#fridayreads – 5 Questions with Jay Bonansinga, co-author of The Walking Dead novels

I’ve done several “5 Questions With…” features on my blog since its inception, but I’m hoping to make it a more regular occurrence.  Since Friday is also known for Friday Five, it just makes sense to move this feature to Friday as well, don’t you think?

I’m starting things off with a bang – with the New York Times bestseller and co-writer of The Walking Dead novels, Jay Bonansinga! Before he teamed up with Robert Kirkman for this project, Jay was responsible for 16 other novels including the Stoker-nominated The Black Mariah.

© 2011 jill brazel photography

I got my first taste of The Walking Dead book universe with the first in the series – Rise of the Governor.  This book already had a few things going for it:  it was part of TWD’s universe, it focused on The Governor, and it was well-written.  I had big plans for the book in terms of promotion at Borders.  I was presented it right before Borders went belly up, and I was immediately ready to make it the focus of my October 2011 promotional efforts.  Those plans never came to fruition unfortunately, so it’s especially cool that I was contacted about helping promote the second book in the series.  I jumped at the opportunity!

So, without further ado, here are my Five Questions with Jay Bonansinga.

What’s it like to be part of the Walking Dead universe and to be able to work with Robert Kirkman?

Best job of my career… really.  Twenty-five years in the horror field, sixteen books, 60 short stories, a gig with George Romero, and an absolute LOVE of zombies, and I feel like I have been in training for this work my whole career.  Love it, love it, LOVE IT!!

Now that the comic has transcended to just about every form of medium, do you find it challenging to make sure the novels stand out in the crowd?

Yeah, absolutely, it’s really scary and fascinating to see the novel form pitted against these sexier mediums… but that is what’s SO interesting about this whole experience, the books are self contained and yet perfectly conformed, like genetically modified organisms, to the comic and TV series.

The first novel focused on the origins of the Governor and the latest novel mainly focuses on Lilly.  Do you anticipate branching out into different parts of the world in future work, or are you going to stay close to Woodbury?

I want to do this until I die… so, yeah, I see it branching out… in fact, I want to do it beyond the point that I die, especially if I turn and come back as a zombie, in which case I will continue to write, although my penmanship will suffer.

What would you say to fans of the comic or fans of the show who haven’t given the novels a chance to entice them into checking them out?

I would say that the novels are like having sex with a lot more foreplay, and it’s really excellent foreplay, so come on… if you want to just get your rocks off, fine, but don’t you want more foreplay?  (Is this a family publication?)  Editor’s Note:  We’ll let it slide

Who’s more fanatic:  Trekkies, Star Wars fans, or Walking Dead fans?

I would say either Trekkies or Star Wars fans are more fanatic… Walking Dead fans are more like GRATEFUL Dead fans… and we all know Dead Heads are too stoned to be fanatic.

Also, if you want to give it a shot, Paste Magazine posted the first three chapters of The Walking Dead: Road to Woodbury HERE!

31 Days of Halloween Hijinks: The Walking Dead Super Post

Day Sixteen: The Walking Dead Super Post

Sorry about how late this blog is, but I wanted to wait until I watched the Season Two Premiere of AMC’s The Walking Dead before I posted this.  Not that I want to offer up spoilers, but I will say that as a huge fan of the graphic novel, I continue to be underwhelmed by this show.  I really liked about half of the first season, but after that point, I felt the show kind of lost direction and got a bit hokey.  Plus, the finale at the CDC was completely unnecessary, especially with how many engaging, and completely devastating storylines Kirkman has written in the comic that would be great to see adapted.  Sure, I get the fact that it’s not possible (hell, it may not even be desired) to do straight adaptations, but in my opinion, the majority of the writing for the television show on Season One just doesn’t hold up to the source material.

Still, overall, it was a good show with a lot of potential.  I was excited AMC renewed the show for an entire season.  Everything was great.  Season Two just had to touch on Herschel’s Farm (which production stills confirms), and Michonne and The Governor would definitely need to show up, right?  With how far the TV show has already strayed from the source material (Shane Walsh anyone?), it’s hard to say how they’ll treat the next phase in the group of survivor’s journey.  All I know is that if they end up turning Merle Dixon (I do think his brother – Daryl Dixon – kicks ass though) into the Governor, I’ll be completely pissed – especially after reading Kirkman’s stunning, and absolutely terrifying, origin story for The Governor (read it ASAP – seriously…one of the best zombie books since World War Z).  Seriously, I was speechless after finishing it; I felt uncomfortable (in a good way) as the story unfolded; and I had horrific nightmares on more than one occasion after reading a chapter or two each night.

READ THIS BOOK ASAP!

So, to me, season two of Walking Dead has the deck stacked against it.  Not only is Frank Darabont no longer involved with the project, but the show’s writing staff was fired and weren’t replaced.  Instead, writing duties were handled episode by episode.  I wonder if not having a dedicated writing staff will make the show feel disjointed.  Only time will tell.  And, no matter how hard my fan boy radar is going off, I will do my best to distance the world of the comics with the world of the show.

Episode one of season two kind of dragged a bit for my taste (and it almost seemed like they were trying to push the boundaries of violence without having to change the rating to TV-MA), but I completely realize it was essentially a bridge between the finale of season one and the set up for the first major conflict of season two.  All I can say after watching the first episode of the new season is BRING ON HERSCHEL’S FARM!

And, the best thing about waiting for episode two of The Walking Dead is that AMC has started their annual Fear Fest, so there’s plenty of good stuff to watch in between episodes.

UPDATE:  In very sad, completely bummer news, I came across this link, which confirms Season Two will not include Michonne, Tyrese, or The Governor.  That sucks.