Christmas Cliché Lookout:
That’s right, it’s a sappy Christmas Episode. Everyone has them, no one really likes them. But, you know, you’ve got to have a Christmas Episode. Or sometimes a Chanukah Episode. Or Kwanza. You know, whatever holiday most of the production staff celebrate. And, in the spirit of inclusion, you have to make sure to keep the greeting really generic. “Seasons Greetings” or “Happy Holidays” generally work well.
Of course you also have to try to keep the schmaltz within the universe of the series, at least tangentially. Sure, our protagonists are too busy surviving in the zombie filled wasteland to really celebrate Christmas, but that shouldn’t stop the people behind the scenes, right?
Contest Announcements:
Okay everyone, this is a cool one. The fine folks over at GI Brick got word of our little contest. They saw our prizes and said, “This is great and all, but you know what this prize needs? More weapons and zombies?” So they sent over a brand new Zombie Apocalypse Survivor Pack to sweeten the pot. This this is cool too. Not only is it chock full of BrickArms goodness, but it’s got an awesome Zombie head, a pair of blood-stained combat knives, and two prototypes: a SABR Shotgun and a Spiked Baseball Bat. Damn straight (look out for a full review of the pack in January).
So, pot sweetened, eh?
Discussion Question: Holiday Plans:
So what’s everyone doing over the holidays? Does it involve zombies, and if not, why not?
Closing Remarks for 2011:
Well that’s it for me for 2011, folks. It’s been a heck of a fun year and I can’t wait to see what happens to Sam, Cheryl, Stewart, Murphy, and the rest of the gang in 2012. I hope you’ll stick around to find out. And tell some friends because we could use more traffic.
I’ve got some pretty awesome reviews coming in 2012, and Mutts is working on some great interviews. The comic’s anniversary is sometime in February, so I’ll probably do one of those “looking back” kind of articles to show off how much the site, and this fantastic community has grown since the beginning. Sure, it’s kind of masturbatory, but what the hell?
Was that page 394 or 395 of your Christmas wish list, Dave? 😀
It’s a pretty extensive list.
I want a
Kindle
Crossbow
Bolts for my Crossbow
And a person to hold… Come on Cthulhu.. I really need that Crossbow..
I can’t speak to the crossbow, but we got a Kindle Fire as an early Christmas gift. Pretty awesome.
My holidays? Well, at the moment I’m busy developing a virus to which I am immune to that will turn any guy into a mindless slave. Does it involve zombies? Yes, actually. In the sense that my early test subjects became zombies and have been distributed around the globe, ready to start a pandemic. It turns out they will pass on the virus but when they pass it, it gives the desired effect. Oh, and I personally shipped a zombie-virus-zombie (not one of mine) to your door, Dave, Hope you enjoy it. (don’t worry, I provided a separate crate of brains and human flesh for it to feed on)
How charitable of you!
Zombies on Christmas Day? You’ll find me hijacking Santa’s sleigh and picking you guys up. Woop!
I knew you guys would have interesting holiday plans!
My gosh, is that Angelina there as the badass Elf?! I must say that this spiked baseball bat looks great on you!
Hah, it does look like Angelina, doesn’t it? Although I’d imagine she’s taller.
I’m busted! I really work for Santa and the office gig is just to quell the monotony. lol
Thanks for the cameo!
Oh and I am taller but not by much.
Gotta love the office gig coverstory.
Plans for the break:
Spend time with loved ones
Uncharted 3 (online name is Yatkuu if anyone is interested)
Zelda Wii (Yeah, I know I’m a child at heart)
Lego! (Alien Conquest HQ to build and a few MOCs in mind…)
I’ve been playing Zelda quite a bit. I’m not terribly far in (I just got the sacred water) but I’m having a blast. There’s a couple things that irritate me, but on the whole it’s quite a game.
I lol’d quite hard….German Helmet with spikes…you mean a Pickelhaube?
Also…I think this floats your boat then: http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Rocket_Propelled_Chainsaw
A Pickelhaube is exactly what I mean. I went back and forth between using the proper name and describing it, but finally decided that description would be funnier.
That RPChainsaw is a thing of beauty. I had no idea such a thing existed!
GOOOD NEWS EVERYONE! Max Brooks (You may remember him) is helping writing a film for 2012: WORLD WAR Z
Hey Nekrospike…have a look at this
http://bricksofthedead.com/2011/08/25/world-war-z-and-the-great-panic/
Srsly guys- Do you really think such a thing exists? All you need is a graphic weapon designer (get Calicade on the job) to draw what clearly looks like a chainsaw in a rocket launcher and then make some Wikipedia page about it.
I mean really, Chuck Norris and Thomas Edison?
And Dave, you were the one who said chainsaws were crap weapons!
I do think they’re crap for a weapon. Nunchucks probably are too. I’d file them both under “cool but useless”.
No I don’t think it’s real because it’s on Uncyclopedia….But some idiot out there has probably done something like it…
If it’s unsafe but potentially awesome, you can bet your ass someone has tried it. Human nature.
