Zombie Cliche Lookout: The Giant Mob of Zombies
One of zombie movie trope that I absolutely love is when we get a crowd shot of the dozens/hundreds/thousands/etc of zombies that are surrounding our brave protagonists. We immediately get both a sense of the scope of the zombie horde, and a sense of exactly how screwed everyone is.
Now, most zombie movies don’t have the massive production budgets of World War Z or the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead, so they have to rely on tricks to make their more modest crowd of zombies look bigger and badder. Usually that means shooting from less distance, or using foreground objects to obscure the empty spaces in the crowd. I’m always amused by that.
About this Episode:
Unfortunately, I’m one of those low-budget kind of productions that has to shoot the crowd scene from a minimal distance to maximize both my set and the number of zombies at my disposal. It’s okay, I’ve made peace with being a B-Movie kind of comic.
And, like any good B-Movie worth it’s salt, I’ve thrown in a couple Easter Egg zombies in the mix. First to spot them wins… I dunno, 5 internets, or the respect of their peers. Something essentially worthless. But, you know, winning is fun, right?
Discussion Question: Reactions During the Beginning of the Zombie Apocalypse
It’s a different world than it was in 1968, when George Romero released the original Night of the Living Dead. We’re hip to zombies now. We know what to do: shoot’em in the head and don’t get bitten. In light of that, how do you think the initial reaction to zombies showing up would be? Will people be prepared? Will there be disbelief? Will a lot of people get arrested for murdering zombies?
Skrimshaw is there! I see the bastard!
Discussion: In my opinion what happened in The Last Of Us is what will await us. Government will take control of the situation to a degree, then the Militaret will step in and create quarantine zones. Afterwards we will form a society, always fearful, but with the means of defense to keep on living.
Typo alert: I’m not entirely sure of what you meant in the discussion question when it said “In light how that, how do you…”. I obviously understood later on, but it confused me there for a bit.
Got one right out of the gate!
I really need to play the Last of Us. Anyone want to buy me a copy?
Thanks for the head’s up on the typo. I’ll get that fixed.
Dave, you forgot to add the groaning sounds that zombies make.
okay Dave just a little moneysaving advice, The last of us is for Playstation only, and since its newly realeased, it’s probabily $60. For a zombie game, i’d sugest call of duty zombies, tons of maps that you can never beat, now thats what i call saving money, of course you need a playstation for free new updates, if you have an xbox, you’ll need xbox live, but xbox update come out about 2 monthes before playstation, you choose i guess
Daryl dixon
Ah, good eye. I noticed him too, but I had to go back to that review Dave or whoever made for him to make sure. I also see Scrimshaw, the hippie guy, and Jeff, the news station camera man (at least I think It’s him, in the top right corner wearing that red hat). I’m still skimming over the old comics to see if there are any matches.
you just found everyone that i did
That’s not actually Jeff; just an unrelated zombie with a similar hat.
I am a pretty big fan of zombies and lego, so this is the best comic EVER!!!!!
Not Daryl!! Scrimshaw!!!!!!!!
They’ll be missed.
Got it
George Romero was in a black ops zombies map, he was the boss, but you got to be the charecters from the movie, and the map was even called Call of the Dead, isn’t that thoughtful?
You got to be characters from the movie? So you could be Ben or Cooper? That’s kind of awesome.
i havent seen the movie but i know what the charecters look like, theres this chick whose got it all right, shes wearing a black leather jacket, and has a tanktop underneath, theres the farmer lookin’ guy who has a stripped shirt, and a detectives coat, a big tall guy… can’t remember him, but hes awesome, and theres a darkish tan guy with a red bandana on. Only charecters you can play as, of course i do like how you have George Romero as a boss, and you have to turn him back to human. Cool huh?
oh and about the zombie game, i recognize Skirmshaw to the right, and the hippi who was chasing Clark erlier, i also belive that i saw the cammera man from the TV studio (although i can’t remmember his name.), were those 3/5 guys? Or just one
Three Easter Eggs in total: Scrimshaw, Daryl, and the Hippie Zombie. That’s not actually Jeff, although I totally see the confusion.
I like the idea of rioting and chaos in the big cities and the government trying to take control but, really? Would the US Government stop infighting long enough to recognise this threat and contain it before it gets out of hand. I also feel that once it is contained, if the government is still standing, the blame game will start in no time.
For the rest of us, I think people will react as if it were a hurricane or tornado. Stock up on supplies, buckle down and hope it blows over.
Congress would be a total quagmire; good call here.
At this point and time, people know not to get bitten and depending on the zombie we’re dealing with, kill them, quarantine them, ect.
And it may be a quick Government takes over long enough to set up the safe zones before life appears to go back to normal or people adjust to the new normal.
As to Easter Eggs – most everyone seems to have spotted and said them already. Daryl Dixon, Scrimshaw, Hippie, half eaten/top half of zombie, dude they had with them from the t.v. studio. Not sure who else is there as I’d have to look back over the comic now.
Good call on the halfsie-zombie. He’s a leftover from the prisoners.
well this going to be harder then i thought, i counted about 21ish zombies in the crowd, we have to find 5 that are out of place, so far weve found 3 or 4/5 zombie eggs, i think one of those zombies might be Legolas, but its hard guessing people from their backs
Yeah, they are pretty quiet.
I think all of the above in terms of the discussion. There will be a lot of unbelief, causing many of the prepared to be arrested for ‘murder’, and the initial reaction once people realize the apocalypse is imminent will probably be panic.
maybe the zombies will be smart, and put their brains in ziploc bags to keep them fresh… dum-de-dum. Maybe they’ll have every meat a brain, why do zombies want brains? If they were gay, i know what they’d be after. okay now im just rambling
Are we only counting one of the prisoners as the easter egg? Cuz all three are standing pretty much together. I guess they wouldndt count cuz they are supposed to be there.
Wait I see it. Dave used teds wife right in the front as filler zombie. Or maybe were countin the lego minifig series one zombie on the far right
i’m pretty sure that the zombie in the blue suit had origonaly had his arm cut off by stewart
Skrimshaw! I saw that no-good fisher!
well he’s a fisher, but i wouldn’t call him no good, and now a quote. “I hate cucumbers, if they weren’t so open about it i might not mind so much.”
It would be disbelief. For me, my reaction would be “smoke ’em if you got ’em”.
to late
In any worst case scenario the masses will be 24 hours behind the curve. They likely won’t understand the magnitude, or they’ll be stunned by it. The armchair preppers with their “seventy-two hour kits” will be good for about three days. On the fourth day all hell breaks loose.
The best thing we can do is not live in denial. Bad things do happen, and on a massive scale. Recognize the signs of the disaster as it’s hitting, or even a bit before. Develop a communications network, like ham contacts, and see if you can puzzle things out together. Keep your car radio on the AM dial and always read between the lines. What are the commentators saying? What are they not saying?
Think about Hurricane Katrina. Most of us knew it was coming two days before it hit. I remember chatting about it the day before with a bunch of preppers. It was a Saturday night. We knew it was going to be bad, and could not figure out why locals weren’t taking it seriously. The hurricane hit on Sunday morning, and then again on Monday.
The point is that if you’re paying attention, you can see a lot of disasters coming, then decide to stay or go before the highways are clogged up. Take advantage of that first twenty-four hours to get your shit together.