Comic Con is an annual convention for comics, television, movies, anime, manga, and various other forms of entertainment, held only in a select few states throughout the country. Sand Diego Comic Con, the first of them all, began in 1970, opening doors for others to join in later.

New York Comic Con, or NYCC, is one of the largest, second only to the originator, SDCC. They began holding the convention here in 2006.

A friend of mine began going with his family when he was 13, and two years ago, he invited me to go with him. Unfortunately, I couldn’t go, but I made it a goal to go the next year. I went, and it was more than I expected. There are actors from popular television shows who participate in panels, where they discuss their feelings on the characters they represent, and to answer the questions of insane fans.

The Walking Dead is one of the frequently featured television shows. My friend and his family love the show, but I had never seen much of it myself.

We went to their panel, which required us to leave at 3 a.m. to get on a line outside the doors by 4:30 a.m., and wait to get into another line just to secure a place in the panel later that day. We get into the panel after some fighting with people who claimed that they were at the front of the line, and we sat in the fourth row; not too close, not too far. The cast spoke for about an hour, and the fans asked their questions, and then, exclusively in the case of The Walking Dead, a sneak preview of the season’s first episode is shown to the crowd. This was during the opening of their fifth season. It was pretty gory. I just remember the head bashing and neck slicing into what looked like a urine trough.

It was impressive.

Now, a year later, I have decided to watch the series in time for them to premier season six at the conclusion of the NYCC weekend. I have also decided to place my personal thoughts and reactions here. If the reaction of those blood hungry fans we met inside the panel was any indication of how great this show should be, then I will definitely try my hardest to finish before my deadline.

So here I go. And yes, I realize, I’m about five years behind. But I like to pace myself.

So, the first episode opens with some guy the audience doesn’t know yet walking in a hospital gown through a parking lot. He’s alone until he sees a blonde little girl with her back turned. She turns to face him, but her face it a disaster, with her lip ripped open, eyes wide, and what remains of her mouth is foaming. She proceeds towards him, but he shoots her in the face, which I personally enjoyed.

The show moves to a flashback that shows why he was hospitalized. Rick Grimes was a sheriff who was shot and severely injured. He slipped into a coma, and wakes up alone in the hospital. He leaves and tries to find his family at his home. He gets attacked and wakes up in some other man’s house. The other man, Morgan lives in a house with his son Duane, and took Rick in because he was one of the first living people they had seen in a while. Morgan updates Rick on what he has missed during the coma, with no direct reveal on why most of the world is undead. Morgan has heard that there are safe places to escape to, and invites Rick to come along. He denies, stating that he needs to find his family, and they separate.

His wife, Lori, and his son Carl are shown at a camp with Rick’s best friend, Shane. Shane believed that Rick was dead, and took Carl and Lori to keep them safe.

The story moves back to Rick, as he goes to Atlanta searching for his family, only to find that the entire city has been overrun by the undead. They swarm him, and he drops his bag of guns, so he hides in a tank, and seals the door. He sits in silence for a while, until a radio announces that he is being watched when an unknown voice asks him if he’s comfortable in the tank.

The next episode opens with Lori and Shane in the woods, and they totally banged, which I didn’t approve of because she just lost her husband. The next scene is Rick’s escape from the tank with Glenn, who was the voice over the radio. They meet up with a part of Glenn’s group who got trapped after trying to get supplies. They focus on trying to leave together, but then T-Dog, (the only black guy just had to have that name) gets into an argument with the Nazi/Confederate guy, Merle Dixon, because he called T-Dog the “N” word. Their conflict causes Rick to handcuff Merle to a pipe on the roof, but then the undead attack them, so they are forced to leave Merle. The group gets covered in the blood of the undead, so they are disguised by the smell of rotting humans, stopping the dead from approaching them. With Glenn distracting most of the group of the undead, the rest of the group escapes, and Glenn catches up later.

The opening of the series was great, because it is important to grab the attention of the audience. Shooting a child-monster in the face did the job for me. There were moments of humor among the death, and even racial tension, which I was expecting, as they live in the south. I have high hopes for the series with what they have covered in the first two episodes.

Now I can see why no else waited five years to jump on the bandwagon.