Zombie Cliché Lookout:
People don’t like to change. A lot of people like to talk about change. Being a more positive person. Becoming more active. Getting up earlier, spending more time with the family. These are all lofty goals, but the cold hard reality is that change is hard, and big changes scale the difficulty upward at a terrifying rate. We are, at our cores, creatures of comfort and habit. Upsetting the natural equilibrium we’ve settled into is difficult for most, impossible for some.
So when we do change, it’s likely due to something greater than that difficulty forcing us to change. That guy who struggles with his weight his whole life? A minor heart attack at forty might just be the thing that convinces him to do something about it.
About this Episode:
I really love shots where one character walks to the foreground to either continue talking or to stare into space menacingly, with the other character quiet in the background. I’ve probably used that sort of shot a half-dozen times by now.
Also, ignore that little bit of beard you can see on the back of “Dad’s” head. Or assume it’s hair. Whatever. I love the extra expressions you get with the dual sided heads, but sometimes it makes getting your angles a little more difficult than it needs to be.
Other News:
Does everyone remember Yatkuu’s incredible Winchester creation Shaun of the Dead? Well, it was shot down by LEGO® (grumble, grumble), but it lives on elsewhere. While you won’t be able to buy the set (grumble, grumble), Yatkuu has painstakingly gone through every step of the build process to create an amazing set of instructions and a part list. It will be released tomorrow. Check here for more information.
Discussion Question: Positive Things about the Apocalypse
Let’s try to look on the brighter side of the end of the world in this episode’s discussion question: what sort of positive change will the zombie apocalypse bring to your life? Will you finally lose those few pounds you’ve been fighting? No longer have to commute into the office to a job you hate? No more long lines at the grocery store? Let’s hear it!
I will be able to tell anyone who called me a nut( not that I do talk publicly about zombie apoc, not so much really…) I was right and they were not! Ha! Also will be out quite literally for ever…
Yeah, being right about this is going to feel pretty awesome. Guess what, haters? Zombies!
Bwa, ha, ha!! “I told you so!” makes a great zeepock battle cry. 😀
Regarding the little bit of dad’s beard, I think you should photoshop it out. 😀 If it worries you that much, anyway. 😉
“Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!”
Yeah, that’s what I would’ve done, or at least not mentioned it. 😉
Hah. I always like pointing out the mistakes. I don’t know why. Glutton for punishment I suppose.
yeah, some people seems to enjoy handing over the stick to beat them…
If it really bothered me, I’d probably reshoot the frame. It only sort of bothers me, so I just posted a disclaimer saying – in essence – I noticed it too.
I totally didn’t notice it until Dave pointed it out. Now I keep zooming right to it. tisk-tisk
Hah. Don’t you just love that?
you could just pretend he is a bald guy with a tattoo or a big birthmark.
Always an option.
No more needing money.
Amen to that, Guy.
That was mine too. No more bills to pay makes the ZA look was appealing. lol
Also, losing the weight too. I have time to be more active but nothing encourages activity more than a mob of hungry zombies, right?
I lost 20 pounds on the Zombie Apocalypse Diet, and so can you!*
*Results not typical. Consult a health care professional before starting any weigh-loss regimen.
I like this episode, Dave. I’m guessing that his wife is probably zombified and chained up somewhere in the house, as we haven’t seen her around yet (unless she was a hazmat person, but I can’t remember what their faces looked like…). Her (un)death would probably be enough to guilt him into following religion.
Anyway, I really like what this implies about Dadass’s character. If he’s only been following religion since everything happened, it’s made him change his values. That brings into question how stable Dadass’s values are in the current situation. It also shows that he’s desperate, and clinging to religion because he’s scared by what’s going on.
Also, he has a gun. A scared and desperate man with unstable values and a gun sounds like quite a volatile mix.
In these sorts of situations, it’s instructive to recall Patton Oswalt’s critique of that “Christmas Shoes” song – hold on, God gave that woman cancer so that this sorta-cranky narrator would have a chance to fix his perspective? Whoa.
Yes indeed. God works in mysterious ways.
Thank, The Dude Person. I’m trying to convey a lot with Dad here. Make him a bit unstable and unpredictable, but not your standard villain. Hopefully it works.
If Col.Angus McBadass’s wife is chained up out in Hershel’s barn I will officially wig out. It’s one thing if the zombies ate her brain’s, another if he’s giving her The Governor’s Daughter treatment.
Drive a sports car through the Supermarket, rescue the girl from the zombehs, live a free life on the open road, roasting animals on spits and not needing to worry about not affording anything again because every item of clothing or food is now for free in a big room full stuff. What’s not to like?
