About This Episode:
When I was given the chance to do a guest comic I had a story in mind and even built the set for it. But soon after I decided that it might be more fun to do a guest strip based on a something from a book. Since I had just finished reading Pavlov’s Dogs and enjoyed the story so much I reached out to the authors David Snell and Thom Brannan to ask if they would like their story to be featured. They both loved the idea and dove right into getting helping me get this started. Within a few hours we had an 8 episode script written by them that did a great job of being able to fit into this LEGO comic world.
We chose chapter 1 since its a perfect microcosm of the entire book and 1 chapter makes the right length for a comic short series. It’s face paced, has plenty of action and the story hits the ground running. The best part about Pavlov’s Dogs is we have the Human vs. Zombies angle we all love, but there is an extra dose of awesome as we also have…werewolves!
So as you can see by looking at episode 1, Pavlov’s Dogs gets right off too it with no build up. The story starts right as everything is falling apart. Sometimes I don’t want a huge build up to the zombie apocalypse story. Sometimes its nice to just get right to the action. But later on in the book it touches on it so you’re not left wondering.
As for me actually making this comic. I am NOT the most prepared person. In fact, my zombie apocalypse preparation strategy is to hope a fully stocked neighbor dies quickly so I can loot them. So as with most projects I start, I went into this having no clue how I would do it. No idea how to edit pictures, no idea how to type text or thought bubbles onto them, no idea how to set up a scene to shoot pictures for a comic. Sure I have shot some mocs before and put them on flickr and mocpages but this is different since you’re shooting scenes that have to tell a story. That’s the best part of hobbies, its a fun way to learn something new. And while frustrating at times, the best way for me to learn new things is to throw myself into something. But even with a lot of stuff to figure out I had an absolute blast doing this.
I figured I would explain how I did each scene as it might help someone who wants to do their own webcomic. The first challenge was figuring out perspective to photograph everything once the sets were built. Since LEGO are so shiny you have to learn how to frame a scene right while trying to fit everything in. Otherwise you get too much reflection. Thankfully Dave advised me to build every wall to be easily removed so nothing connects at a 90 degree angle. That gives you space to move the camera around the set. That saved me a ton of time tear down and rebuild time but only solved half the framing problem. I built a ton of stuff on that right wall in the alley entrance that could never be shown since it won’t fit into the picture right. A huge backfire of not thinking ahead and lesson learned.
So this comic will be 8 episodes and then we’ll get back to the regular comic where Dave left off.
Discussion Question: This one comes from Brickvoid
If the end of the world were to happen within the next 24 hours, would you go out taking as many zeds with you as possible, or would you join their numbers? Let’s say this end of the world is fatal to zombies, too! Would that influence your choice?
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oooooooh win
wins are good!
try a hand gernade for example, atatch it to you, when youve got a few tons od zombies, run into them
Reminds me of the air duct scene in Aliens!
Hi Evan, and thanks for posting my discussion question! 🙂 This question of mine assumes that whoever is facing such a decision has seen how to get infected, and that the change from human to zombie happens in an hour or two in this scenario, in case anyone was wondering.
It also assumes they have a way to get themselves bitten without becoming zombie food thus, kind of a way to choose their own fate, so to speak.
Have at it, and let me know what you’d choose! 😀
It’s an excellent question. My first thought was to reject the idea of joining their numbers. But then I thought about all the bizarre things people do to try to extend their life. I think a *relatively* large number would go for becoming a zombie hoping the cure would come in time.
you know last week the second episode sudenly poped up on the screen, theres no point of looking into it
Yeah we had a little accident as I was setting up the schedule. Thanks for telling me though. I was wondering if anyone had seen it or it was just me. Setting up the main comic isn’t like a regular post it seems. :/
Remember the Alamo and go down swinging and shooting!
You make this Texian proud!
Yeah living 90 miles away I thought about it.
Congratulations on your first Brick Comic episode Evan ! And a book giveaway to celebrate it… tss… the readers of this site are really spoiled!
On your episode, the Figs posing is very dynamic and the layout has a good depth, well done.
