About this Episode:
This came out so much differently from what I had originaly planned for the series way back before I started actually shooting. Originally, cowardly Sam was going to get bitten as the group attempted to make it to the safe zone, but the more I wrote the character, the more I liked him. I knew I needed a character death, because that’s just one of the realities of the genre, but I had quite a good dynamic going. I ended up on Shannon because I saw her as the group’s peacekeeper. Without Shannon, the other characters will either have to mature, or things are going to get out of hand in a hurry. Ultimately, I’m happy with how it shook out.
Besides, it’s not like the rest of the characters are safe now. There’s zombies out there, man.
Zombie Cliché Lookout:
There is no easier way to ramp up the tension and say “This shit just got real”, than by killing off a major character. Offing one of the primary characters shatters whatever sense of safety the group might have. If the group was functioning fairly well together, that missing character might be just enough to throw off everyone’s rhythm. Groups that are having issues, especially those still struggling to identify a leader, might resort to pointless bickering and disgusting attempt to shift the blame onto different people in the party.
Also, it tends to be pretty sad. Usually the first person to get killed is a pretty sympathetic character. Rarely do the assholes of the group – the ones manufacturing the tension and drama – get taken out of the game early on.
I wonder if she’ll turn on them slow or fast? I’m kinda hoping it’ll be fast, as she really shouldn’t worry about becoming a zombie for longer than is absolutely necessary, and the sooner they learn a lesson about the way zombification works, the better!
wow i knew it!!!!!! dang shannon goes down amputate the arm stew you have the machete do it know. good job Dave realy. i still cant wait until the next comic,and the contest results in august.
You knew it? And I thought I was being all sneaky too.
Oh, and that’s supposed to be her neck the zombie is biting. It’s tough to get that across.
I could tell it was her neck….
Just cut off her neck, instead of her arm, and things will be fine!
Such a fantastic suggestion.
Theres the thunder chime of the bullet, out in the open alley, easily cornerable. With a downed friend, and a mournful heart. This will surely take the group to extreme measures.
i heard that.
Yeah, things went downhill in a hurry didn’t they?
aww man a character death I would rather shannon than sam though. god cheryl must be pissed. I knew that creeper zed was gonna do something to her gosh this is bad. man i love these comics.
They make my week.
dotto everything are you my lost twin?
I feel so responsible. That’s one of the zed heads I sold you, isn’t it? Gosh, what a world… wanna buy more? 😉
It is indeed, Lich. And on the body of a public servant at that.
Eh, the only public service nowadays is creating and commenting on webcomics. Summertime!
*blinks*
Welp. Time to haul ass. This looks like a good point to reread the archives, eh?
It’s always a good time for an archive binge.
ahh why is it always the silent ones?anyway sll of daves comments make sense i wonder how long he’s been planning this.also to everyone who’s favorite charecter is shannon i am sorry for you (possible) loss.
(chilce notes)aaww yeah this IS persanol now time to get the MINIGUN!!!!(yeah it’s from an old comment but i think it fits whatever)
ooh crap they’re screwed loud gunshot+empty alley=zombie beacon now they better run let’s hope if that swat member has a gun it’s a machine gun!
(things that you might get pissed about but they’re jokes calm down)the second panel looks like a scene from zombie romeo(OOH DOUBLE REFERENCED)in panel 3 ti looks almost like murphy has a machine pistol i mean look closey at it.this looks like the end of harry potter’s 7th movie(no not the new one)not giving anything away though but somebody dies at the end.
everything aside i started yelling NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! when I read this wow.amazing work dave.(sidenote someone tried to steal my username on another comic site what?)
I wonder if Shannon was anyone’s favorite character. Seems like most people like Stewart or Murphy.
She’s the kind of character who is missed after she’s gone over to the zombie side! And as I already said earlier, I hope it goes quickly rather than slowly for her! 😉
On a different note, I wonder what would happen if Dave got bitten by one of his zombie minfigs during shooting of scenes? Hopefully, nothing! 😀
I always handle the zombies with care, but accidents do happen. If the comic suddenly stops, you’ll know why.
