Zombie Cliche Lookout: Overplaying Your Hand
You know what bad guys really, really like to do? They like to laugh at the good guys when they (the bad guys) happen to have the upper hand. It’s pretty much they’re greatest joy in life. Now, granted, their overconfidence is often also the cause of their downfall, but it’s still pretty irritating at the time.
Let’s take, for example, our poor survivors’ plight here. Barb wants nothing more than to try to help Gene, but standing in her way is the very man who shot Gene. And when she tries to assert herself and take a stand, she gets nothing but derision for her troubles. Bad guys… they’re a real pain.
About this Episode:
I’m shooting these scenes on a really small backdrop, which makes big groups shots like we have in the third panel here a little tougher to pull off. I had wanted to get both prisoners’ smiling faces in the shot where they’re laughing, but it just didn’t work out.
Other News:
Just in case you missed it, I added a little visual tweak to Bricks of the Dead this weekend: a super awesome background image courtesy of PixelFox. If you don’t see an army of zombies in the background, you might need to do a hard refresh of the page to clear out your browser cache. It’s okay, we’ll wait.
So, how awesome if PixelFox?
Discussion Question: Untouched Zombie Tropes
So at Bricks of the Dead, I try to cover a lot of different zombie tropes and cliches, but I’m certain that I’ve missed a ton of great stuff. So, what’s something you’ve been waiting to see that I haven’t trotted out yet? Or what have I done – but perhaps not very well or in enough depth – that you’d like to see re-examined?
hey dave, did you take some sort of class where you learn social skills? because the way you handle words is amazing, someone calls lets say Phantom a bitch, all you say is ”we’ll have no such talk amongst us here.” And thats a problem for me, because i’m starting a youtube channel with my friends and i need to know how to show good manners to my friends, and my veiwers or else im going to end up like Danznewz from the creatures, the fat guy who films everything, and i dont want to be that guy. plz help.
It is about setting expectations up front, and making sure when someone steps over the mark they get a gentle reminder of those expectations, rather than having a go at them or calling them out on it in a negative way.
Of course you need a certain amount of audience buy in as well, because there are some “cool” people out there that like nothing better than to ruin everyone else’s day…
and if it continues, then as the admin I’d hope you have some sort of power to ban them from posting comments in your channel or what have you.
Summary:
1) Set expectation
2) Uphold expectations
3) Gentle reminder for slip ups or first time offences.
4) If repeats, then comes warnings.
5) If continued behaviour, or a troll, then throw your admin rights around and ban them.
Well said here, Mad.. This is great advice.
The thing is, if you call me that, you’d better prepare for the consequences and to respect my authoritarh. Also, try not to worry too much about it. If it works, that’s great, but if it doesn’t at least you gave it your best shot at it.
People are tough to control; sometimes the best you can do is be respectful and try to set a good example. Sometimes it works, other times… not so much.
I haven’t taken a class or anything like that. I just try to be direct and respectful with people.
I have a pretty clear idea of what I want the community at Bricks of the Dead to be. I want it to be fun, conversational, and friendly. So whenever things start to deviate from that path, I always try to address them as quickly as possible.
The way you address them is important though. You can’t get mad and be rude to people, but you can’t be too soft either. I try to point out – without judgement mind you – that certain behaviors don’t fly here.
Once you start getting return visitors, they’re going to get a sense of the community and how things work. That will do two things for you: it will attract the type of people who enjoy that sort of community, and it will discourage people from acting outside of the communities norms. And if you get enough people, pretty soon they’re start chipping in and turning the conversation on the right path.
Or at least that’s what I’m trying to do. Again, I’m certainly no expert.
One thing that I have found, however, if that not discussing certain things tends to really help keep things calm. You’ll likely notice I don’t really talk about politics or religion here (outside of discussing them as tropes in zombie stories, of course).
Those are both issues that people are really passionate about, and it’s pretty much impossible to talk about them on the internet without starting a big fight. The simple solution? Just don’t talk about it.
ha, I just wish we could talk a little more about Belgian politics… such a fascinating topic that it gave me the will to expatriate myself!
You guys used to be part of the Netherlands, right?
Indeed, nice one Dave! Belgium became independent in 1830, I guess things were simpler back then.. if you disagreed you just beat the crap out of your neighbor. Nowadays things are a little more complicated. Picture this, after our last federal elections it took us no less than 541 days to form a new government. 541 days… that’s an absolute world record for a country in peace.
So what I’m hearing from you is that Belgium is primed for a Dutch conquest. You heard it here first, ladies and gentlemen.
Gene’s gun is still lying next to him… Clark still has that blade in his hand… That gunshot that hit Gene would have attracted any nearby Zombies, and there is three nutters pointing guns at our group!
Methinks things are going to get very messy shortly (even more so than they already are).
How awesome is PixelFox? PixelFox is totally awesome, he enabled me to build the Winchester without having to plan it all by myself 🙂 🙂
And lastly untouched tropes. Something like Hudson in the Aliens movie. The “game over man, game over” scene is pretty iconic in the fact that we are seeing the hardened soldiers breaking down whereas the young girl Newt survived how long? Then follow it up with the last stand of the same hero later on sometime with his “come get some” last hurrah.
Not specific zombie trope example I know… but if I sit here long enough I could probably come up with zombie examples of the same thing.
*sits quietly to think about zombie versions*
I f’ing love Hudson. One of my favorite fictional characters ever. Good call here, Mad..
Personally, I’m waiting for the ‘pretending to be a zombie to blend in’ moment…
One of my favorite moments from Shaun of the Dead.
“Aw, so cute. She is worried her friend might die…”
Come on Gene! Just a few inches away from you is salvation for the group and probably for you! This has made me think. When humans die in this universe, not by zombies or infection, do they come back as one? Because Dave here could just be teasing us into thinking that they do and zombified Gene will save the day. And if this is true, then well played.
I tried to set this up so that there are a couple different, equally possible outcomes here. Everyone is guessing that Gene is going to turn into a zombie, but I also left the pistol on the ground right next to him. And what happened to Ted’s family? And, hey, maybe the whole group gets taken hostage by the prisoners.
on the subject of the defenseless women…I wonder…just how Evil do you plan for these prisoners to be? we are taking about 3 sexually frustrated male criminals in a house with 1 defenseless woman and a little girl…so here’s just a few question’s rolling about my mind on this topic, not that i want answers i just want to put them down. how far are you willing to go? did the worse happen? do you think we could take it?what does this mean for the ted and his sanity? I do want to stress am afraid and excited to see what you decide to do…good luck and great comic.
Uh oh…
Gary Ganu? Is that you?
On the subject of how far I’m willing to go here, let me just say this: I can’t handle sexual violence in any capacity whatsoever. It just wrecks me whenever I see it in movies or read it in stories. And that’s just fiction. On the news it’s a nightmare.
Long story short, I won’t be going there. Not for Ted’s sanity, but for my own.
Thanks for drawing that line Dave. I understand that sexual violence is likely in any scenario where societiey is breaking down. But some artist and film makers go to extremes and overdo the “gritty reality” aspect. I’m with you, stuff like that just ruins the story for me and I’d rather not see it. I maintain no delusions, but I don’t need to have my nose rubbed in it either.
Well said, Damage. We’re definitely on the same page.
I don’t think it’s fair to assume that just because they’re prisoners. You do know what they do to child molesters in prison, right?
We’ll just have to wait, I suppose…In the words of River Song, “Spoilers.”
Wow, this comic has taken a rather tragic turn in these last episodes!
Indeed it has. Things are getting “real”.
I like that.