I mean, with the hundreds of properties they’ve produced over the years, I’m sure there’s pretty much everything, in some remote corner of the continuum. I’ve just never really seen them have a particularly broad presence in the world.
I gather you don’t often check out Marvel Comics, considering their semi-popular Marvel Zombies line which even crossed over with Ultimate Marvelverse, the main continuity, and the Evil Dead series.
Never heard of Marvel Zombies? I’m surprised since they started writing them so frequently just a few years ago that they even made a crossover with Ash from The Evil Dead.
Now I wonder what happened with Captain Ass (I know his name, so don’t try to correct me, I just dislike him a lot) former ass body. Is it a zombie too? The authors treated him like garbage and forgot him.
Never heard of Marvel Zombies? I’m surprised since they started writing them so frequently just a few years ago …
That would do it. I haven’t paid much attention to them for the past decade or so.
The zombie-donkey Asstronomus was just a one-shot joke, really. They didn’t do much with him, since there’s only so much material that you can pull from a shallow character like him.
Asstronomus is a pretty shallow character, so he’s only really useful as a background character in the story arcs of more interesting characters. A zombie-donkey version of him would be that much less interesting.
I mean, would you want to follow a story arc that delved deeper into his character? He’s an asshole, like you said, and a shallow asshole, for that matter. That’s the be-all, end-all of his character development.
Technically Marvel has had zombies since the ’40s, but they weren’t Marvel Zombies®. They were, however, more or less every other kind of zombies ever, not necessarily in chronological order.
Also, zuvembies. Because the Comics Code was kinda insane, and thought banning the word “zombie” but not the actual concept would actually accomplish something. Apparently exactly none of the parties involved was aware of the fact that “ghoul” was already a word. Or “revenant”. Or hell, even just “the living dead”. I mean, come on. Night of the Living Dead manages to get the point across pretty well with just “those things”. This isn’t that difficult.
The “brains” thing is one of those more flexible elements of the whole zombie mythos, but then again, the Brooks ‘rules’ are kind of a new thing, anyway. Undeath in general has varied enormously from culture to culture and legend to legend, with only one detail in common: a former human who is neither living nor dead, but still physical, unlike a ghost. Is it a purely physical phenomenon, like a human version of the creepy cardiceps fungus?
Is it a virus? A bacterium? A micro parasite? A macro parasite? A mutation? Terrestrial or extraterrestrial? Or is it supernatural, like Voodoo Magic, where the term “zombie” comes from in the first place, or some such other black magic, like a Wraith, or Wight? Some combination of any of these? The diversity of the things that go “bump in the night” is amazing.
Anyway, the sort of undead that ‘eats brains’ was a plot point some B-Movie writer pulled out of his arse back in the early ’80’s, and had no basis in traditional myths, partly to make their own version that was distinct from Romero’s trend setter. Some vague “toxic gas” somehow reanimated dead flesh exposed to it, and in what is perhaps the most philosophically disturbing concept of death, those dead that have anything left, feel nothing but pain as they rot, in constant torment from the moment of death, never ending until every last flake of bone is destroyed by time, scavengers, or fire. The gas doesn’t motivate them, it just allows them to do something about it. The brains of the living numb the pain, alleviate and anesthetize them, temporarily. This form of undeath is actually worse then anything, really. No heaven or organized hell, no God, just tormented consciousness lingering helplessly, whether or not they were good or bad people in life, gas or no gas, until absolute entropy finally finishes them off, and if someone who drowned ended up becoming a fossil, their suffering would last millions of years.
Now, “Warm Bodies” was a new take on the brain eating motive, and a good compromise with the Romeo rules. They eat any fresh flesh, but the brain lets them absorb the victim’s memories, and is therefore more valuable. Above all, they feel no pain. Any sort of death or undeath is better then the original brain craving kind.
The weird part is, almost no zombie stories (excluding humorous ones) since then have actually included anything about zombies eating brains. Everybody knows zombies eat brains, but they never actually do. Just like how everybody knows evil twins have goatees, even though it was really just Evil Mr. Spock that one time.
Also, there really aren’t all that many murder mysteries where the butler did it. And that remains true if you ignore all the ones where there isn’t a butler at all.
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Sluggy Freelance did/does have zombies eating brains, but it’s justified as the magic that animates them requires they eat materials related to what body parts they want to maintain since they still slowly break down and it’s the only way that they can heal. So to keep from devolving into a brainless undead they have to eat brains to keep their own brains ‘healthy’ so to speak.
SF is a very good example that has zombies that are more than brainless eating machines. I wonder if the guys that did the Zombie Twilight (aka as “Warm Bodies”) were readers of SF.
My main problem with “Warm Bodies” is the way they get back to life. Since friendship is magical (i.e. love) that’s their explanation for reverting back to living, thinking guys.