Yeah, I have the same problem with my zombies… One of em nibbled on my fingers during a shoot, and I felt like a zombie for two weeks! Production on Zombie Outbrick stopped altogether for a while… Luckily I’m better now, minus a few infected digits… 😉
The dangerous of working in this medium.
i nearly got my finger bit off working on my moc…that’s why i keep them in bins now.
That shot is going to call in loads of zeds.
Hopefully Sam’s radio is super loud.
related to te super heroe theme someone posted photos of the test figs. and don’t worry about the marvel figs sucking they have 5 months and theses are’nt all the figures.
link below
http://www.flickr.com/photos/65451543@N04/with/5959377896/
They’re definitely a bit rough. Hopefully the final products are cooler.
it would SUCK pening that “oh look a lego hawk WTF HE DOES’NT HAVE A FACE?!?!” nah but really just test figs.
i meant hulk.
i think that they got the D.C. ones down but one minor problem…why is the joker wearing plad is that sam if 45 years?XD
oh yeah i get this info from http://www.brickset.com/ god site they have lego sets before they come out they are in touch with lego and a crapload of sites.sometimes a picture is removed by the request of lego so act fast check everyday they have some good info on there.
good i meant fraking typos UGH.
Nah, people love plaid. That could be anyone.
I think that the Hulk figure could be used for a certain zombie I found while surfing the l4d blog… Sorry, can’t add a link.
Shannon kinda reminds me of Louis- she’s quiet, peaceful, and can be pretty annoying at times.
P.S. Where is Sam’s fire truck from? I’m thinking of making a movie!
Also, in the second frame Murphy’s 1911 looks like a Robocop Tech-9.
All you can see is the barrel.
I think I do have a Robocop gun somewhere though. Got it as a free extra.
The firetruck Sam climbed up is either from the fire department set that’s currently available, or the standalone firetruck that was out last year. I can’t recall.
http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?S=7239-1
Actually, it looks like the 2005 firetruck set with those double rear rims over the wheels.
If it came with a dark grey boat piece and a trailer, then I’m pretty sure that’s the one! 😉
Yeah,that’s the one.
I think that one is still out. I saw it on the Lego website, but I’m not sure if it’s still in stores.
Boom!
I was hoping this was going to happen to someone. A major character death always opens up the throttle on a story.
I certainly hope so.
To me it buys suspense from the author/creator.
That’s a good way of putting it. The main characters always seem pretty safe, no matter how terrible things get around them. Sometimes you have to shake things up.
……..
*moment of silence*
Oh my Goth, that was… unexpected. That’s gonna be pretty sad seeing Shannon as a zombie 🙁
I’m glad to see some people are shocked. I was trying very hard not to telegraph anything.
100%
I thought you were going somewhere else with that zombie.
Fantastic.
It always bugs me when stuff like this is over-promoted. It takes all the surprise away when you know “Everything will change” or “Someone will die”.
*cough*Harry*cough cough* Potter!*cough cough cough!*
Hah
Off topic question for the hive if you don’t mind Dave…
To anyone done one of the large modular sets like Dave has in this pic, the Green Grocer. I am almost done with Grand Emporium (2,182 pieces on the box) and so far I am short 6 specific pieces and over about 20 other which is absolutely bizarre. I’ve gone through all the empty bags twice and even searched under my couch just in case. I know Lego will replace them quickly if asked but I just find this so weird.
wow that is wierd
I’ve got four of the modulars and never ran into an issue with missing pieces (I’ve only ever had one missing piece in an official set). Which ones are you short of Grand Emporium?
2: 1×1 slanted tiles, 1 bike handle bar and 3: 1×1 circular plates. Nothing unique or anything I won’t be able to replace with my own personal inventory but its simply odd, especially since they are all from missing from the #3 bags and the #1 bags have all the extras.
*shrugs*
That is very bizarre. At least you won’t have to wait for replacements.
gosh i was up all night until it came. im thinking of making another MOC because i finished i contest entry. sorry i got so of topic.
You stayed up for the new comic? That’s awesome!
