Jesus

James: I think its really interesting… I think what the nice thing is though “hey I never really thought” it’s nice to see someone be gay and they don’t have to be feminine.

Eric: Right absolutely

James: That goes back to my whole theory on the show that I personally think Daryl Dixon is gay

Eric: you are still sticking to that stupid theory..

James: I am still sticking to that.

Eric: One of my favorite things about these comics is the letter hacks at the end. I really enjoy reading

James: yes! Well Kirkman is great at responding to these people

Eric: a lot of one liners a lot of fun stuff. A lot of things that Shawn Rathburne (spelling) actually adds to it sorry actually Shawn Mackowitz. Which is fun. It actually inspires me that we need to do more with this stuff. I would like to get more callers to our podcasts and then respond to it. We don’t get callers or at least we don’t take callers. We don’t take FB messages or Twitter..

James: hello what are you talking about. Its called our instant reaction podcast..

Eric: that is during the season but it would be kind of fun to do more of that stuff.

James: I don’t know…its dangerous when you start letting other people talk.

Eric: I’m kidding

James: since we are kind of getting caught up here what did you think of All Out War?

Eric: You know most of the time Negan and his gang were mostly winning but it seemed like very quickly the group found themselves and totally messed with the guy.

James: Did you think..

Eric: I didn’t think that Rick was going to die, maybe that guy, what was his name… didn’t lace the arrow with anything.

James: He didn’t

Eric: he was really on their side

James: Right. Did you think that rick had killed Negan?

Eric: I did I really did. I was disappointed that he let him live. I mean I love the character and I am glad he is still alive

James: Negan even says that in this new one that he is going to get out. Be it now or 30 years from now…he is going to get out and he is going to try to kill Rick

Eric: I think so too. I think it took a lot of balls for Rick to keep him alive. I think that Rick is a very inspirational leader in this comic and I can see why people like him so much.

James: when the one guy who was out on the hill or the road who wasn’t doing his job Rick just lost it.

Eric: Surprisingly

James: what is that about? Is that just demonstrating that old Rick is still there.

Eric: I think that he is still trying to show him who is boss. And that was pretty bad ass I think that guy was pretty freaked out by Mr. Grimes.

James; I think because he didn’t realize who he was at first.

Eric: didn’t realize it. And obviously the guy had not done his job. Well done this comic is…

James: If I had my choice I would like to see the comic not focus on a human enemy for a while. I would like there to be some sort of outside threat with the walkers or with something that is of significance instead of just “here we go let’s bring Negan back again”

Eric: something that you don’t understand like a..

James; or some greater mission or event occurance. I think it is time for that.

Eric: I think it would be interesting to see something from the remnants of the US Army something to give them hope beyond this whole new world.

James: They have lost the exploration part.

Eric: If they come up with another enemy it’s like “Okay well, here’s Neagan 2, you know? “ To be honest with you I don’t know how Robert Kirkman keeps things fresh the way he does.

James: Well he’s probably got like he does with the TV show…he has got this big story arc I think he knows where he wants the story to go so along the way he’s got these markers ..

Eric: It’s pretty inspirational actually. It makes me think of the stuff I’m doing ..just creative stuff outside of Walker Stalker Con and podcasts and stuff. Just kind of have an outline of 2-3 years ahead.

James: You do that?

Eric: I do do that. I am thinking 2-3 years ahead. Yeah man, definitely. My kids are about to graduate.

James: I’m interested in the next year…

Eric: (laughs) one step at a time. Anyway, pretty cool, can’t wait to meet Kirkman. Hopefully we meet him in San Diego. That would be fun.

James: That would be cool.

Eric: Let’s talk quickly about this Outcast comic.

James: Yes!

Eric: I feel like I should be taking better care of this comic..

James: Because it’s issue #1 right?

Eric: right…I did spill a little bit on. A little water on it. Ahh crap.. I like it because it is in full color. Do you think the rest of them will be in full color?

