Zombie Cliche Lookout: Unsettling Silence
One of the more effective ways to show off a character’s mindset is through non-verbal means, and you can get much more non-verbal than just not talking at all. Generally speaking, when characters in stories don’t talk, it means only a handful of things. If silence is their normal modus operandus, it probably means that they are very insecure, and just don’t like talking. If they’re normally gregarious, silence means they’re sad. If they’re somewhere in the middle, like Sam here, odds are they are being very introspective, or they are really upset about something.
Oh, and sometimes it just means that the character is crazy and dangerous. They’re being quiet because they’re scheming, or they’re trying to hide the fact that they’re completely insane. Maybe a bit of both.
You want to watch out for the crazy ones and the normal ones who are suffering through something, although for obviously different reasons. Your crazies are straight up dangerous and are likely to try to pull something. If you can spot them early enough, you can probably spot them. The normal people are a bit trickier. It’s hard to say what they’re going to do with their feelings. They could channel them productively, or they might let them drag them down into suicidally stupid risks.
About this Episode:
I know this background is super basic and boring, but I really like the way the green and tan walls like and backdrops to the characters. I think they kind of look like pop art, which is sort of fun.
Discussion Question: What’s Worst Time for a Zombie Outbreak?
The zombies are coming. You know it. I know it. We can do our best to prepare, but they can still surprise us. That said, what would the worst time be for a zombie outbreak. I’d like to keep this one pretty open, so answers like “the middle of the night”, “on the hotest day of the year”, or “right after I give blood” are all acceptable, provided you tell us why.
The worst time for a Zombie-outbreak?!? Are there any ‘better’ times for a zombie-outbreak?
Maybe the worst time would be right after a large scale natural disaster or something like that, when your life is shattered, your preps are gone and there are lots of bodies lying around…
I’d argue that there are better times. Right after you finish stocking your doomsday bunker with food, water, ammo, and porn, for instance?
God, Dave, are people truly THAT lonely?!? I know they would want to make themselves feel good, but that seems a bit too far…
And is porn really a common supply prepers have? I somehow doubt that is common.
Hah, that was just a joke, Nom.
Thank goodness. I thought it was, but it is hard to sense sarcasm on the internet :p
Worst time for a zombie apocalypse? Probably right now. Waiting for a move to somwhere else in future which is better.
Hah! I think that absolutely is the best answer…. “NOW” is always the worst time for a zombie-apocalypse 🙂
Hah, right you are.
Well said, sir.
Worst time for a zombie apocalypse? Hmmmm getting sick with diarrhea and dehydration, no medicine, food and drinking water.
Oh yeah, that’d be bad times for sure. Imagine is a big spike of norovirus went through right before the zeds showed up. No thank you.
I was simply going to say “during a weekday”. Everyone is separated. The kids are at school (or worse, multiple schools) and family members are at work. Getting everyone safely back together then provides an immense challenge.
Excellent point, Kim. Particularly bad for me are the days where I have to drive into the office (generally once a week), putting me 85 miles away from my family.
And let’s not forget, what person on this side of the universe is actually happy on a weekday? A zombie apocalypse would just be the worst thing on a Monday.
Hah, right you are.
The day before your emergency provisions in your bunker go bad.
That would be no good.
Friday Rush Hour. Everyone wants to get home and will be on the road, probably stuck in a city. However, the zombies are there, too, so some people would run, some would get in the way, but most would be zombified.
Oh god would that suck. I try to avoid going to the office on Fridays at all costs.
If what happens in a snow storm is a hit of what would happen, it would be Hell on Earth
During an election campaign: It’s kind of difficult to tell the zombies from the politicians, one exhales hot air, the other is looking for victims exhaling hot air! 😀 I’ll leave you to figure out which is which! 🙂
Hah, right you are, BrickVoid.
On a side note, Monday’s comic contained one typo: Big–>bit. I’ll let Dave see if he can find where it is! 😉 I just got my computer back from having all the dust and crap blown out of it so checking up on errors is mostly taking a back seat for a bit! 😀
*comic comments sorry
I shall do my best to track it down.
5 minutes ago. We didnt even know it started and were all unprepared. Any second your life will change because there are zombies on the way.
I’m loving the creative responses here. I wasn’t expecting anything like this and am pleasantly surprised.
For those of us in cold states like where I live in Maine, I would say right now in the coldest part of the Winter would be the worse time. That’s assuming the zombies were still mobile in the winter. Some books say the cold slows them down or freezes them in which case it would be the best time!! LOL!!!
Got a few thoughts on the discussion:
1) If you are in a surgery/sedated and it broke out you would be lucky to survive the initial outbreak and if you wake up you are going to be pretty groggy and have no idea what is going on. Bit of a Walking Dead example I suppose.
2) Another one would be while you are on a long haul flight, are you going to be landing in a hot zone? Are you flying away from friends and family? Info will be sketchy, and you wouldn’t have much prep stuff handy at all.
3) Asleep. You might wake up to find them knocking at your door! I always liked the Shaun of the Dead sequence when he wakes up, walks to the shop and back and doesn’t notice the world has gone to the zombies overnight. One bonus is generally we sleep at our own homes, so at least our preps are close by.
That’ll do, I feel like I’m spamming now 🙂
For me the worst time would be that dreaded once a week trip to the grocery store. I am right in the middle of town, and if the apocolypse had already started, I just didn’t know it (wich is doubtful, because I have a paranoid friend who monitors all emergency broadcast channels) so there would be looters and such, and then in the chaos the zombie stuck in the back room would get let loose etc etc. I would have to drive for 45 minuted back home, to check on my GF, but the roads would most likely be blocked by abandoned cars or refugee drivers (my truck can go off-road, but still) etc etc