Ya i do it alot because somtimes i cant wiat for them. i knew shannon was gonna get bit because the zombie was there right and then she turned around and was the closest you kinda gave a hint thank you language arts.
Hah.
What time zone are you in? I have these set to publish at midnight eastern.
Dave if yo go on Flikr and look on my entry in the picture in the alley tell me who is in the middle if murphy and black guy.
im on western but im 13 and was playing lego indiana jones and building txting my friend and talking to my little brother who idolizes you.
Wow, three in the morning. That’s dedication.
Re: Flickr – I saw that. I love that I’ve got some dynamite.
ya if i had brickarms you would have a shotgun and a grenade.
Just like in real life*!
*I don’t really walk around with a shotgun and grenades in the real world… of do I?
well i was also gonna give you a desert colored hat but i didnt and almost made you chainsaw a cheerleader. but i thought a (chainsaw and dynamite) were more practical.
well my dad has a shotgun but not grenades i think.
Hah. Yeah, not many people have grenades.
i wouldt be suprised if my dad did…………….
oh and in my discriptions it shows that all most of the characters were from my zombie comic Z-TOWN quick sneak peek.
Buffy is my favorite.
Hah, awesome.
I’m not familliar with Z-Town.
Its my own little thing i do and show them to friend’s i just kinda thought up the name when i started.
Ah, right on.
Hey, is Z-TOWN online? If so, could we get a link? 😉
not yet but i will get to it. 😀
ya its pretty fun i still am worried im the first entry.
whats gonna happen to the team what is sam gonna say will they bury her as a zombie so many posibilities
This is more or less the response I was hoping for.
ha thinking about this makes me wanna build but i have to go to the lego store fore gray black and brown bricks
Nice episode Dave. You know, in 90% of
the zombie movies I’ve seen, everybody dies… So I’ll be waiting to see who the next casualty will be.
That’s really one of the great things about the zombie genre: you can watch a beloved character die, and then watch them viciously attacking the other characters as if still alive… But you know that there’s no longer any hope for them, and they are already dead… But will the other characters realize this? Perhaps not.
Anyway once again, well done. That’s definitely one of your better muzzle flashes.
Nice headshot Murphy, you make it look easy. 😉
Thank you.
Muzzle flashes are tricky. I’m still working on a good way to do it, but I think I’m making progress. Once I get a good one, I’ll have to post a tutorial.
Yeah, a tutorial would be cool.
When I do muzzle flashes, I usually make the center of the flash very bright (white or almost white), surrouded by an outer glow of a yellow/orange color.
My advice to you would be to make your flashes brighter! I’m pretty sure it’s only the old, low-powered black-powder rifles and muskets that make flashes that just look like fire (red and orange colors).
Whiter is probably the way to go. I usually use a yellow layer and an orange layer, but I’m going to try white and yellow instead.
I’ll have to sit down and draw up a few.
It’s why I dislike Zombie movies…. favorite characters… or even minor characters die….
Shannon! NOOOOOO!!!!!! Dave… you’re so cruel…
Alright, next comic posting?
So we do have a Shannon-favorite? I figured that, since her role was primarily as the peacekeeper or the group, more people would find her less interesting. Glad to see she got some love too.
Sorry I killed off your favorite 🙂
this needs to be a movie!
Thanks Nate!
I think I could write a pretty cool zombie flick if given the opportunity.
You hear that, movie studios? Option me!
come on hollywood get dave a deal to make a live action movie.
And pay him, like, a boatload of money.
You know my family knows some people who could possibly make this happen. And i have some good actors in mind my family are also friends with
Matt Damon? Because that guy is fantastic in everything. Seems like he’d be cool to hang out with too.
Paul Rudd too.
Yep andsome others too, like name one.
Brian Cox?
murphy should be robert downing jr.
Huh… yeah. I can kind of see that.
i can be stewart i love his jacket and all i need is gasses an and haircut.
i wanna be stew but black ok thats wierd.
It is an oddly specific desire.
Ya but it would be fun to be sixteen and watch a girl die from a real zombie like in zombie genisis who remembers that.
