About This Episode:
And here is where our glorious supernatural worlds collide. Zombie, meet werewolf. So now humans are even further down the food chain as they see another champion on top of them.
When I started making this comic LEGO only had the series 4 werewolf which I think looks terrible. It’s the face I don’t like as it looks like Eddie Munster (for those of you old enough to get that.) The tattered clothes and hair look cool but not the face. Here’s an image if you want a look.
Thankfully, the day after I started this the LEGO monster fighters came out with a proper wolf. But if you pay close attention to the bottom right figure you’ll notice I snuck in a minotaur, de-horned as a wolf. A little shopped in blood to cover the ears and no one is the wiser. So the secret is between us. OK?
Discussion Question: From Bo
Why don’t people in zombie movies ever try to make armor for themselves? In an early episode of BotD Stewart got a hockey helmet; but I remember especially the remake of DotD and wondered why the people trapped in the mall didn’t try to make bite-resistant armor. They’re in a shopping mall full of consumer goods; but they can’t cut up pieces of carpet and glue it to leather jackets and heavy-duty trousers? All the zombies can do is bite. They don’t have guns or knives.
Here is a review of the book for those interested!
So with these werewolves they don’t fear zombies and don’t turn into one if bitten by one? Or, if not, how does it work in this crossover?
And thus, a story was born…..
BrickVoid, great questions! All I can say is… the book definitely deals with these issues. 🙂
When in a survival situation I might not think first on flack jackets, carpets covering me, and what not. It is still a pretty good idea though. Maybe the baseball protection that the Umpire uses might be a good substitute. The idea of that jacket is to protect you from a 90+ kph ball straight at your chest. Could also protect you from a bite too? It is way more common and easier to put on and off.
Especially in the beginning!
I don’t know why they never built any armor, or though of different ways that would keep the claws off of the body. Anything tough enough to keep a vicious dog bite from harming you would do the trick.
Mind you I watched this series of survivalist teaching videos, and this man had a hand made hide coat. It was the perfect survivalist clothing; thick, durable, kept out the water, multiple layers, and it was survivalist stylish. That’s what my armor would be.. Not this cheap leather, but an attempt to make a hide jacket like that fellows!
Well in most movies or books the story is taking place in the early stages. There just hasn’t been time.
If you use some kind of bite-proof armor, you have to be careful to not let the protection go to your head. Sure, gluing swaths of carpeting or molded plastic to you will protect you from bites and scratches, but it won’t make you invincible and there are other ways the zeds can kill you, after which they can take their time and remove your makeshift armor to get to the juicy bits inside.
Even if you keep a level head and still make smart decisions with the armor, you have to consider the fact that effective armor is usually heavy, hot and can restrict movement, factors which can adversely affect your survival strategy, especially if your strategy involves remaining mobile and agile. There’s also the fact that, because you’ll be sweating more, you’ll need extra water to curb dehydration, which means even more weight for you to carry.
The happy medium would be to protect the most vulnerable parts – head, arms and legs – and leave the rest of your body unprotected but lighter and agile.
Bite-proof armor is one thing. Having it balanced out so you can move around and not be a tree in one spot all of the time is another entirely different thing. 😀
FYI, the zeds killing people in other ways suggests that they have intelligence to do so, that’s not how zombies work in BotD. I’m fairly certain they can’t open up the armor to get to the juicy bits, the most they could do is get lucky and tip it over letting the juicy stuff fall out or become accessible while trying to get to it, but I’m fairly certain they couldn’t do it intentionally, nor with any means requiring rational and intelligent thought and tool using abilities. 😉
Right, sorry, I wasn’t clear about that. I didn’t mean intentionally, but crushing someone to death under a pile of fetid flesh would be an effective if somewhat indirect means of killing a fleshy.
Getting too confident is a good point.
Nicely done. I didn’t notice the minotaur until you pointed it out. Yeh, werewolves and zombies? That would almost convince me that suicide was the solution… almost.
Zombie armor? The best armor would be an armored truck, like the banks use.
Yeah. I don’t want to keep anything secret. I kind of want to show people whats going on so they can do it themselves should they ever want to try.
Best armour? Probably Kevlar. Anything that was used on an airship must be biteproof. Or Diamond, but it’s rare!
Actually Kevlar is not stab/piercing resistant much at all, at least typically. That is, one can easily stab through bullet-resistant vest panels with a knife.
Not that you could bite through one; but it’s really not very efficient, if you just want something to stop a bite.
Chain Mail Suit? Diamond Chestplate? KFC box helmet? ANYTHING?!
Anyone on the coast tried shark-proof gloves? Those would be cool.
I have worn a pair. Incredibly expensive.
Why would you need bite proof gloves when your hands are the least concern of being bitten off? A hat or something would be better. I’ve never tried a pair, so I’m not sure.
Expensive things are usually expensive because they’re worth it. 😉
I would go with ‘sometimes’, or maybe ‘often’ rather than ‘usually’. A lot of expensive things are expensive because of marketing or brand name rather than quality.
That’s some mighty fine bloody spatter.