Regarding the question… end of the world + zombies… geez, that’s bleak. Taking the decision for yourself is one thing, the hardest part is taking it for your loved ones. If they’re already gone I don’t think I would find in me the strength to keep fighting.
Thank you!
I’m living as long as I can. If it comes down to dying, or turning into a zombie, I’ll roll over on my rifle and blow out my brains.
Like I tell Dave, always save the last bullet for yourself. It’s better to fail than to quit; but it’s also better to die than to go on as one of the undead.
In the stress of a firefight can you be sure to keep count of rounds?
Bo, Evan, I’d say keep the last bullet in your fifth pocket, no confusion. But in a pinch, your fingers better be quick.
All else fails, you could always keep something to slit your wrists. Just hope you’re a bleeder.
See I dunno. Think about how stressed you’re going to be. How emotionally shot. Your hands might be shaking so bad you can’t load the gun.
You have to remember your most stressed out and miserable day of your life. Take that take and image a far worse day that you’ll be living again. For days, weeks or months back to back. Can you rely on being able to grab that bullet, loading a gun in time? Sure you won’t drop it?
I think if you managed to survive a week or a month and you’d seen action, you’d be better able to handle this situation than you would the first day (if you were getting enough energy from food, that is). You’d be… practiced, I guess. But that first day? Yeah, you’re not thinking of a fifth-pocket solution. Might be better slitting your wrists with shaky hands though 😀
D.L. Snell, I don’t see how one could possibly bleed out fast enough for slitting one’s wrists to be an effective means of emergency anit-zombie suicide. It’d get your adrenaline really pumping early, but it wouldn’t help much. You’d still die a fairly slow death, and you’d probably still be alive when the zombies got to you (unless they were pretty far off – in which case killing yourself might not have been the smartest option, anyway.)
Plus, I don’t see it doing any good for keeping you dead, once the zombies got to you. If you turned, slit wrists wouldn’t hinder you much as a zombie, depending on the paricular set of “zombie rules” in the scenario.
It is very possible depending on how you do it. I don’t think it would be ethical for me to explain how though.
I suppose it would be, if done “correctly.” (Or at least, in a certain way.)
But there’s no guarantee it’d work. But I agree, discussing the details of how best to commit suicide on the internet is generally not the best or most ethical thing to be doing.
Absolutely! No guarantee.
In a firefight, you don’t count rounds. You go full-tilt boogie on each threat. When I started in the gun world, folks taught the double tap: two rounds to center mass. Then reevaluate. If the threat was still up, transition to the head or the pelvis. Now folks are teaching the “zipper”. Start at the belly button, and put one about in every button on a button-up shirt until the threat goes down. That’s why caliber matters less now. Folks figure all major handgun calibers behave about the same. Shoot the threat until it is no longer a threat.
Most folks carry at least one extra magazine for their weapons. Lots of concealed-carry practitioners also carry a second firearms (called a “BUG” or “backup gun”- that’s for you, Dave). Then a lot of folks in an EOTWAWKI situation are going to have a rifle or carbine, too. The way I see it, I’m going to have a sidearm with three extra magazines and a rifle with four extra magazines. When things get ugly I’ll likely have one or two rounds left (like The Road.
I never count on being able to scrounge extra ammunition. I carry what I think I need, and keep extra with my cache.
Shoot till they’re dead? Sounds rather wasteful of ammunition.
Not until the threat is dead, but until the threat is no longer a threat. You shoot the threat to the ground. If that takes two rounds, it takes two rounds. If it takes a magazine, it takes a magazine.
Ammunition is cheap. Lives are expensive.
Well I wouldn’t say Ammunition is cheap.. Heh, but you have a point, I just always stay in the mind that ammunition at some point in time will become severely limited.. I’m a big accuracy guy.
Now let’s see if I can recreate my earlier lost post…
Ok, in the chaos of a real fight, with noise and lights, adrenaline and blood pounding in your ears, accuracy becomes relative at best. Consider the Aurora shooting, a dark theater with a back-lit situation, THX sound and possibly CS/OC gas. Throw in body armor, just for giggles, and the scenario goes south real quick.