If that’s your idea of fun, then I’m highly concerned for you. 😉
hey its not my fault i dont suffer from my insanity i enjoy every second of it.
The sad thing is that the movie tittle can not be called BotD but still something cool
bullets of the dead?eh i got nothing.
So.. Dave.. How does it feel, with in the first 10 hours, 90 comments? I don’t know how many views but this has to be a good thing. :3
It feels pretty damn good.
Hah, it should.
I’ve gotten a whopping FOUR on-site comments on today’s episode of Zombie Outbrick so far. (And 3 of them are duplicates of the same one… Seriously.)
I suppose I just need more time to establish my comic… You obviously did something right, Dave!
It definitely takes time, patience, and loads of work. Good thing it’s a hell of a lot of fun.
I also need to make an effort to comment more on other sites. I read ZO this morning and didn’t comment, even though I enjoyed the episode.
The Dude Person… I have a couple suggestions that might help if you want? [email protected]
is it on a website i want the link.
I comment every day a few times and stay up for new comics just to reach the goal you know. DEDICATION for BotD.
If I’m already still awake, I occasionally stay up an extra half hour to an hour to see the new episode of BotD….What can I say? It’s a good comic.
Thank you, sir.
Can’t wait until the next comic.
Need more comic strips per week!!!
I wish I had time to do more.
What you need to do is find out what’s slowing you down, and find workarounds that let you go faster! 😉
Hah, if only.
Between a full time plus job, a two year old son, housework, and occasional freelance work there’s just not a ton of time left at the end of the day.
I’m not complaining. It’s good to be busy. It really helps me appreciate the time I do get to spend with my family and with my silly little hobbies.
I hope that shannon turns slow, It will add suspense, and give them time to decide what to do!
Dave has anybody post any entries yet?
Just you so far. That’s going to change soon… I can feel it.
Just a question- Do you (Dave) ever trade, like on Flickr or MOCpages?
I never have, no. I can’t say I’d be opposed to if if there was something I was really looking for.
i hope so.
113 comments the site is getting popular.soon asi get my camera i’m gonna sprea the word on youtube with a video tour of my moc.
Sounds cool
Dave, every time you say you killed off Shannon, I keep thinking you didn’t zombify her. I wonder if it’s possible to straight out die from a zombie bite and not turn? Or is that kind of a guaranteed thing in your webcomic? 😉
If you get bitten, you die and come back as a zombie. Shannon is killed off, but may rise again.
You are not planning to end this any time soon, are you? And i have a question, what happens if a zombie completly destroys a body, i mean like guts and limbs everywhere. What would happen to the body
and the zombie removed the head
If the body is completely destroyed but the brain is left intact, then you’ve got a zombie head without any mobility.
If the brain is destroyed, no zombie.
Im not trying to be cold but if this was real life in my group i wouldnt wait until she turns i would tell everyone to turn around and pop one quick in her head between the eyes to stay safe.
That’s definitely rational in this case, but how many average people could do that?
Well not much it all comes down to there mind set like i murphy could do it but cheryl would be aposed to it like in shuan of the dead if you saw that.
It’s definitely a mindset thing. We’ll see how it shakes out in the next few episodes.
Plus, where are the TV people
We’ll find out in a week or two.
Excellent. I’ve been wondering… I’m looking forward to seeing them pop up again.
And will the two groups ever meet, sorry i shoud have put all those in one comment but things kept on popping in my head
We’ll just have to see there.
great
That would be so cool!
so gene led to of the news room guys out i wonder were they will go.
I’m nor sure I’m following.
wow dave you said lets wait and see and i did WHY WHY COUKD YOU DO THIS TO ME WHY sorry had a breakdown
Not happy with the way the story is playing out?
I am very surprised that nobody has commented on my odd choice of picture. That is, if it can be seen by other users 😀
I see a cat. Is that what I’m supposed to see?
It’s not zombie or LEGO related, sure, but that’s not too strange.
As before mentioned, it was a tough choice between a pic of a LEGO minifig or my cat, Soli. But I could clearly see she was itching to be a well-seen icon on a website. Or maybe she was just hungry. Lol. Maybe I will change it soon.