I think i’m gonna add the “some sort of gun that shoots chainsaws” to my list too. Right next to the malibu barbie. =)
Hah, sounds like a hell of a list.
My better half and I are going to watch Christmas movies and put together the winter lego sets tonight. Good way to get the spirit rolling! : )
Sounds like a nice way to spend some time. Except for the Christmas movies. Unless your Christmas movie is Die Hard.
Bad Santa!
Scrooged!
Hell yes on “Die Hard!” I’ll have to see if my dad and brother-in-law are game for it tonight. All of my winter sets are _still_ together… I’d hoped to do a tableau for the strip, but maybe next year.
Or… hm. If I get the cleaning done quick around the house…
We have most of our DVDs, including Die Hard, packed away for the hopefully upcoming movie. I’ll have to see if it’s streaming on Netflix.
Dave, was your dad Calvin?
Hah, nope.
Hah! That was my first thought too!
I loved “Some sort of gun that shoots chainsaws.” Those would be pretty useful. Long-range tree cutting!
Damn straight!
Ho! Ho! Ho! You’ll shoot your eye out kid.
And not I’m not sorry for saying that… that kind of wish list needs that response.
I must also ask how it is you “stole” my santa design. But that’d just be joking… it’s pretty obvious what with the Gnome minifigure out… mines in the process of getting a white trim painted to his hat.
I’s got a Cousin’s wedding today, then it’s Saturday to take little one to see her daddy (who may or may not actually show up as he said – a bridge to cross should the later happen) and then Christmas day is our unwrapping presents and Family Time.
I stole nothing! That’s just Scrimshaw dressed as Santa!
I’ve been waiting all day for someone to realize that. So disappointed.
Gracious me, so it is! I was so disappointed that there wasn’t a trash can that I missed out on the lesser details. 😉
That’s a heck of a holiday season, Silver Fox. Take care there!
Hah, I have to keep the BotD idiosyncrasies rotated, Lich.
The thought had crossed my mind….
I got it!
Have Scrimshaw get a “mini-me” with a gnome version of himself!
Hah, now there’s a fantastic idea!
My “Scrimshaw Santa” I came up with.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7026/6561475293_96b3c195fc_m.jpg
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7026/6561475455_713a22d48d_m.jpg
Wow, that came out really well Silver Fox. Hat’s off to you, ma’am.
Thankyou, now I need to focus on placing all the pics for my Holiday Episode together over on RoO.
Boy, you’d better get crackin’!
I have a question, why is the wall behind Santa made of rubber flooring?
http://i00.i.aliimg.com/photo/v0/307022428/Anti_Slip_Rubber_Flooring.jpg
It’s supposed to look like that sound-deadening material you see in recording studios and the like. This is “the stage” set, after all.
Oh lucky be me! I get to spend these happy times with a stomach virus.
The Christmas spirit is a vengeful one.
Huh.. How lucky of me! It went away on Christmas Eve
Glad to hear it.
Both sides of the family in one town means that there’s very little time unaccounted for as of tonight. Tonight there’s hopefully Norwegian potato pancake making (it ain’t Christmas without lefse) with my folks followed by the finest Christmas movie of all time, “Die Hard” (which I played for my English 10 class a few years ago, sharing the tradition) – and then some late-night pre-Christmas Eve tree assembly, since we found a steal of a deal on a nice artificial. (We’ll see if our toddlers can handle not handling the tree…)
Christmas Eve is a full day with my family – dinner, church, snacks, gift opening, and forced carol-singing by my mom. (Tradition!) Christmas Day has the kids do the Santa presents at our house, then off to the wife’s family for more malarkey.
The holiday… well, I’m hoping to get myself writing once I get my holiday queue set for the strip. And to get my build space/studio better established, too.
Happy holidays, all!
We too have been struggling with the “Don’t run headlong into/throw things at the tree.” So far nothing’s been broken and no toddler crushed by falling trees, but it’s been a lot of work.
…and some sort of gun that shoots chainsaws…
Priceless 😀
Aw shucks…
Tonight I go to dine with my oldest sister’s in-laws, tomorrow the family is over all 23 of ’em, and then that night to a friends to spend some time with his family and Christmas day is home again. I think I might like your chainsaw shootin gun for Christmas Eve…
Courage, Tom. Courage.
so happy for x-mas new lego and such and that spikeb bat is awsome
That spiked bat is fantastic. I can’t wait to find a place to use it in the comic.
for christmas im gonna be building new sets taking pictures maybe a youtube review and a walking dead and all out zombie marothon
Sounds like a great plan to me.
One thing I did like about this bonus feature was that it didn’t have any zombies in it! A different kind of bonus, sure, but one I appreciate for once! 😉
Hah, thank you.
Sweet nun chucks!
Yes indeed!
I wonder how many times the thought of having a week off from us went through Dave’s mind? 😀
I sincerely hope you’re enjoying it, Merry Christmas, Dave, and a Happy New Year too, when it comes around! 😀
A week of from writing, shooting, and editing is pretty huge. You guys are awesome as ever.