There are a lot of interesting webcomics that play around with the “Our Zombies Are Different” TVTrope. My favorites are these:
Your run of the mill survival comic in world infested with zombies with great survivors. http://deadwinter.cc/
Post-apocalyptic world, where the zombies are the least of the problems. Great story, and concept. Animated in Flash. http://www.thepocalypse.com/
Think “In The Flesh”, berserk zombies and medicated zombies that can work as functional, normal people that suffers from racism against them. http://unlifecomic.com/
Interesting concept, Vampires vs Zombies and the good guys are the vampires.
lastblood.keenspot.com/
Return of the Living Dead really changed the way pop culture looked at zombies. It’s nuts.
I think the main reason why they go with eating brains is because it’s less gruesome. That way, it can be marketed to a younger audience, like Grim Adventures, or Plants vs Zombies.
Less gruesome? Did you see the episode of Dare Devil where Kingpin liquified a Russian’s head with a car door? I think spilled guts are less gruesome then pulped brains.
Yeah, but that’s irrelevant. When you look at the examples I mentioned before, you can notice that the zombies, if they ate flesh, would be a whole lot spookier. But because they eat brains, cartoons can show them eating something that’s harder to get too.
Classic Romero zombies just eat anything. In that episode of Grim Adventures where Billy fights a horde of zombies, they didn’t just eat people’s flesh. They were targeting brains, and wouldn’t eat anything else. Thus, less gruesome.
But I dunno, man. Maybe I’m wrong. Wouldn’t be the first time.
I’m on your side on this one. Going after brains is a lot less creepy, and there’s a lot more humor potential.
I recall many cartoons in which zombies chase after the group of characters, and the stupid character trips and gets left behind. The zombies close in and grab him, examine him for a few seconds, put him down, and chase after the rest of the group.
Also, there’s a difference between trying to eat someone’s brain and turning their head into paste with a car door. It’s subtle, so I can see how someone could confuse the two.
Depends on how the brain is eaten, I suppose. Do they neatly remove it and slice it up, or crush the head into mush in the process? When they are desperate to alleviate eternal suffering, they aren’t very neat about eating, from what I have seen. Warm bodies wasn’t very realistic, lacking any arterial spray (he was dripping, but should have been swimming with in it), but the 80’s B-Movies made more of an effort, probably using real pig brains.
The most gruesomely realistic brain eating I have seen in a film, was not by Zombies, but bug aliens in Starship Troopers. The corny scripting tends to cancel out the amazing effects, but that soldier having his living brain hoovered out made me throw up a little bit of my popcorn. That was unspeakably effective on me. Realistic brains still turn my guts all wrong. Maybe those B-Films were not as realistic as I remember them; I saw them on a USA Haloween marathon when I was 12, but that, and the scene from The Fly 2 where a lift crushed a guard’s head, it all came together in a synthesis of dread for spilled brains I now have.
I think that zombies tend to pop off the top of the skull and scoop out the brains. Fairly cartoonish, as far as this sort of thing goes. I don’t think that zombies tend to do smoothies.
Oh, and then there was The War Of The Worlds 80’s series that my dad should NOT have let me watch with him ( I was 8). They had a thing for brains going on, but the plot point of which escapes my recollection, but absolutely freaked me out at the time.
Reminds me of the first couple of magic shows I saw, as a little kid of about 4 or 5. Watching a pair of ladies get sawn in half freaked me the hell out. My parents were pretty good about not exposing us to actual gore, until we were at least in our early teens or so. The scariest movie I saw as a little kid was ghost busters.
Yeah, if it works, don’t knock it. Unless you’re one of those pickup-artist assholes.
They’re not as successful as they claim, anyway. They cherry-pick the living hell out of the very tiny number of successes; make up many of the successes out of thin air; and consider slamming a girl as ugly and fat, after she shoots him down, to be a score.
Appreciating a girl for her brain is a much better way to go.
You never watched “Zombie Strippers”, did you? That movie is wretched… *shudder*
I’m pretty sure there’s two girl zombies that makeout in that movie, but I mostly forget everything because of brain scarring :|
You never watched “Zombie Strippers”, did you? That movie is wretched… *shudder*
I’m proud to say that I haven’t. Sounds horrifying, just from the title … and not the good kind of horrifying that you normally hope for from horror movies.
the first time i saw these on my phone and they seemed to explode. To look at them again i am just awed by the colors the faces and the feelings these photos give. The top two of the little girl who stares down the lens and the one where the father kisses the mom with closed eyes i just melt and rejoice in the love that is human kindness. sometimes i can’t believe that you started this amazing career in the midst of raising a young family is just amazing to me!! You are so inspiring Jayme!
first! I’ve never done that before
It takes brains to come of with brilliant ideas like that!
Errrr, where the heck did this come from? I haven’t seen anything about zombies, previously.
Marvel maybe.
Marvel has zombies?
I mean, with the hundreds of properties they’ve produced over the years, I’m sure there’s pretty much everything, in some remote corner of the continuum. I’ve just never really seen them have a particularly broad presence in the world.
I gather you don’t often check out Marvel Comics, considering their semi-popular Marvel Zombies line which even crossed over with Ultimate Marvelverse, the main continuity, and the Evil Dead series.
