Episode 132

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Dave

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Misc. News:
Since Monday is the 4th of July there won’t be a comic, but fear not: Wednesday will be an extra long one (like today’s) to help make up for it. Go enjoy the fireworks if you’re in the US.

About this Episode:
I’m trying out something a bit different with my photography. I usually like to maintain a very shallow depth of field (meaning the background gets blurry quickly and often only one character is actually in focus) but there’s been a lot of dialog lately and I think it makes more sense to have all parties in focus for the time being. This has given me an excuse to sit down and learn a bit more about my camera and try some little experiments. Fun! Please let me know what you think.

Zombie Cliché Lookout:
Whenever the protagonists have some sort of plan, they always go through it again right before jumping into action. You can justify this by saying it’s just to ensure that everyone is on the same page, or as some sort of memory-by-repetition exercise. Generally, however, it’s just some lazy exposition used to fill in the blanks or stretch out the tension before the action starts, often both.

70 thoughts on “Episode 132”

  1. i see stewart spray-painted his machete black.anyway nice work on this can’t wait until next wednesday!sweet design on murphy’s backpack can you post a guide on how to make it?

    • Stewart’s machete has always been black. I wish I would have picked a gunmetal colored on in hindsight. Ah well.

      Murphy’s backpack is from BrickForge.

      • i kinda think that the black machete suits him he is negative all the time.i never would of guessed his pack is from brickforge i thought it was brick built.

  2. Murphy must have some reason to believe his car will still be there and hasn’t been stolen by some other party trying to get out of the zombie infested area! 😀

    • What can I say, he’s an optimist 🙂

  3. So I see he got the boom box no trouble at all. No construction worker zeds then. Oh well.

    • Remember, Murphy was up there before, prior to our characters meeting him. I figured it would look like pointless padding to have an episode showing everyone running to pick things up.

  4. Dave, I seriously hate this “there-will-not-be-a-comic-because-of-American-holiday” thingy.

    Anyway, this episode looks good (just like the rest of them). The final speech buble (Dont worry, Sam…) makes pretty uneasy atmosphere! I would probably freak out again if I were him haha 😀

    • Hah. I know the holiday thing is a drag for people in the non-US part of the world. But on the other hand, my traffic absolutely plummets on holiday Mondays (also I just used up the last of my buffer and need to get filming so this is a nice way for me to cheat just a bit 🙂 )

      Thank you! I really like that way that bottom panel came out.

    • WHY DO YOU HATE AMERICA?!?!!?

      • ?

        • dumb & failed joke….move along 🙁

    • Well Adelaide… Dan lives in the US… And anyone writing a web comic I sure does take the time to allow themselves free time so that they can go to said holiday. Wasn’t a nice thing to say there, Dave tries hard for us I’m sure of it at the cost of his own. So try to be a little nicer to the fact that he wants to enjoy a Holiday.

      Sorry if that seemed a little like an attack but I’ve always been a little aggressive against certain things. Especially when someone is expected to provide a source of something every single damned day. So yar sorry if it seemed like an attack.

      • Oh hey, I’m sure Adelaide didn’t mean to be insulting, and I certainly take no offense. If you’re into something it’s always a drag when it takes a day/week off, right?

        No harm, no foul.

        • I’m sorry, just giving defense where it seems due is all.

      • I wasn’t trying to be offensive, I just stated my own opinion.
        Also I don’t think (or say) that Dave must be here for us “every single damned day”. So please try to calm down.
        To be honest, I realy see no reason why you are so rude to me.

        Maybe I could’ve said I “don’t like it” instead of “I hate it”, however it’s just some bad phrasing as English is not my mother tongue.

        • Every Single damned day was just a saying via as if the person is not allowed to take a break with out being a bit threatened. I apologize, I don’t necessarily think It was rude though. But yes yes. And anyone that naturally is taught English can really say its their mother tongue. Most diverse dialect in existence just because of how wide spread it was made. But generally when I hear some one say I hate it. Kinda makes me think of a selfish sort of term. But in the end I Apologize for my rude little attack there.