Had a great Christmas. I hope you all did as well.
that’sss…quite an extensive list. so is this at the begining,middle,or,end?
Somewhere in the middle. I’ve got a lot of needs.
Forget the chainsaw-shooting gun, I want chainsaw-chuks. They’re like sword-chuks, but with chainsaws!
That sounds incredible dangerous. I demand a proof of concept immediately.
I’m a bit confused at Max Brooks. He says hand grenades are useless against zombies that it’s only like shrapnel. What about the explosion that rips peoples bodies apart!? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfyNcn87gPI
Good observation but I think you’re taking it a bit too literally. Grenades won’t necessarily kill humans instantly unless they are too close. A fatal problem is blood loss, shock etc…zeds won’t have that problem. It all comes down to shutting off brain activity for the zombie.
So you toss a grenade at a zombie you’re hoping a piece of shrapnel goes into the brain. That’s a huge risk and unreliable so when it comes down to it, yeah it would be a useless weapon since the odds of it being helpful are so low. I wouldn’t bet my life on it which is what these weapons come down to. I think that’s the point Max was making.
I must have missed the bit in that video where a body gets ripped apart…
To the point, it may be “only” fragments, but there are a lot of them. A grenade is expected to kill anyone within 15 feet, so even if the effective radius against zombies is only half that, you’re still talking a lot of zombies.
While they may not be that high on my list, I can see grenades having applications in halting a rush through a chokepoint, say.
I was thinking that would work only if the head was blown up but I guess a hand or foot coming at you would just be annoying and not dangerous. no teeth.
Grenades would be useful only if you wanted to risk getting bitten, because you’d have to attach it to the zombie head so it would blow it up. You’d need a much more powerful explosive that would be sufficient to severly damage a large number of zombie heads, of course that would take out innocent bystanders, so explosives are not really that useful unless you’re certain you’d only be taking zombies out, and in large numbers. 😀
How about throwing it? That might help…I’m pretty sure soldiers don’t run up to enemy, attach a frag grenade in their ear and run? I mean that you see how much damage it causes….whilst the zombies won’t die but suffer from mutilation etc? A zombie which can’t grab you or can only walk very slowly is better that an intact one right?!
A grenade would really have to have a lot of luck to land in the middle of zombies and right when it’s timer explodes. I’d say most of the zombies would just be blasted away at best, and might even survive a grenade blast intact. Now if a Ninja were taking out zombies one at a time with stealth and using grenades that would be awesome, in a sense. But no Ninja I’ve heard of uses explosives. They don’t need them! 😀
Here’s a question what are the colour of the robes (you know what they where?) Not Black, infact anything but black. Black robed Ninjas came from Hollywood. They got it from an idea in Japanese theater. When a character in a play would die from poison or something, then the stangehands would come on dressed in black robes and kill him, black symbolising death and darkness or something like that….Isn’t that interesting? I found it out on QI :3
Here’s a question: Where did I mention what colors the ninja was wearing? 😀
Well you talked about Ninjas, So I shared some of my knowledge 😀
Oh and hey…as over comic Overlord Dave stated…I am working on a lot of interviews. If anyone that has something they would like to ask an author, artist, movie director, publishers…. etc let me know and I will try to fit it in when I get the chance.
[email protected]
George Romero 😀
Hah…yeah….that would be nice. Could you imagine his eyes squinting in confusion behind those coke bottle glasses as someone explains to him a site that makes zombie stories from LEGO wants to interview him?
I think it would probably amuse him. He seems like he’s got a good sense of humor.
I had a Prof. in college that was friends with him (back in the day at least) and I always meant to try to work that to my advantage, but alas I missed the opportunity. On the other hand, I am (Facebook) friends with Kyron Schoen (the little girl in NotLD ’68) and she would get a kick out of this site!
Well by all means send her a link!
I want… this comic to continue in the years to come and to be just as freakin’ good as it has so far!
I’ll do my best!
So, what actually did you get for Christmas, Dave? Hope fully plenty of LEGO!
Couple LEGO sets, actually. City of Atlantis and the city Bank set.
Yatkuu, your exploits have been praised by none other than Simon Pegg himself!! Well done, an excellent build.
http://collider.com/shaun-of-the-dead-lego-images/134751/
hope the link works!
OMG… I’m speechless… Thank you for the link… I think I’m in shock.
Yeah, this is so. damn. cool.
Nice man 😀
Sorry forgot to add the link to his Twitter page where he has added the link.
Here it is http://twitter.com/#!/simonpegg
RTed and Faved!
It’s after the bells now in Scotland so I’d like to wish everyone here a Happy New Year!
All the best for 2012.
keep up te good work Dave.
Haha, some sort of gun that shoots chainsaws, awesome!
I’m really sorry to have missed this… Not to mention I had no idea about the “pot sweeteners” for the 16 x 16 challenge… I have no idea how I’ll get anything done on my MOC by midnight tonight! (I haven’t properly started it yet…)
Yeah, that’s not a lot of time. You’d best get crackin’