Re:Mix Lab’s ‘Walking Dead’ Panel Was The Super Nerdgasm You’d Expect It To Be

Last week, the UPROXX overlords were all, “Hey, you wanna go to a ‘Walking Dead’ panel with Robert Kirkman?” And I was like, “Yeah!” — mostly because I wanted to hear from the creator of the comic-turned-hit-zombie-show, but partly because I leave my apartment once every three weeks and I enjoy the taste of fresh air.

On Friday evening, Kirkman and “Talking Dead” host/nerd poster boy Chris Hardwicke addressed a small but fervent crowd at New York City’s Re:Mix Lab, a cozy space in Chelsea Market sponsored by the Hyundai Veloster. And while the corporate sponsorship was prevalent, it didn’t damper the Comic-Con feeling to the proceedings: as I waited in line to gain entry, the conversations around me were all about DC Comics and Arkham City and various podcasts. Facial hair was prevalent. Many of the fans looked like they’d recently exited a goth phase.

Kirkman and Hardwicke were late to the panel, so an emcee got onstage to kill some time. He promised a “world premiere” trailer for Season 2, which seemed odd, since Season 2 had premiered the previous weekend. Indeed, the “trailer” was just a couple minutes of the excellent highway set piece that opened the season, but the crowd still reacted warmly to the various head-stabbings. Afterward, the emcee was sheepish about showing “an exclusive trailer of something you saw last Sunday.”

When Hardwicke and Kirkman finally showed up, they were hustled onstage without an introduction — not that they needed one. The audience erupted in cheers, and Hardwicke — whom I’ve never particularly liked on TV — gamely bantered with the crowd about the vast array of facial hair in the audience. The son of a bitch was engaging and funny, much to my chagrin. I resorted to noting that his legs are insanely skinny. Like a newborn fawn’s.

When Hardwicke finally engaged Kirkman about The Walking Dead, most of the talk was about the comic (with issue 90 looming) rather than the TV show, largely because that story is further along. Indeed Kirkman revealed that he knew where the story would be at issue 100, and had generally sketched out to issue 150, with no plans of ending the comic. “I can’t stop. I’m addicted,” he said.

“What else can you do to Rick Grimes?” asked Hardwicke.

Kirkman: “There’s a list.”

As the panel gave way to the Q&A session, Kirkman discussed changing plot lines from the comic to the TV show (“Wouldn’t it be neat to see if things happened this way?”), promised some startling special effects in Episode 4 this season, guaranteed that Season 2’s “crazy stuff” would be ratcheted up beyond where Season 1 went, and generally bantered and joked with Hardwicke. (For an idea of their repartee, you can listen to Kirkman’s appearance on Hardwicke’s Nerdist podcast.)

As you might expect from an audience of adoring fans, no one asked about Season 1’s plot or character hiccups, or how Season 2 opened by conveniently ignoring that the zombies are supposed to be attracted to sound, or the circumstances of showrunner Frank Darabont’s exit from the show this summer. Instead, a woman in the back stood up, announced that she didn’t have a question, and proceeded to tell Kirkman that she suffers from kinemortophobia, the fear of zombies, and that watching “The Walking Dead” has helped her get over her phobia. She then thanked Kirkman for helping her.

I can’t speak for anyone else in the audience, but I was all, “This broad is CRAZY.”

Kirkman, though, handled it with much more grace, sharing an anecdote about Book of Eli screenwriter Gary Whitta. Whitta, according to Kirkman, shares the same phobia, and got over it by serving as a zombie extra in the pilot of “The Walking Dead” last year. Here’s Kirkman with Whitta:

I still think that lady was batty as hell, though.

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