Well you can always change it down the road.
Or make an animated gif that cycles between the two. You know, if you get really bored.
I’m curious as to what everyone else thinks.
I thought about this while reading this comic, I forget when.
If a zombie bites you on the hand, and you cut it (the hand) off, say, 20 seconds after the bite, would you be a zombie? Meaning, would you zombify hours later? Assuming that you can get medical attention soon after (Uh… you’re in a hospital that you’re working on securing from zombies, and one of your team members in trained to treat that sort of thing) cutting your hand off, and get a hook or something.
I’m curious what people think of the amputation angle as well.
And people think that they could just grab an axe and chop off their hand like it’s picking off a scab? Besides, if a zombie just BIT you, you probably just used that axe to kill it. So getting bitten, and then attempting to amputate the bitten area with a zed-blood-smeared blade? Out of the frying pan and into the fire, you might say. But I do agree that doctors/surgeons would be good in a zombie attack because they are familiar with the hygiene procedures and are always ready to help a friend in need.
I think you missed the point. ASSUMING that the blade is NOT infected, you are with a group, someone else has a CLEAN blade. I know, unlikely, but I was referring to the virus. And even so, if you DIDN’T have a clean blade you could always use an extremely tight tourniquet, and amputate later, when you sterilize one of the blades in your group.
I think that depending on the particular zombie story, most people with amputated infected limbs would most likely survive.
I honestly don’t know how fast a virus can spread throughout a body, but I’d imagine it wouldn’t take long.
And on the subject of how viruses work…. I believe we’re probably pretty safe from a zombie virus that actually kills its hosts… Now this may be a shocker, but….
In the real world, viruses cannot be contracted from corpses.
Now I’m not entirely sure on this… But I happened to be watching a show on the History Channel about the “apocalypse” and what to do in it (assuming the apocalypse in this case consists of massive amounts of people dying off because of a viral epidemic.) They mentioned that it would be perfectly safe to touch the corpses of those who had died from the virus, and so these bodies could be moved or searched for useful items. (Of course, there are still bacteria to worry about… But now I digress…)
So if the zombie was, in fact, actually dead, depending on the criteria, the virus would most likely not be transmitted to living human beings in the first place, and so there would be no virus to worry about.
————————
The point is, you’re asking a question whose answer can have no basis in science, and at the same time cannot really be answered generally in terms of fiction.
(SHORT ANSWER: I don’t know, it depends on the author’s choice. 😉 )
Some great thoughts here. I’ll add a couple more
Amputation isn’t as simple as grabbing something sharp and hacking away. Even with a tourniquet you can easily bleed out if you don’t have anything to stop the arterial bleeding.
If you do get the bleeding stopped, what about secondary infection? Did you have time to run that hatchet through an autoclave before your impromptu surgery?
That said, is it theoretically possible? Like The Dude Person said, that depends entirely on the story. In The Walking Dead people have survived thanks to emergency amputation. I believe I’ve read about it in other stories too.
What about Bricks of the Dead? Well we’re just going to have to wait to see if it comes up in the story (you guys getting sick of hearing that yet?).
I really hope it does come up in the story – could make for an interesting cliffhanger… Planning on going on Hiatus any time soon, Dave?
I hope not. But you never can tell.
I think if we see a 1-armed zombie wandering around in Dave’s webcomic, we’ll know what didn’t work! 😀
well thats why if you have a machete and you kill a zombie but you got bit and your in shelter with a team and one is a doctor or a horse eiether carry 2 machete’s or styrolize it.
but if someone got bit in the neck its over.
I’ve used a one-armed zombie before, in a crowd scene. Not sure if you can actually pick him out or not though.
A one armed zombie could be loads of things – cut off by a now dead/zombified survivor, shot off by a shotgun, etc.
I’m mostly basing this question on Max Brooks Zombie Survival Guide, in which the virus is contracted through fluids (i think) enter the bloodstream, which is why a zombie BITE is required to infect someone. It’s just like some… uh… OTHER diseases that exist today.