James: I do, yes. It’s a choice with you know The Walking Dead Comic that was a choice being black and white and this one being color

Eric: I read in the back Kirkman said the preorders for this one were higher than TWD. Each episode…each comic.

James: yes versus episode 129

Eric: that is pretty incredible. So what did you think of this Outcast?

James: I enjoyed it. It is definitely something that I will look for when it comes out.

Eric: It’s once a month as well?

James: yep. Look for it when it comes out. You know its another…where some of his stuff is different than the TWD….

Eric: More superhero-ish

James: Well not everything is superhero-ish..This is more my along the same lines…the monster/horror genre. So it will be interesting to see where he goes with this. I think it was done really well.

Eric: I think theres aactually this trend… and I know the demonic stuff has been out there for years as far as the horror stuff but..This demon possession idea is I think, again you are mixing very spiritual things with horror with characters that you desire to follow and you are looking at little Easter Eggs in this comic that maybe 20-30 issues of this comic that you are going to later find the answers to. There is just a lot he does in this comic that is really brilliant how he presents an issue that makes people very curious. And speaks to the majority of Americans in particular who are interested in things spiritual. So in the way zombies have a spiritual element as well, but zombies aren’t as realistic as a demon possession..

James: The zombie is more the apocalypse

Eric: The end times…

James: Right, things like that

Eric: This is like stuff that could happen in real life and probably does happen if you are a spiritual person in any way. I like where this is headed and I thought that he was the one that was demon possessed. But he’s not. It’s the 2 other people around him.

James: So it will be interesting. We will let the people read it.

Eric: Outcast check it out guys. James we are nearing the end of the podcast.

James: Ohhh well we have got one more shot.

Eric: Ahhh crap

James: Come on…this is what? #5?

Eric: this is my last one

James: This is my last one too

Eric: Ok good

James: cause I have to walk home

Eric: You have to walk home…I have to sleep tonight.

Shots taken

James: You can’t sleep after this?

Eric: UGH..(coughs) I can’t breath after this

James: Well you are going to sleep now

Eric: I don’t think so…..

James: No?

Eric: no dude, this is the most intense.. this is like we are making up for lost time.

James: yeah we haven’t done a podcast in ….

Eric: We usually drink beer, we usually drink Shandy’s!

James: that is usually soft core

Eric: this is hard core!

James: We drink Shandy’s!

Eric: jeez, James how many of these Jack Daniels do you buy a month?

James: about 1 every 3-4 months. I don’t drink that much. We don’t drink as much as people think that we do.

Eric: Very impressive, I’m a softy. I don’t know about you but I’m a softy.

James: It’s yueng ling, shandy’s that’s about it that I buy.

Eric: I don’t buy hard liquor at all

James: I have some tequila

Eric: Do ya? You like tequila?

James: and Orange Juice

Eric: with the worm?

James: Orange juice, no worms.

Eric: I like the worm.

James: I’ve got worms…

Eric: Well that is a whole other issue.. Alright so a couple of things here. Many of you guys have probably read if you follow…this is the spoiler section by the way…

***SPOILER ALERT***SPOILER ALERT***SPOILER ALERT***

Do no read past here if you do not wish to read spoilers…

Eric: if you have read anything in the news lately you have kind of heard about Carol and Daryl being stuck in a car on a bridge. Which it looks as though it is about to fall off of the bridge. Apparently Beth is not the only one that is missing on TWD. According to some intel from The Spoiling Deads FB page..

James: I hate those guys.

Eric: You do hate those guys? Let’s not give them any cred then.

James: I am going to be honest with you. Here’s why.. all they write..

Eric: You don’t hate them

James: Okay I hate what they do. They write a lot of speculative stuff and in this world people take for fact and run with it. And they have been wrong about so much stuff that it is ridiculous. I also don’t like is that they put it out there. Don’t put that stuff out there.

Eric: who are those guys?

James: I’m going to be honest with you I have no idea. Honestly I am really surprised AMC has not shut them down.