About the only way to end the fight in a hurry is to get a CNS shot (that’s “central nervous system” for you, Dave). The problem is that this target is in the shape of a “T” about four inches wide and about an inch and a half tall across the top and about another inch and a half wide down the stem. That’s through the eyes, and down the spinal column (the only parts of the central nervous system). Some folks say that they can make that shot. I say that making it under stress and “against the clock” is more within the realm of Walter Mitty than reality.
In anything short of the end of the world, you’ll likely have opportunity to buy more ammunition; and even in a true collapse, it’s hard to get more ammunition if you’re dead. Ammunition is not “cheap”; but it beats the alternative (hospital bills or a burial).
Remember the Ninth Rule of Gunfighting: “Accuracy is relative: most combat shooting standards will be more dependent on ‘pucker factor’ than the inherent accuracy of the gun. Use a gun that works every time. ‘All skill is in vain when an Murphy pisses in the lock of your musket.'”
Depends upon the mythos. In some zombie universes, you turn as soon as you die, regardless of what kills you. You’re running from the zombies, slip off the ladder and break your neck. Now you’re a zombie. You get sick of it all and slit your wrists (like the wife in The Road). Now you’re a zombie.
If you really want to go, self-inflicted GSW to the grape is the only sure way. That is, unless you miss, and just blow your face off. Then you’re a zombie…
Better just to fight it out. In that situation you’re either a zombie, or food for a zombie.
Totally love the action. Chase scenes as openers are a personal fav of mine in movies. And the Spanish made me smile. Thanks for representing for the Latinos here.
At bricksofthedead.com we believe in an equal opportunity apocalypse.
So let me get this straight, during the ZA, there is a world ending event like a meteor or something that will take out the entire planet? Nice!!
I’d want to take out as many Z’s as possible while looking for a safe place to hold up and say goodbye to my family while we wait for the end. If we make it to a quiet and safe area, I’d want us to say our goodbyes and then end our own lives. I’m not one for suffering and I’d rather off myself than die in a fiery blast or something.
I vote we nuke the zombies…and possibly some of us…
[T]ake off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It’s the only it’s the only way to be sure…
Heh! YEAH
Yeah, ooh-rah! If the blast doesn’t kill the remaining humans, the radioactive ash particles and infertile soil will! 😉
I’d have to think a nuke wouldn’t help much against zombies – those outside the blast radius probably wouldn’t get cancer and die like humans would, and even some inside the blast radius might still be functional…
But other than that, a nuke sounds like a good idea to me.
If they’re Romero-zombies, they’re already 100% non-viable tissue, so no cancer there. If they’re the new “plague” zombies, cancer might work, unless the plague virus kills the cancer cells.
Can’t say. I’m not a pathologist. 😉
You can bet your sweet ass that if there were a real zombie outbreak TBTB would use nukes to try to contain it before it destroyed all of humanity.
weird, for about 1.5 hours I couldn’t open the site, it would just make me download something.
Yeah, that was my bad, sorry.
I’m migrating some other sites over to my new host, and a configuration file got messed up. Took a little time to track down and resolve.
so so so glad it’s fixed
Thanks for messing up a thought out reply to the discussion above, Dave.
Geeze, I swear you could screw up a county fair…
😉
Hah!
I’m just glad it wasn’t me!
No joke.
“Dave! I broke teh Innernetz!”
“So as you can see by looking at episode 1, Pavlov’s Dogs gets right off too it with no build up. The story starts right as everything is falling apart. Sometimes I don’t want a huge build up to the zombie apocalypse story. Sometimes its nice to just get right to the action. ”
Hah, so basically, an antithesis to Zombie Outbrick. 😉
I certainly do agree with this approach for a comic miniseries – it’s the same with most short stories, it’s best to start right in the middle and skip the lengthy introductions.
I’m liking this so far, Evan, it’s cool to see you doing brick comics. Nicely done with the photography. The set looks good, and you pose your minifigs well, as Greg pointed out. I feel like the speech bubbles could be formatted a bit better, but otherwise you’re doing a great job for a beginner! I’m looking forward to reading the rest of this series.
I appreciate the compliment and criticism! I do agree that I don’t think the thought bubbles now. I had problems with the formatting.