        • All right, so let’s put this to bed no. No one is offended.

  5. I really like the way the color looks and nice touch with Shannon’s hand laying on the table.

    • Thank you sir!

  6. I do like new look (not blurry background). Hope you keep this up going forward.

    Good luck Sam!!

    • Thanks! I’ll probably vary a bit. Group scenes and dialog with have a bigger focal area than other scenes.

  7. Iseewutudidthar. Love how Murphy has the all time all known around the world murder weapon… The cleaver! I caught you on it and I deserve a Popsicle.. Brb as I go grab myself one.

    • Damn straight. The man’s got to be protected since he’s out of ammo.

  8. Murphy’s pack is awesome! Someone take the flowers for when…uh…how so I say this delicately? The men start courting the women. And I still like my rifle bat idea. Works better with a shotgun though. You know. With the big flat stock? Where’s his pistol though?
    Sorry if I sound random or disorganized with my speech(or text I guess). I just don’t think of suff till it doesn’t make sense anymore. Sorry. 🙂

    • Hah, no worries. I guess he packed the pistol in his pack.

    • @ zombies! :)….I can assure you you’re life isn’t complete until you have ordered customized lego weaponry or gear from some site. I myself am picking up a package from Taiwan at the post office after work today and I must admit its rather embarrassing how giddy I am over it. :/

      • LEGO weaponry is indeed worthy of excitement.

        • I have wayyyyyyy over ordered these guns. …because to be honest…it seems like cheating to make a scene interesting. A bat or cleaver is far more interesting than a Carbine or chain gun in most cases (they do have there place of course.) When I ordered these stockpiles worthy of an entire special forces unit I was thinking that there will always be loads of arms laying around in the zombiepoclypse due to the national guard being overrun. Which is true, I guess, to a degree. But it doesn’t make these scenes as fun IMO. I do have some cool ideas for scenes that will use a lot of weaponry but the frequency is way off from what I originally added.

          I really need to update my flickr page.

        • Hah, I know what you mean. I’ve got a bit of a stockpile of firearms as well. I use some, but I like to keep my characters using improvised stuff more often than not.

          I guess there’s just a sense of desperation when you see people fending off zeds with golf clubs and kitchen knives versus rifles and machine guns.

  9. I can see that last pannel on a movie poster! It is so awesome to have the whole gang together and kick butt! I hope they kick butt because if not they night not have a butt!

    • i agree just remove the speech buble and maybe take sam out of his armor then BAM movie poster!

  10. I may not be a super big fan of Sam’s but I must say this–poor Sam. He looks like he could use a hug.

  11. And if the radio doesn’t have batteries?

    • good point they should test it.

  12. Sams hockey pad emblem. A racoon? Racoon city? Resident evil >.> Loving Murphy’s meat cleaver 😀

    • TBH, I think its a wolf..Racoons I don’t think are generally depicted with a very very fluffy neck. But then again.. That could be from the though that I have a wolf.. And she has a reallly realllllly fluffy neck.

    • It’s totally a wolf. Its colours and concept is very much what the Quebec Nordiques would have had in the 1995-6 season if they’d not up and moved to Colorado that year.

      • Damn Colorado. They were a dirty team back in the day (at least from a Detroiter’s perspective).

        • I can’t stand to hear “Colorado”, after seeing “The Unsinkable Molly Brown!” Why did I ever watch that?

        • I’ve not seen it. Please explain.

        • Wolves don’t have black over their eyes though?

        • It’s some weird 80’s movie about a redneck girl moving to California, falling in love, going to France, getting divorced, surviving the Titanic (hence “The Unsinkable”), then falling back in love. Whoa, this conversation’s getting too off-topic.

        • Huh. Molly Brown certainly has an interesting life story, but I can see it turned into a pretty schlocky movie in the wrong hands.

        • “Whoa, this conversation’s getting too off-topic.”

          The sign of a site really starting to catch on which means Dave has one earned one internet coupon for a solo fist pump while saying “Yesssssssssssssss!”