Eric: really? They just kind of do their own thing and say what they want.

James: The stuff that they write about that’s not the stuff I want to know about…I don’t want to know about spoilers that occur on the episode. What I don’t mind is the gossipy type things

Eric: There has been filming, they have been spotted filming Carol and Daryl stuck in a van on the edge of a bridge…ok so what does that mean for all of us? Do we see Daryl and Carol connecting? (laughs)

James: Here’s the thing..here’s what we do know. We have already covered that this is the spoiler stuff. The city of Senoia has granted TWD 2 more years and they are building the set for Alexandria.

Eric: ohhhh wow. Well we always knew that. This is going into season 6 and 7

James: I don’t want to know who dies or turns into a zombie…And some of our understanding is that Jon Bernthal and Jeffry DeMunn were in town this weekend.

Eric: Ohhh backstories?

James: Backstories maybe or some people say death dinner. The cast is coming into town because somebody is dying on the episode. Remember Gale Ann Hurd talked about it.

Eric: Oh gotcha. Ok so there have been a few death dinners or at least one that we know about. Sure. I mean its bound to happen.

James: So its either one of those two things. Its either a flashback or maybe they were just visiting.

Eric: You know looking at the comics vs. where they are today or when this AMC version of the show is on, there are a lot of characters on the show that are still around that maybe shouldn’t be that are dead in the comics so,

James: and, of course, major one, Andrea is alive and thriving in the comic books

Eric: Right, the girlfriend/ mom of Carl, you know. Girlfriend of Rick and mom of Carl. Yeah I think that it is interesting to see how much of Gimple…I think that Gimple is going to take more from the comics than the previous show runners..

James: I agree- I think that we are gonna see more strict to the comic book

Eric: Seems like it because Gimple is a big fan. So like Kirkman said 99% sure Negan is coming in. We don’t know but we can assume that Terminus is cannibals is some form or another. I would be completely shocked if it wasn’t the cannibals right? Wouldn’t you?

James: I would be.

Eric: So next would be Negan

James: down the line a bit.

Eric: a few other groups to come into play

James: in terms of the comic book storyline we are only in like #60 or #70

Eric: Somewhere around there

James: We have like 30 more to go until we get into Negan.

Eric: well that is why he has written through season 6, Gimple, that’s why he says he has that season all laid out.

James: I don’t think we will see Negan this year. If we do it will be like the tail end

Eric: End of season 5

James: Right, I think next year we will see Negan

Eric: It’s gonna be cool. Dude we have so much to look forward to.

James: We really do

Eric: Not only that but we have the off shoot episode…the spin-off of TWD. Who knows what that is going to be about. I have to say, all this time I spent in Europe I spent a lot of time in Rome in Germany in Italy and I would just love to see in these old Castles and the environment of the Europe scenery. I know it’s not going to happen probably but I would love to see TWD in Europe as the spin-off. Something completely different because just the vibe and the environment is just so suited for zombies and the apocalypse. I gotta make a petition right here that this new spin-off is going to give us a backstory of how this entire apocalypse started. I would love to see that.

James: I don’t think it will.

Eric: Really? I just don’t want to see like West Virginia or Kentucky or …

James: No I agree with you but I think that these stories are so much better when they don’t have a starting point to be tied to.

Eric: You think so?

James: yes

Eric: I just don’t want to see like other characters in another scenario very similar… It kind of reminds me of…one of the things I hate about Survivor that TV show Survivor is that it is always on an island its always the same scenario. Why not put us in Alaska in the cold? The freezing cold in like another environment. That’s what I would love to see and to get in a very similar environment, well its just not that exciting.

James: I agree but I don’t think they will do it

Eric: Really?

James: I don’t. I think it will be something very different

Eric: I think it will be but I would like it to be very, very different. That’s my take, take it or leave it

James: I agree with you

Eric: ok that’s after 5 shots of whiskey. That is really all about it that we have seen. Let me point out one other article where Scott Gimple compares the Star Wars/Cannibal theory.. let me read this to you..