I love that you know to call it “spatter” and not “slatter”.
😉
That is “Splatter”
hah…I very much appreciate the help with that. I wish GIMP had such a feature.
I’m really surprised it doesn’t. I do all those effects with custom brushes and layer effects.
Eh…hmm….maybe it does and I just didn’t realize it.
Oh and can you send me the botd 28days later font again for that thingy I am trying to post tomorrow or Friday?
Evan – may I suggest adding a link for your review to these comics or adding the review to the tags.
done and done!
I think a good pair of leather gloves would be one of the best things to have in the case of zombies. Keep the blood-spatter off your skin, and if they go for your hand you can slip out of the glove before they chew through it. Some zeds might even be too dumb to let go of the glove right away, giving you a chance to sucker-punch them.
Leather gloves are light and can’t be bitten through. Might be better than chain mail!
WOW! The wolves are effin awesome!
Do werewolves eat zombies?
Better question, are lycanthropes immune to zombie bites?
It takes authors with fine story telling skills to answer that. Which is why I enjoyed this book!
I think the real question is, what happens to the lychans when they ingest zombie matter?
Diarrhea? Indigestion with heartburn?
Is there a lychan strength Pepto?
It would be an awesome marketing campaign if there was!
How does a motorcycle jacket sound for protection? My ex had a crotch rocket and had this great jacket with hard padding in the lining to protect him if he fell. That is totally bite-proof, light weight and flexable. Do they make pants like that?
I’ve seen body armor for sale on Amazon but who would really spend that much? And does it come in boys large? I have a 9yr old to protect. lol
Yeah, you can easily get full motorcycle leathers, don’t know if you can run in them; but they’ll keep the biters off.
Motorcycle leathers would be fairly easy to move in, as they have to be rather flexible to mount the bike. The downside is, being leather, they get hot quickly.
I see people in 110 heat wearing those. I would pass out.
Beats the alternative…
Would it help much if you open the vents? I know that good leathers have air vents to help with overheating, but not riding myself I don’t know how effective they are when just walking around as opposed to driving at speed.
Is that the new werewolf head from Monster Hunters?
Now I want it more than ever. This is very cool. And why I am very curious to pick up this book in the long run.
Yes it is. I really like it.
“And why I am very curious to pick up this book in the long run.”
Silver Fox, thank you for the kind words! If you’re a Goodreads member, you can enter the giveaway to win a signed copy.
And bookreads is free btw. It’s just a review and discussion site where you can also buy books. It’s for book lovers.
Yep, I’ve entered the giveaway.
I’ve got some books from the library whose due dates are coming up and I’ll need to finish reading them first before committing to another book right now.
My problem with zombie movies is probably more visceral. Everything is “in the script”. It’s a crutch of bad writing. The characters are either superheroes, or so dumb that they couldn’t poor piss from a boot if the directions were written on the heel. They’re either Blade or Gilligan, no in between.
My gold standard for idiocy is the DoTD remake. I love and hate this movie. You’ve got these people holed up in a mall, with all of its resources. They can build a Mad Max truck, but can’t make bite-resistant armor for the survivors.
If it were me trapped in that mall, I’d go through the maintenance shops looking for glue, contact cement, Shoe Goo, anything like that, along with utility/carpet knives. Cut up some of that industrial carpet and fit it closely to the body, especially the forearms and lower legs. Then make sure everyone had sturdy boots.
The way I see it, you don’t need enough armor to wade into the hordes. You just need enough to stop the surprise attack. Have you noticed that in zombie fiction, many folks die when they’re walking along, doing their thing, and Bam!, bit in the neck. The Walking Dead is famous for this.
Dammit. Left a tag open…
Not really open. Maybe just slightly ajar.
Bo, valid critique of zombie stories!
I think the reason survivors don’t don bite-proof armor is the same reason characters in vampire stories don’t wear metal turtlenecks: it’s not as exciting if the characters can’t get bitten.
Remember that scene in The Walking Dead when they dress up in gore to walk among the zombies? Think of how much tension would be bled from that scene if they also were wearing bite-proof armor.
That’s the fine line writers have to walk: make the story believable, make your characters smart, but don’t remove the major threats.
Now you and Darg provide an interesting solution to this: just have the characters wear bite-proof armor on major areas (to maintain agility), or have the zombies rip it off (but at that point, the character is probably screwed).
I’ve never seen any TWD, except the pilot. I have read well-passed that part of the series, though, so I take your point. Still, I’d like to see characters that were a little more human. They’re either self-propelled zombie snack packs, or they’re super heroes. I’m not asking for characters that are ready and expecting a zombie apocalypse. I’m asking for realistic thought. Another for instance, instead of sending the dog with the sandwich in DotD,/i>, why not rig a ladder to the Mad Max-mobile and let him climb down the ladder into same vehicle? Sure, they hadn’t built it yet; but surely they knew that there were cars in the garage.
On the same note, when you have a car the zombies can’t bit through, why go faster than about twenty miles an hour? Down-shift and roll over the top of them.