        • If I save up my tickets can I redeem them for, say, a mustache comb?

        • Sure…you can comb the fake mustache I got with mine.

  13. Dave is that archive tool you have a plug-in or a code? My “View Page Source” skills seem to have eroded with time. Someone I know is doing a site re-design and I want them to have something like that altho it will need to be slightly modified.

    Whoever designed that grasps the concept of simple and easy is better that so many people seem to fail at.

    • The Comic Archive page? That’s just a link to a category page. All the comics are in the comic category (and nothing else is) so that just shows every comic in reverse chronological order. One could probably make something a little nicer, but that works for me.

      • Sorry I mean the tool to flip the pages. The first , previous, next, lastest buttons.

        • Oh, of course.

          That’s actually a function of the ComicPress theme for WordPress. It’s a really nice setup that’s pretty easy to get started in. Here’s their official site. Don’t be intimidated by the box art; it’s totally free.

        • Very cool thanks. This is actually something for someones business to get their website away from looking like it was designed when AOL was sending out 3.5″ discs….becuase thats when it was designed. So its not a blog but I still want to show them what I want as an example.

          They need a better way to show off their galleries and I am not wanting them to go the flash route especially since everyone who works there, including the owner, has iphones.

        • Oh no, don’t go Flash, especially with HTML5 offering a lot of better options.

          If they’re showing off galleries, you should do some Googling for portfolio themes for WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla. There’s a lot of really nice looking stuff out there.

        • And since I am familiar with WordPress…..hell maybe I can do this.We’re talking about a basic re-polish and linking in facebook……So you really think a wordpress theme can be used for a busines website?

          Sorry to derail….I just really like the simplicity of that page turner. So many websites are over done.

        • Oh absolutely a business website could be done in WordPress. You’d be surprised who many non-blog sites are powered by WordPress. It’s a pretty adaptable CMS.

  14. http://www.geekosystem.com/middle-earth-lego/

    ^ My God….my nerd weinie is at full attention

    • Wow… just wow.

    • If I had an extra $7,000 to spend on lego parts and a free month with no responsibilities I would like to re-create Yonkers from WWZ. I imagine the construction and layout would be similar to this.

      • And at the end of that month you could probably charge people admission to see it.

    • even better

      http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/276793

      • i can’ see either stupid small screened phone 🙁

        • Here I am going to direct link you to one of the most impressive pics…

          Its the massive invasion scene in lord of the rings….the foreground has a few hundred mini-figs and the back ground has the walls and castle…

          http://www.mocpages.com/image_zoom.php?mocid=276793&id=/user_images/10716/1308690393m

        • i fixerd my computer i can see it and….wow……AMAZING!!!!this makes my small no roofed multi-color buildings look like CRAP but it is amazing i wish i had one of each!

  15. hey i have’nt commented in a while beacuase my outlet strip thing my computer is plugged into…IT EXPLODED no joke it blew up when i was using it checking the fuses now might not be on for a while we need a new power strip.i wanted to tell you becuase i don’t think i have ever heard of power strips exploding(i know i was saying outlet strip then i said power strip i don’t know what they are called cut me some slack i’m 11)have you guys ever heard of something like this happening?i am commenting on my phone witch hasa unlimeted internet…anyway bye!

    • I can’t say I’ve ever heard of or seen that. I’ve seen them burn out before; no visibly flame or anything exciting like that, just some smoke. Crazy.

    • Man I would send you a free power-strip if I had an extra. I just gave away a few extra I had on my last trip for GoodWill donations.

      • i found one i’m fine thank you so much for offering!

  16. was’nt much af a flame it sorta just went BOOM and exploded in a huge flash of orange-y color,small amount of smoke and heat.

  17. As opposed to when the antagonists have a plan; they usually just grunt and say “braiinnnnnnnssssssssss”

    Nice lighting on this episode.

    Looking forward to the assumed zombie action and Sam’s possible dismemberment.

    • Thanks! We should definitely get some action soon.