Article pasted here as read by Eric;

““Walking Dead” fans have been dying for any news regarding Season 5, and despite the series being based off of comic books of the same name, there have not been any serious spoilers.

The Season 4 finale of “The Walking Dead” concluded with Rick and the other survivors finally entering Terminus, the supposed miraculous safe haven in the midst of an endlessly chaotic zombie apocalypse.

It is unclear what the situation at Terminus truly is, but fans do know that the group is finally reunited, however they are locked away in a train without any tools or weapons.”

Eric: blah blah blah…

“When compared side by side, the painting does bear a striking resemblance to Mary, “ from Season 4 which we know about. So here it is . here’s the zombie Walking Dead

“After hearing “The Walking Dead” show runner Scott Gimple comments regarding Mary, the painting and Mary herself may be a more complex character then simply a blood sucking cannibal. During the 4th of July “Talking Dead” special Gimple admitted that the character of Mary was loosely based off of Luke Skywalker’s Aunt Beru of “Star Wars.”

Eric: Which to be honest with you I can see the similarities.

“If you are like me”

Eric: Who is the author of this article from The Latin Times of all places

Continues reading

“and don’t know the familial tree of Skywalker, I’ve provided a “Star Wars” refresher. Aunt Beru and her husband, Owen raised Luke Skywalker, Owen was constantly smothering the boy in attempt to keep him from turning out like his biological father, Darth Vader. However, in comparison, Aunt Beru pushed Luke to make his own choices and urged him to follow his passions, even when it came time for Luke to go to the Imperial Academy to become a stormtrooper. ‘That doesn’t mean that Luke is a bad guy,’ said Gimple when discussing Skywalker’s desire to go to the Academy. ‘He was just going with what he knew … that might say something about Terminus if you could follow me at all.’ Now while admittedly the “Star Wars” theory is a bit complicated, it could be a way to explain Mary, Gareth, Terminus, cannibalism and even that painting. Fans do not know the full backstory of Mary and Gareth, but based on the “Star Wars” analogy, fans can assume Mary raised Gareth, she could be his biological mother or not, the main point is that there is most likely a mother-son relationship between the pair. In addition, Gareth may not be the villain, he was made out to be in the Season 4, cannibalism may be the only thing he knows, and the only way to survive in this zombie apocalypse. Like Luke Skywalker, Gareth may only be following the steps his father, most likely now deceased, had put in motion to keep the sanctuary of Terminus up and running.

So where does Mary and the painting fit in to all of this? Well, Rick’s group gets out of the train car, and without any tools to break through, we are assuming that the group convinces a resident of Terminus to free them—and I believe that person is Mary. Continuing the “Star Wars” comparison, Gimple made a point to clarifying that Aunt Beru gets ‘barbequed’ in the film,”

James: But Mary is standing in front of a BBQ

“…in addition to his word choice, which can’t be a coincidence, Mary may suffering the same fate if she releases Rick’s survivors. Finally, the painting, I do believe that the painting is meant to be Mary. However, the two X’s provide significant clues, in addition to the red paint, which symbolizes the blood from the cannibalism at Terminus, the two X’s aptly placed over the female’s eye and mouth, may be a sign of her refusal to see and say anything against the horrific act of actually eating people. If Gareth is her son, she would be fearful to speak out against him, and in an attempt to express her true feelings emotionally added the ‘blood’ and black X’s to the painting she discovered in an abandoned home. “

James: That is a lot to take in.

Eric: It is but I kind of like the Aunt Beru comparison and Gareth, trying to make Gareth to be this good guy who you have sympathy for because that is all he knew was eating people.

James: I just think they are all bad

Eric: Is Gimple just throwing us all off?

James: I really think, other than the BBQ thing with her, I just think it’s a throw off.

Eric: I think it is just way too much attention that we are putting on these Terminus people and I think actually think after episode 1 or 2 we are going to be out of Terminus and moving on to something else. Don’t you think?