You’re saying that you can’t get diseases from dead bodies, right? So it might
[Whoops forgot to finish my thought]
be OK to ingest blood (or any sort of fluid, like spit) from a dead person in any way, shape, or form, because you can’t get a disease from a dead person?
(I know it sounds creepy, but in my mind people become zombies because when a zombie bites someone, their spit (or some other thing that transmits the virus) enters the victims bloodstream.)
Exactly your right.
dave what would you do if a zombie was in your kitchen and on the table by you there was a a camera, a bowl full of chili, and raw meat thats all bloody. But on the table by the zobie theres a colt .45 and a machete.
The house you imagine me living in is quite.. interesting.
If a zombie showed up in my kitchen I’d grab the wife and kid and run out the back door. Then I’d grab a bat or something from the garage.
In a lot of zombie stories, the bite itself is simply highly toxic. It’ll kill you, but it’s something else entirely that brings you back (space radiation, voodoo, airborne contaminants, etc.).
In BotD’s case, it must be radiation leakage from the author’s collection of parts related to zombies! 😉
hmmm. well i would throw the bloody meat at his face grab the machete slice the zeds head off grab a bat my dads shotgun and the meat cleaver.
@A Monkey, about diseases…. you can CERTAINLY catch all sorts of nasty things from dead bodies… just not viruses. Any disease caused by bacteria can still be quite dangerous.
Viruses are essentially genetic information inside a coat (or shell) of protein. Viruses are NOT living things themselves. They enter a host body’s cells, inserting their DNA into the DNA already in the cell, altering it. The DNA from the virus also (I believe) contains genetic code that prompts the infected cell to produce more viruses, which go on to infect surrounding cells. As I understand it, these infected cells also continue to divide and reproduce.
But if the source of the zombies was a virus, and the zombies are true zombies (actually dead people walking around, not still living people with brain-damage or something), then in real life you would be relatively safe from the zombie-causing disease.
Viruses are typically transferred by the living through mucus membranes… i.e. any openings into your body (eyes, nose, mouth… any moist holes, essentially!), or a cut or open wound that allows the virus access to your bloodstream. This is basically the same thing as “fluid transfer.”
Although, I believe one condition of being safe from viruses is that the deceased person must have been deceased for at least several hours…. Because somehow, people get viruses all the time without even touching other sick people per se… Sneezing could perhaps transmit viruses, even though they would be out in the world (or at least in a spray of mucus) for a short time before entering another host. I know they don’t survive long (if at all) without a host.
But if a person is dead for a while, then there’s no danger of viruses beings transmitted by that person.
I’m kind of writing all this by my own knowledge and understanding, from memory, so I could very well be wrong on some points. This will probably require further research on my part.
But anyway, I wanted to clear up the virus/disease thing. Disease is a much broader category.
Ah, but according to Max Brooks (who is the Go to guy on Zombies, as far as I’m concerned) the cells in an infected person mutate (in some way) so normal laws of virus transference might not apply.
Well, viruses inherently cause mutations. A mutation is essentially just a change in DNA, is it not? And changing DNA is exactly what viruses do. They are DNA, and they insert themselves into a host cell’s DNA, changing it. These cells have now mutated.
Mutations can also occur when the DNA is being copied in preparation for cell division, or the copying of the virus.
If Max Brooks never actually says that a virus is the cause of the zombie infection, then you may be quite right. Although if he does refer to it as a virus, it’s quite possible the rules have to bend slightly anyway.
I think if the normal laws of science and nature were to apply entirely to a zombie story, then the zombies would either be much more boring than classic zombies, or they wouldn’t really be zombies at all.
Just like in other fiction, like Star Wars for example, there is always some bending of scientific rules to tell the story (sound in space, lightsabers, and the Force are all scientifically impossible… and yet they’re in there…)
Well, time to update the character bios. I knew that zombie stalker would be an issue.
Hah, already done.
what about the nurse?forget about her dave?
Maybe she’ll show back up. You never know.
They should just look out! now 1 person of the gang is dead for the whole comic