Episode 379: That Doesn’t Sound Fair

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Dave

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Zombie Cliche Lookout: Inquity

Say what you will about the many injustices in the world today, but I’d argue that we’re a lot further toward egalitarianism now than at any other point in history. As nice as that is (and, again, despite the work that remains), all of that is going to come quickly to and end when the zombies show up. Once the proverbial shit hits the fan, we’ll be right back to “might makes right”, and those with the most capacity for violence will rapidly rise to the top of the food chain. And no, I’m not just talking about zombies here.

People who are willing to be violent, and have the resources to overwhelm others, will very quickly find themselves in a dominant position in what’s left of society. But don’t worry, there’s good news (kind of). Those new-age warlords? They won’t last long. In-fighting and power struggled should ensure that most of them are only in power a very finite amount of time. And if they’re only getting by through the seizing of resources from others, it’s only a matter of time before they meet up with either overwhelming resistance, or nothing left to steal.

About this Episode:

I tried something a little different in this episode. In additional to turning off all but on light and blocking the set’s ceiling with some cardboard, I also draped everything with a bit of cloth, including the area around the camera. It definitely helped to cut down on the light bleed.

Other News:

A quick personal update. I’m going to be taking this Thursday through the following Tuesday off from the comic. My wife and a bunch of other woman from my family are doing a Tough Mudder run in Pittsburg this weekend, and I’m going to go out and cheer them on. Should be a good time. We’ll return to our regular schedule on Wednesday. As always, apologies for people looking forward to new updates.

Discussion Question: Zombies Throughout the Ages

If you had to pick a single historical time for a zombie book/movie to be set, what would it be and why? Zombies taking on the Roman empire? Zombies versus Mayan Jaguar Warriors? Zombies during the Revolutionary War? I’ll be honest with you, every single one of these sounds pretty awesome to me.

49 thoughts on “Episode 379: That Doesn’t Sound Fair”

  1. What I think would be interesting to have zombies in would be the first crusade. If I am correct, most of the westerners had a thinking that it was almost time of the apocalypse, what with the Muslim invaders and what not.
    Also you have would an army of peasants to infect.

    • That would indeed be interesting. I didn’t know about that apocalyptic thinking. Sounds intriguing.

  2. Zombies versus any and all weapons from Star Wars! 😀

    That way one thing they wouldn’t be worrying anyone about is being too numerous! 😀

    • Death Star versus Planet of the Zombies would make for a pretty short story 🙂 It reminds me of Godzilla versus Bambi.

    • There actually are some zombie-like characters in Star Wars if i’m not mistaken. The rakgouls are a good example even though they are not “classical” zombies they do possess the characteristics of zombies, once you get bit you become a mindless monster that only lives to infect and eat others.

      • Are those creatures from the novels? I’ve not heard of them.

        • They were also in Star wars the old republic :3

        • That’s a game, right?

  3. I wonder how a Zombie-outbreak would’ve influenced the second world war…

    Good news… if the guy is questioning the fairness of how the weapons are divided, he probably has some sense of decency, so there should be an opening to talk with him and get him to ‘trust’ you… (well, at least set you free… maybe)

    Have fun cheering 🙂

    • I shall!

      He might have a sense of fairness, or he might be trying to instigate some in-fighting.

  4. Pretty much anyone with ranged weapons is going to run out of ammo eventually. I’ve had a fan-fic running through my head for years about USS Voyager running into a zombie-infested planet while making their way back from the Delta Quadrant. Phasers vs zombies, with the ship’s doctor hologram working furiously to come up witha cure 🙂

    • I’d watch it, although I’m not familiar with Voyager.

    • Watching the Borg trying to assimilate something that’s already dead would be interesting if not boring after a while! 😀

      • Hah, yeah that could be really cool, or really boring. The Borg are already pretty zombie-like.

  5. Zombies vs. the Egyptians… look into something that very ancient history and that no one hardly knows anything about.

    • That could be very cool indeed, Fox.

  6. Zombies fighting Mongols would be neat. Some thing like:

    “The Mongols could not be stopped, wherever they went, dead corpses of their enemies covered the earth. It wasn’t nations or armies that stopped them. They were stopped when one day, the corpses of those they killed rose up around them.”

    Also, have you played Road of the Dead or Rebuild 2?Both of these are really fun zombie flash games.

    • Oh man, I like this! Horse archers versus zeds could be really cool.