Living the dream, LegoMiles, living the dream.
Well in theory all the competition should be gone so I can finally get a girl friend also get in shape
Hah! If all the competition is gone, won’t all the datable girls be gone too?
That’s part of the trick Dave. I hear that after the ZA the girls will be hot for guys that can keep them alive.
Without money issues, if think I am going to try building Metal Gear REX! Not even an army of zombies may stand against my dinosaur-like nuclear robot!
Nothing like a hobby to keep you sane during stressful times.
TIME! I would love not having to be somewhere by a certain time. No more rushing to work. No place to be. Master of my own time… After I hurry across town to get my ex. I promised her if zombies happened I go get her. After that though my time is MINE.
All the risk for the ex? Are you one of those rare people who managed to transition from a romantic relationship to a platonic one?
Yeh. It wasn’t easy, but we had a great friendship before. I refused to let my hurt feelings cost me one of my best friends. Also i keep my promises.
That’s awesome. Nicely done.
No more Jersey Shore.
A yes, the nadir or culture in western civilization. Nice one!
I love the foreground shot as well. It really works here since Dadass is sharing what must be painful. I actaully looked at that one for a while after I read the today’s comic.
Well done, Dave. Well done.
Thank you, Angie!
Lose a few pounds.. Won’t be silver headed by time I’m 27…
Do you plan to be silver haired at 27?
The government has it planed out for me.
A post-apocalyptic world is a world where, as C.S. Lewis put it in The Screwtape Letters, “Moral issues really come to the point.” When I had a life-threatening car accident and found myself in a hospital with serious injuries, my life became much simpler. All the amorphous worries and fretting I’d been doing dissolved in the face of the importance of getting better and surviving. There’s a clarity that comes with that. War has a tendency to be an ethical and emotional force-multiplier. People who are good under stress become REALLY good under extreme stress. Of course, there’s a flip side to that, too…
Well said, Steven.
There is an upside in every situation… mmh, I guess. But I’m not really sure this would apply in the event of a ZA. I mean, when you think of it there’s not a lot to look forward.. death, devastation, starving…
If that’s what it takes to be freed of bills and a boring job then I’d rather keep it how it is!
Thanks Dave for the shout-out on the Win! I hope you guys will enjoy the instructions, note that I was not alone to prepare these and I must say that I’m really proud of what we have achieved to do.
My pleasure. I hope a lot of people take advantage of the instructions. It’s a hell of a model, and you guys clearly put a lot of time into the steps.
Way to be a Debbie Downer, Yatkuu. The Zombie Apocalypse will be awesome! 😉
And I’ll certainly take a look at the parts list, at least. I’d love to have the Winchester in Lego form, although I doubt I’ll have all the necessary pieces. I could most likely “stick it to the man” and buy them directly from LEGO through Pick-a-Brick, of course. 😉
The Winchester is an awesome model, I was really bummed to hear TLG turned their noses up at it.
Obsessing over others’ thoughts, pessimistic paranoia, being fairly self(and kin)-centred, being constantly unsettled; all of these things would now be positives instead of negatives.
Very true.
Dadass’ situation might end up in a religious war here, Dave. If you don’t make him one of “those crazy Christians”, he might be making too much of a statement. Still, keep following your plan, Dave. And as for the question, I would love the sense of danger and fear. My life is very boring, so real survival would be my favorite part.
I think the really appealing thing about the zombocalypse would have to be the loss of expectations. Sure, not needing money anymore is nice, but there is also the scale of scarcity to contend with. But really, jobs are (and have been for quite some time) a status symbol, as much as wealth or possessions. Being the worlds crappiest lawyer is still way more prestigious than being the world’s best carpet salesman. When society is destroyed and 90% or more of the population is gone, merely being alive is as much of a status symbol as you need, and your ability to keep others alive as well will earn you all the respect you really could want. Maybe that’s the real appeal of the whole zombie thing: more than any other kind of disaster, it is the great equalizer. Kings and beggars both becoming either the quick, or the dead.
I think that the best carpet salesman is more prestigious than being Charles Carreon.
Best thing about the zombie apocalypse?
No more hipsters and no more liberal agenda.
Two of the better things about the ZA for sure..
man its been a while since i have commented or read these comics but dave i still love these all the same. ps when a5e you going to shine the light on the other characters like where there at
Thank you, sir.
We’ll be circling back to the other characters before too long. I’m going to stick with Sam until I take a brief break when my daughter is born (due date of July 22nd). When we come back, it will be with different characters.
Question:
I don’t really see there being any upside at all. It’s as simple as that.