Singapore Zombie Walk: When Zombies Stumble About at Clarke Quay

Clarke Quay. The favourite drinking hole of many and a crowded weekend nightspot.

And just a few hours ago, it was infested by close to 130 undead beings participating for the first Singapore Zombie Walk.

When the horde of zombies began making their shuffle across Reed Bridge and around the many clubs there, most of the living seemed repulsed yet excited about being this close to the undead. Others simply looked utterly confused at their sudden appearance at the glitzy tourist trap.

Along the way, the number of cameras wielded by passersby and active Zombie Empathizers like Red Dot Diva was countless. One amused tourist sitting at a restaurant was overheard saying to his partner, "Look at all the people with cameras. They are part of the zombie procession too!"

NYCC: Diva Shares Her Convention Tips (Part 2)

Just less than a week, and the second largest comic convention Stateside will be happening!

NYCC 2012 kicks off at Jacob K. Javits Convention Center next Thursday on 11 October, with tons of cool comic, anime and pop-culture guests. This year's event is a sold-out show with expected attendance of over 100,000, so do be safe and get prepared for a human crush.

And if you are new to New York City or any comic convention, Red Dot Diva hopes some of these tips might prove to be useful.

(For Red Dot Islanders heading to NYCC, she hopes you have checked out her pre-convention, travel planning tips in this blog article!)

STGCC 2012: Andy Diggle On Writing Tips, The Losers, Dr Who and CW's "Arrow"

Thanks to STGCC, local fans have been lucky to meet their share of British comics guests for the last three years.

In 2010, veteran artist of "V for Vendetta" fame David Lloyd was invited as a special guest. The following year, games/ music journalist turned comic book writer Kieron Gillen flew into Red Dot Island and showed us how to rock the convention in a nifty white suit.

This year, Red Dot Diva was glad that STGCC kept up with the Union Jack trend by having writer and former 2000 AD editor, Andy Diggle as a guest. Besides his creative talents in works like "The Losers" (Vertigo), "Green Arrow: Year One" (DC), "Shadowland" (Marvel), "Silent Dragon" with Leinil Yu and Gerry Alanguilan and the latest "Dr Who" (IDW), he also sports a sexy goatee. And Goddess be known that Red Dot Diva sure loves a sexy goatee.

Red Dot Diva got to meet Andy Diggle (and his goatee) up close at the STGCC Media Preview, together with a few other invited journalists and bloggers. In the short span of 20 minutes, he happily and very eloquently fielded several questions about the comics industry, about writing, his various  works, and his thoughts on "The Losers" movie.

Here are some of the extracts from the interview:

Singapore Zombie Walk: The Zombie Apocalypse Is Coming!

You've seen it happening at other places.

Broken store windows. Empty towns; strings of cars left abandoned on a highway. A bloody trail.

Is that a ...... .... O_O

Then... the low moans. And the sounds of shuffling feet coming closer.... closer....

It is drawing near, people. The Zombie Apocalypse will hit the shores of Red Dot Island in 32 days and counting.

Are you one of the Zombies? A Zombie Killer? Or are you a Zombie Sympathizer?

To ensure that there's a balanced viewpoint on all sides, Red Dot Diva dug around and found a Zombie (SG variant) Representative, who was willing to spill its guts to the general public. All behind the safety of a communication device, of course. And the help of her trusty Zombie Moan Translater.

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NYCC 2012: An Alternative to Comic-Con?

This is the 7th year of New York Comic Con (NYCC).

The event is run by the good folks at ReedPOP (whose local setup, by the way, also runs Red Dot Island's STGCC). And from all bets, attendance numbers for NYCC 2012 is set to garner another record high.

Considering the recent "mainstreaming" of what used to be the geekier side of pop-culture, the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center will be jam-packed with noobs and old-timers come October 11 to 14th 2012.  Fact is, the three-day and four-day tickets have already been sold out a couple of weeks ago. And NYCC has never quite "sold out" this much, this early before.

Sigh. Signs of the times.

Braving Pangdemonium's "Swimming With Sharks"

Forget about loaded minefields at the office.

Facing hungry boss-sharks is probably what everyone should constantly look out for. For one thing, you might face a much slower, more painful demise. At best, you'll probably (d)evolve into another blood-thirsty shark.

And that was the primary premise of the movie screenplay by George Huang called "Swimming With Sharks", which is now currently brought to our local theatre scene by Pangdemonium! Productions.

Red Dot Diva has always enjoyed Pangdemonium!'s choice of plays. They are usually edgy with a dark twist, or absolutely fun productions with witty scripts like "The Full Monty", for instance.

With a title like "Swimming With Sharks" and that promotional pic of lead actor/ owner Adrian Pang looking like the aptly-named James Bond metal-mouth villain Jaws, it was inevitable that Red Dot Diva would be donning her heavy-duty neoprene suit for a dive into their preview night on Thursday.

And what a swim that was!

SDCC 2012: Chewing on Science Channel's "Dark Matters" with John Noble

To Red Dot Diva's knowledge, almost everyone who watches J.J. Abram's cult-series "Fringe" adores the character, Walter Bishop.

Off-kilter and utterly charming, Walter Bishop the brilliant scientist, is brought to life by the impressive talent of Aussie actor, John Noble.

However, this article is not about "Fringe" but about Science Channel's anthology series, "Dark Matters", which incidentally re-enacts freaky and mostly unethical scientific experiments that were actually carried out in past eras. Tales of creepy experiments like human-animal breeding, brainwashing, Frankenstein-like reanimations (Ahh! zombies!!) are all par for the course. Not unlike those featured in the "Fringe" episodes at all. And John Noble is the series' host.

Being a science freak and someone who loves morbid twisted stories, "Dark Matters" is just right up Red Dot Diva's alley. So, when Red Dot Diva got news that Science Channel was able to slot her in for the "Dark Matters" press conference at Comic-Con, she couldn't stop squeeing for days.

What is John Noble really like in person? She didn't quite know what to expect.