      I haven’t played either. When BotD first started I reviewed zombie flash games, but it didn’t take long before I ran out of good ones.

  7. Great Caesar’s Ghost! Lawyer, mother of 2, married to Dave and Tough Mudder participant!? Mister Dave, Mrs. Dave is a remarkable person. My appreciation for you and your family just went up again, way up. For those who don’t know about Tough Mudder (go ahead and Google it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uzl-e5EoTc), bottom line, on the zeepoc, it’s Mrs. Dave whom you want to hook up with as she leads the charge. good luck keeping up with her!

    • Yeah, Mrs. of the Dead is pretty awesome.

  8. Zombies vs native Americans would make a good story in my opinion

    • That could be very cool indeed.

  9. I like the idea of zombies in WWI. Some sort of experimental gas bomb on the battlefield maybe reacts with the nervous systems of the dead in a less than reliable manner. Both sides find themselves overrun. Tanks rolling over entire hordes, maxims tearing through enemies and zombies alike, soldiers trapped in the claustrophobic trenches by countless undead and with none of the modern, smaller automatic weaponry to clear them out with. It’s such an intense setting, but often overlooked in favor of WWII.

    • That’s very similar to a short story I wrote for Zombies Gone Wild.

  10. Hey dave, sorry that i wont be on the site as often, but i wanted you to see that Call of the Dead trailer for call of duty black ops zombies. So is it okay to post the link here?

    • Fine by me. Thanks for asking.

  11. I would like to see a zombie flick during the dark ages. Bubonic plague = Zombie outbreak

    • I’m game on this one too.

  12. Two words: Steampunk Zombies.

    • Yes please!

    • Or maybe even Cyber Steam Punk zombies.

      • Oh snap.

  13. Maybe a zombie outbreak during mid evil times and Mayan/ tribal times( Early Europe and USA)

    • I’m thinking of like an “Apocalypto (movie)” + Zombie theme. Great combination. 🙂

  14. WWII zombies sound cool. Not just things like Black Ops Nazi zombies, but maybe everyone uniting to take down the undead. Not sure what it would be like..

    • That could be really interesting. Imagine zeds showing up at the Battle of the Bulge. That would make for an awesome story.

  15. Hmmm…

    That goes back to my First Maxim of Horror Movies: The tougher the hero, the tougher the villain. The Alien movies are my favorite example. When the protagonists were weak, there was only one xenomorph. When it was two squads of space marines, it was endless hordes. If it was Clan of the Cave Bear Versus the Zombies, how tough do you think the zombies would be?

    • Excellent point.

      Were you a fan of Clan of the Cave Bear, Bo?

      • Never read it, or them. Watched about 3/4 of the movie on Amazon Prime, thought “meh”, and turned it off.

        • I read the first book and enjoyed it well enough. I don’t really get why they were so popular, but maybe it just wasn’t for me. I tried watching the movie too and couldn’t get into it.

        • Are they still popular, though? Seems like an Eighties thing to me. Not that I wouldn’t mind bringing the Eighties back… *whistling*

        • I doubt they’re nearly as popular, but I know that a new book in the series came out within the last couple of years because the wife read it (and said it sucked).

  16. Fortunately, in a stone age society, there would be too few humans for a zombie outbreak to overwhelm the whole of a human population, depending upon the zombie mythos, and how the local people dispose of their dead.

    Would there be any such thing as Romero zombies in a culture where people cremate their dead, crush the bones into powder, and consume the remains ritualistically?

    I think not.

    • I didn’t realize stone age man had that sort of funereal rights. Very interesting.

      • I’m not saying they did, or do. I have read about South American tribes (basically Stone Age) that cremate and eat their own dead, in their own families, not strangers- that’s New Guinea. My point is that completely destroying the corpse would preclude Romero-type zombies.

        • Ahh, fair enough. My college Anthro class spent a fair bit of time on the stone-ages in New Guinea; I wish I would have kept those books now.

        • Now a plague zombie, on the other hand…

          No stopping that, especially if it was cosmic rays that caused it, like Night of the Comet (“NO! Don’t eat Commander Chakotay!”).

          If it was a virus, folks could move up into the cold, maybe, like The Andromeda Strain.

        • “Daddy would have got us uzis.”

        • “C’mon Hector, the MAC-10 submachine gun was practically designed for housewives.”