Because it’s not in the script, that’s why. They have to wreck the car so they don’t have any real advantages over the zombies.
Got to keep the zombies and the characters at the same intellectual level, you know?
The superhero/dumb character comment, yes, that’s so true! That tends to happen a lot throughout the horror genre.
I always wondered about the armored vehicle speeding in DotD as well. Dramatically, it makes sense that the vehicle has to be rendered inert, otherwise there is less tension, which makes for a boring story. But you’re exactly right: why does it have to be the stupidity of the characters that puts everyone at risk?
So, the answer is to write smarter characters that aren’t super-heroic.
With me, it’s a catch-22. I guess I am just hyper-critical. I hate when characters are dumber than a bag of hammers; and I hate when characters never fail. I wouldn’t mind them being more clever than me. I just hate when nothing ever goes wrong; or when it does, the characters easily find a solution.
One thing I really have liked about The Walking Dead, you can’t get attached to any of the characters.
“So, the answer is to write smarter characters that aren’t super-heroic.”
I am not sure thats a good idea. The best characters, IMO, are ones that are on the polarizing to identifiable scale. If you get some know-it-all people get annoyed and won’t find him/her very interesting.
Take Day by Day Armageddon by J.L Bourne. Incredibly popular book but you won’t find many people who enjoy his main characters personality. It’s a dry military character who is highly trained and always does the right thing. I enjoyed the book but I don’t think I would enjoy more like it.
Now, take that same character who is highly trained and make him emotionally incapable of the apocalypse? That is interesting. Or maybe he is highly trained technically but his practical execution isn’t there.
The inability to challenge a smart, skilled, and calculated character is just a sign of inability to create new content.
Just sayin’.. I actually had a much larger post explaining my hypothesis about such an inability, but I’m running off of an Air Card so some times it just poops out on me.
Mind you I’m using inability today as my online word.
I think you’re getting way too literal here.
Even in a fictional world you need some realism to anchor the story. How rational are people in their day to day life? Now how calm and rational will they be in an apocalypse after seeing their loved ones torn to shreds? People can’t even handle driving in traffic without losing control.
There’s no such thing as a human that doesn’t have fear, and that also goes hand in hand with being afraid in any situation. One of the biggest things about survival seems to always be admitting something then dealing with it. Just because that person understands this and is willing to deal with it, does not mean it lacks any challenge. One can still use rational thought in every situation especially situations that involve being in a secured location.
But of course, being usually modern day, the majority of people that roam this earth are idiots. Things are generally never rationalized or thought out properly so more intelligent people (Or thinking in any case) tend to get a bit agitated at this. Most of us are good at keeping friends that we can communicate with, so we can’t believe the stupid decisions that stupid people make.
I’ve always thought that a welder’s jacket would make for some basic, but useful upper body protection; preferebly with the Leather-Neck (semper fi) collar. Leather, flexible, new styles actually comfortable, durable.
http://www.autocorner.ca/images/welding/weldingjacket.jpg
Another thought (in the absence of some body “armor”), emerging from living in the Pacific Northwest, is layering. On any given day, in the Seattle area, you may use sunglasses, sweater, tank top and/or rain gear. Many days you’ll actually cycle through all of these in a 4 hour period. So, layering is the way to go. For the zeepoc, it occurs to me, what with all the gnawing ‘n pawing, that to have something you can unloosen yourself off in a blink of an eye may give you a few of those precious seconds needed to make a dash for it.
In this one zombie movie I watched, Dance of the Dead (terrible movie, do not watch), one of the characters had a football helmet, so when a zed grabbed him and tried to bite him it was just sorta rubbing it’s mouth on his head.
Awful movie…
I only watched it because it was the only movie I had but hadn’t watched,well, only one that might have interested me.
I still like my idea of a bunch of SCA/reenactors running around in full armor…
bo is a friend of of yours, huh evan?
Whatcha mean ?
-Nudge nudge, wink wink-
I just submit thoughtful, intelligent questions regarding EOTWAWKI situations that aren’t based upon things I’ve seen in a video game.
Reality is what remains when you close your eyes.
Release The Hounds!
If sparkly vampires show up in the next comic, I’m checking out.
hah!
nice add with werewolves dave!
Evan is responsible for this one. Awesome, isn’t it?
Hah, cool! The addition of werewolves is certainly an interesting spin on the zombie genre.
Nice job on the blood effects, Evan – to be honest, they could look a little more “fluid,” but then again Lego comics are already in a stylized world, so that’s alright. I would never have noticed the snuck-in Minotaur head if you hadn’t pointed it out. I’ve used effects to cover things like that quite a few times in Zombie Outbrick. Nicely done!
Question:
That’s a total mystery, isn’t it? I mean, considering just how easy it would be to protect against zombie bites – human teeth are awful compared to, say, dogs teeth. You’d think they’d be lucky to bite through a regular jacket, never mind a leather one.
I’ve got an old style woolen greatcoat, and there’s no way in hell a zombie could bite through that. In the Crimean, cavalry with steel sabers had trouble cutting through such coats.