James: I actually do, I really think that a few episodes in we are going to be moving on. It doesn’t necessarily mean that we will be moving on from the people of Terminus…

Eric: you think one or two of the people are going to join us?

James: no no no no…meaning that they may escape from Terminus but they may still be dealing with the people from Terminus

Eric: How so?

James: They are chasing them, trying to kill them/ hunt them down, that kind of thing

Eric: So you think Carol and Tyrese end of meeting up with the rest of the gang?

James: Here’s what I think from that scene (Season 5 mini trailer) [silly voice] They are running through the woods, running through the woods, oh no I trip, get up oh look what’s on the ground…it’s Ricks guns…

Eric: Oh yeah…no he buried them pretty good don’t you think?

James: Hmmm there is probably something sticking up or something; I mean that is what I think. “Where is Rick and everybody…Oh they are in there” blah blah blah “Let’s get them out…they are free! Let’s run” Episode 2.

Eric: Right [laughs] then we move on. Oh man I can’t wait till October 10^th.

James: I don’t know how they do a season 5 trailer, just a couple of minutes and show anything without giving up that they have gotten out of the train car.

Eric: Now remember last year at this time and this trailer gave away way too much. Remember? you were like “Why did they give that away and that away” we knew that Karen would die.

James: Yes, Yes…They showed that Karen died!

Eric: Right basically.

James: you could take enough of the clips and figure it out

Eric: Let’s see if they do a better job this time

James: they have not historically done a good job. You’ve got Axel dying…

Eric: I think they will do a good job with this trailer. The trailer last year was pretty amazing I remember being pretty psyched for the next season.

James: Right…those who arrive survive..

Eric: Alright that is kind of our little spoiler section and pretty much the end of what we are going to be talking about . We are 5 shots in to Jack Daniels Tennessee Whiskey.

James: And still talking very well

Eric: I am not slurring are you slurring?

James: No

Eric: I’m good. I could take another one.

James: Let’s close it out

Eric: ok let’s close out the show and let’s not take another one. I’m kidding.

[End of the show music]

Eric: Alright, well let’s finish this up by talking a little bit about Walker Stalker Con Atlanta, what we have to look forward to, James

James: We have a lot to talk to and talk about [laughs] one of the really cool things that we actually started tonight being Sunday night we put up some banners for auction. About 17 of them, some of them are signed few of them are unsigned. They are from various people some were just laying around. I organized things today..

Eric: Good job

James: I hung them in the basement so they stay wrinkle free. Some of them are for sale, all proceeds got to St. Judes again. That is something to look for. Bid away. You can find the links through Facebook or google Walker Stalker Con banner and you will find all of them there. These will end Wednesday night

Eric: What do those typically sell for?

James: We have some that sell from 40-60 bucks and then we have had some to sell for 4-500 dollars depending on the level of the actor

Eric: random side note. I have a friend named Kristina Marie. She has just become aware of what I do with Walker Stalker Con. She was just up in Parsippany, NJ meeting Ian Somerhalder who is going to be at Walker Stalker Atlanta..Do you know how much she paid to get a photo with him?

James: How much?

Eric: 129 buckaroos. That is a lot of money. How much will they pay for Ian Somerhalder at Walker Stalker?

James: $50

Eric: No freaking way

James: I think it is $50…may be $60.

Eric: That is half of what they would pay. So come on guys. This was like the Vampire Diaries Con up in NJ.

James: Con news. We have announced Dallas and NJ

Eric: Dallas Roberts?

James: Dallas Walker Stalker Con

Eric: Dallas Walker Stalker Con? are you serious? I thought you were talking about Dallas Roberts…Milton…I love him! He can’t come…why?

James: He can’t come…he never says yes. We have announced two more events Dallas and NJ.

Eric: When is Dallas

James: Dallas is March 14-15 and New York is the 12-13 of December.

