Zombie Cliche Lookout: Pied Piper
One of the big advantages of dealing with zombies is that their dogged single mindedness is very exploitable.Case in point, a horde of zombies can be diverted by a single person with more courage than good sense and willing to take a huge risk. Granted, it’s not a completely effective solution since there are generally always a few stragglers left behind, but it’s certainly better than the alternative.
This trait is one of the things I love most about the zombie genre. These are monsters that have a huge advantage against their potential victims, but with some clever thinking and some bold action, that advantage can be exploited as a survival strategy.
About this Episode:
I shoot this comic on a DSLR camera, and have used the comic to teach myself a bit about photography over the years. Now I am by no means saying I’m a good, or even competent photographer (I’m not), but I have at least learned a few of the mechanics. For instance, when I originally started Bricks of the Dead, I shot everything in automatic mode. Gradually I shifted over to Aperture Priority to give me better control over the depth of field. Then I started doing custom color balances (tough for me, since I’m colorblind). About a year ago, I started shooting in 100% manual mode. I have to take more photos than usual, because I screw more of them up, it’s really satisfying.
One thing that I’m struggling with now is light levels. I usually meter based on what I’m focusing on, but I’ve noticed that there is a pronounced difference when I focus on something light, such as pigtail zombie’s blond hair, versus something dark, like the dark blue of business zombie’s suit. This results in inconsistent lighting between panels.
Discussion Question: Exploiting Zombie Strengths
While the zombie certainly varies a lot from one piece of fiction to another, there are typically a handful of traits that stay consistent (with cavaets, of course). With these in mind, in what ways could you turn some of the zombies’ strengths to your own advantage?
Typo alerts: ” Granted, it’s no a completely effective” no–>not 😀
“but I’ve noticed that is a pronounced difference when” Add “there” after “that” 😉
Only two typos today, not bad, Dave! 😀
Both fixed, thanks!
The fact that the truck is now moving leads to the next obvious question: How far does she drive it? if she drives it too far, she’ll probably wind up with 100 zombies all after her, and a truck out of gas! 😀 If she doesn’t drive it far enough away, though, she’s going to wind up having those same zombies come back to the house, and very likely with reinforcements. Insofar as zombies could understand the concept of reinforcements, they’re still likely to pose some sort of a threat.
Of course, trucks can travel far faster than zombies can walk or shamble, so she’ll likely lose a lot of them if she gets far up the gear train. This of course depends on how well she understands the truck’s gear shift, and how complicated it is. We can only hope she got lucky and the truck’s an automatic, being a delivery truck! 😀 TLG never did pay much attention to gear shifts or drive shafts in trucks, so Dave could use whatever works for him! 😉
Hah, very good points. In this case, the truck is an automatic. That’s not uncommon in panel trucks here in the states; they try to make them easy for regular people to use.
I’m still holding out hope that that Blonde ponytail zombie ,in front of the truck, is gonna get run over and squished!
“Now I am by no means saying I’m a good, or even competent photographer (I’m not).”
Dammit,Dave! I have seen your photography change and evolve over the years, and what you said is un-Dead wrong. You have become a very good photographer. I dont even understand half the stuff you say when you talk about photography. That’s how you know you’re good!
If I were lego, and I wanted my picture taken, I would go straight to you! Haha!
Hah, thanks for your kind words. I’ve certainly gotten better over the years. I look at the first few episodes from time to time, and I always end up wanting to re-do them.
I agree with Pepper on all counts here, especially regarding Dave’s photography skills. Dave, your photography is really good. I’m personally at that amateur photography level where you take the shotgun approach. Just take bunches and bunches of pictures and a few of them are bound to turn out good.
For the question.
Since they’re dumb and persistent. You could easily set them to shamble straight into an enemy’s base, and take them out.
They are always in the mood to eat.
So ,if they can smell, you could make a bunch of head height spikes and slather them in fresh blood an guts. Then the zombies will want the yummies so bad, that they will willingly stab themselves in the head.
You could also , maybe, get them to eat all your trash by covering it in guts.
And if you need something to be chewed. We know they’re good at that! 🙂
I’m not quite sure if those fit the question. But that’s what I thought of.
“Since they’re dumb and persistent. You could easily set them to shamble straight into an enemy’s base, and take them out.”
I like the idea of weaponizing zeds. I’ve seen it used a time or two (The Walking Dead comes to mind), but not terribly often. I wonder why this isn’t a more common trope.
That’s the good thing about having a zombie tv show and not a movie. The characters have time to get comfortable with the zeds, and do all sorts of cool things with them.
But in a lot of Zombie movies.
It shows the beginning of the outbreak. So the characters don’t really have time to live in the apocalypse enough to learn that the zombies can actually be pretty useful.