Eric: My homeland..NJ.. I still can’t believe we wrote a check to The Meadowlands

James: I know

Eric: I am a huge Giants fan, well I mean I am a Titans fan but I used to be a big Giants fan.

James: You’re a Giants fan

Eric: not as big as I used to be

James: We will announce another city for 2015

Eric: No freakin way

James: Hopefully this week…that will be 7

Eric: Any clues…any geographical clues?

James: No…

Eric: Cactus?

James: No, no cactus. Warm

Eric: Warm?

James: it doesn’t mean anything because it could be during the Summer time. But yeah that will be our 7^th event. We are all out going on Atlanta. It will be amazing

Eric: Guys, I am telling you, you will want to be in Atlanta. It is the mega con for Walking Dead Fans

James: And look we do a really good job at all of our other cities. I will tell you this since we are in Atlanta and that is where the show films, we have the ability to do so much more. Bring in so many more people because they can drive from their houses.

Eric: Cast and Crew

James: Drive from their houses each day which makes things so much easier on everybody so that even if they are in the middle of filming they can take an hour and a half… a couple hours and come here and talk about the show. So is just so much stuff that we can do there that we can’t do in any other city. So when people are like “ you should bring that guy to NJ too” I’m sorry it is just not going to be feasible but we are bringing 28-30 other cast members

Eric: 2014 has Atlanta coming up

James: and NY

Eric: 3 floors in Atlanta that we have to work with. We have two convention floors. We have got two panel rooms.

James: We have got the main floor which is booths and actor autographs, we have the second floor which is our artist dealers a panel stage that seats 600 and more autographs and then we have a 3^rd floor which is our panel room that seats 1200 it has standing room for another 3 or 400 and then photo ops are on the same level. Then we have a 4^th floor which is where kind of like our green room.

Eric: Our volunteer room. Don’t try to break into the 4^th floor

James: No, no…we will have security there. It is just so massive. 210,000 square ft.

Eric: That is crazy

James: just to give everyone an idea we used just about 75,000 square ft for Atlanta last year

Eric: We are going to have 2-3 times as many people for Atlanta I think.

James: I think we are expecting between 20-30,000 people

Eric: And how many VIP’s do we have for Atlanta?

Jason: Let me clear about this

Eric: Be clear

James: Listen people. The maximum number of VIP’s will be about 750. That is 3% of all attendees for this year

Eric: But that is including celebrity VIP’s

James: Yes,

Eric: that’s not just regular VIP’s

James: No that’s all/ every level of VIP only 750 people out of 20-30,000.

Eric: And how many guests do we have for Atlanta?

James: Right now we are in the 50’s

Eric: That’s pretty much where we are going to stay

James: Well technically I think we will add about a ½ dozen more

Eric: Okay

James: But I mean it is…the people are like I can’t believe you got so many…we don’t’ see 1000 VIP’s per 10,000 people like some other conventions do

Eric: We are not 10%

James: No

Eric: We are like 3%

James: Which is not even like 10 people right? Its like some guys leg

Eric: Right…it’s like 3 in 100 people..

James: [laughs] right..there you go.. that’s a really good way to put it Eric. Just some of the things that we are doing. One of the favorite things that came out this week is that we are putting the Platinum level VIP’s on the stage with us.

Eric: Hello…! How many more platinum’s do we have to sell?

James: They are gone

Eric: They’re done

James: They are sold out. I added 5 more because we can sit 15 on each side of the stage.

Eric: We have 30 platinum’s. So you can actually sit on the stage with us during the panels. During the celebrity panels…that’s amazing

James: Some guy was like “Well what if I want to sit in the front row?” [laughs] you want to sit in the front row instead of on the stage…

Eric: Right. it’s going to be cool. I am psyched. You have done a great job you and, we have an amazing Core team of people

James: We do.

Eric: in the volunteer crew for Walker Stalker Cons. How many volunteers have signed up like 900?

James: yes

Eric: I don’t think we will use that many but we will use a lot of them. Thank you guys for volunteering. I think we are pretty closed to volunteer applications.

James: yes, thank you. We were sitting here this time last year…

Eric: Freaking out, thinking we would actually make money and not lose my house

James: You quit…

Eric: By July I think I had quit 3 times. Thanks for letting me keep going.

James: It has been an unreal experience um and just the things that we are going to try to keep adding every time we go out.

Eric: I just want to make it really really great for everybody. I am excited about adding the crew as many crew members are willing to come. I am excited about some of the guest announcements we have not announced yet that we are still working on and finalizing. I am also really really excited about…..one more thing.

James: I am excited about the interactive stuff

Eric: yes the interactive stuff and the live streaming that we plan on doing. Anybody that is a listener and can’t get to Atlanta, we are going to set up live streaming so you can join us for the panels and for additional interviews that we are going to be doing. We have a section for specific media that are coming to the con and we will be doing interviews with all the guests coming to the con. You will get to ask questions, you will get to participate. That is kind of neat way for anybody that can’t come to the con that’s a way for you to join. So look for that. Its going to be a live streaming opportunity for you guys. Anyway I didn’t realize that we were going to talk about this con but there is so much to talk about. So much fun stuff happening. Anything else going on buddy?

James: No that’s it…

Eric: We have got some friends coming in town this weekend..

James: We do, we do! Hacksaw Jack and the gang coming in. We are going to do a parody music video and we are going to do a couple other parody skits so it’s going to be a lot of fun. Kind of the same stuff we did last Summer. Be great to do a few…

Eric: So look for that. You might see Michonne again with a hairy chest.

James: I have been told I am playing Beth Greene. I am not shaving my beard though.

Eric: You would be a great Beth Greene. Don’t shave the beard. I am sure Emily Kinney would be honored by your portrayal of her.

James: You know what, I was thinking. Who is the girl from Frozen with the ponytail? I am going to see if I can get an Elsa wig.

Eric: I think you should.

James: and then I am going to get a yellow Polo with some blood on it

Eric: Keep the beard..

James: Keeping the beard.

Eric: That’s perfect. You are good looking as a woman as well as a man

James: What are the words to …

Eric: Let it go..

James: No, not Let it Go, I am thinking of her song …

Eric: Build a Snowman? Oh….Take Home Julie

James: Take Home Julie!

Eric: Take Off Julie!

[laughs]

James: The Julie song…maybe I will sing the Julie song

Eric: maybe you will. Maybe you will do a whole music video with the entire cast and crew in the back. Do you think she would like that or do you think she would think you are a freak?

James: I think she would probably have private security… and I wouldn’t be able to get close to her

[laughs]

Eric: I think we would see Emily Kinney cancelation very soon there after…. I love Hacksaw Jack. He has kind of been our… He was in Boston…He has been one of our stars and his star is rising..

James: Cosplayers

Eric: These Cosplayers…he’s got a crew of 7-8 people that kind of follow him and they do the cosplay together. I got to tell you there aren’t that many that do it better than those guys..

James: Nope, they do a great job. I am looking forward to it. It’s going to be a lot of fun

Eric: I can’t wait till next weekend. I changed my plans so we could have that time open.

James: Rock on

Eric: Alright buddy I’m excited, you are excited, we have had 5 shots of Jack…

James: I’m a little disappointed.
Eric: Disappointed?

James: 5 shots of jack I figured we would be giddy and losing it by now

Eric: I’m sorry…we are not as giddy. I think it just emphasizes the mood that you are in and I am in a little bit of a sarcastic mood and I am not as giddy goofy as I thought I would be Jack has let us down..Maybe next time we will get back to Jack and see what happens

James: I don’t know

Eric: Alright guys we love you

James: thank you everybody…we will talk to you next week!

Eric: next week!

James: and then as we are heading off to San Diego

Eric: yes we will have live updates, live reports from San Diego

James: Alright everybody..See ya!

Eric: Bye!

Closing music…