I haven’t paid much attention to the actual comic books for the last 10 years or so, no. How recently did all of that happen?
Five-issue limited series published from December 2005 to April 2006.
Much more,
Marvel Zombies – v1 5 issues (2006)
Marvel Zombies – Dead Days (one shot) (2007)
Marvel Zombies – v2 5 issues (2007-2008)
Marvel Zombies – v3 4 issues (2008-2009)
Marvel Zombies – v4 4 issues (2009)
Marvel Zombies – v5 5 issues (2010)
Marvel Zombies – Return 5 issues (2009-2010)
Marvel Zombies – Evil Evolution (2010)
Marvel Zombies Supreme – 5 issues (2011)
Marvel Zombies – Halloween (2012)
Marvel Zombies – Destroy – 5 issues (2012)
Also Night of the Living Deadpool and Return of the Living Deadpool.
Yup. And don’t forget “Tales of the Zombie” August 1973 – March 1975. Ten issues plus an annual.
Which is about the time I stopped paying attention to comics, yes. About a decade.
Never heard of Marvel Zombies? I’m surprised since they started writing them so frequently just a few years ago that they even made a crossover with Ash from The Evil Dead.
Now I wonder what happened with Captain Ass (I know his name, so don’t try to correct me, I just dislike him a lot) former ass body. Is it a zombie too? The authors treated him like garbage and forgot him.
That would do it. I haven’t paid much attention to them for the past decade or so.
The zombie-donkey Asstronomus was just a one-shot joke, really. They didn’t do much with him, since there’s only so much material that you can pull from a shallow character like him.
Asstronomus is a pretty shallow character, so he’s only really useful as a background character in the story arcs of more interesting characters. A zombie-donkey version of him would be that much less interesting.
I mean, would you want to follow a story arc that delved deeper into his character? He’s an asshole, like you said, and a shallow asshole, for that matter. That’s the be-all, end-all of his character development.
Did you hear of Brother Voodoo? Born to be mocked.
Nope.
You are so lucky.
Technically Marvel has had zombies since the ’40s, but they weren’t Marvel Zombies®. They were, however, more or less every other kind of zombies ever, not necessarily in chronological order.
Also, zuvembies. Because the Comics Code was kinda insane, and thought banning the word “zombie” but not the actual concept would actually accomplish something. Apparently exactly none of the parties involved was aware of the fact that “ghoul” was already a word. Or “revenant”. Or hell, even just “the living dead”. I mean, come on. Night of the Living Dead manages to get the point across pretty well with just “those things”. This isn’t that difficult.
There is always time for Zombies.
All hail the Za-Lord!
Harry is grateful for the praise.
The “brains” thing is one of those more flexible elements of the whole zombie mythos, but then again, the Brooks ‘rules’ are kind of a new thing, anyway. Undeath in general has varied enormously from culture to culture and legend to legend, with only one detail in common: a former human who is neither living nor dead, but still physical, unlike a ghost. Is it a purely physical phenomenon, like a human version of the creepy cardiceps fungus?
Is it a virus? A bacterium? A micro parasite? A macro parasite? A mutation? Terrestrial or extraterrestrial? Or is it supernatural, like Voodoo Magic, where the term “zombie” comes from in the first place, or some such other black magic, like a Wraith, or Wight? Some combination of any of these? The diversity of the things that go “bump in the night” is amazing.
Anyway, the sort of undead that ‘eats brains’ was a plot point some B-Movie writer pulled out of his arse back in the early ’80’s, and had no basis in traditional myths, partly to make their own version that was distinct from Romero’s trend setter. Some vague “toxic gas” somehow reanimated dead flesh exposed to it, and in what is perhaps the most philosophically disturbing concept of death, those dead that have anything left, feel nothing but pain as they rot, in constant torment from the moment of death, never ending until every last flake of bone is destroyed by time, scavengers, or fire. The gas doesn’t motivate them, it just allows them to do something about it. The brains of the living numb the pain, alleviate and anesthetize them, temporarily. This form of undeath is actually worse then anything, really. No heaven or organized hell, no God, just tormented consciousness lingering helplessly, whether or not they were good or bad people in life, gas or no gas, until absolute entropy finally finishes them off, and if someone who drowned ended up becoming a fossil, their suffering would last millions of years.
Now, “Warm Bodies” was a new take on the brain eating motive, and a good compromise with the Romeo rules. They eat any fresh flesh, but the brain lets them absorb the victim’s memories, and is therefore more valuable. Above all, they feel no pain. Any sort of death or undeath is better then the original brain craving kind.
The weird part is, almost no zombie stories (excluding humorous ones) since then have actually included anything about zombies eating brains. Everybody knows zombies eat brains, but they never actually do. Just like how everybody knows evil twins have goatees, even though it was really just Evil Mr. Spock that one time.
Also, there really aren’t all that many murder mysteries where the butler did it. And that remains true if you ignore all the ones where there isn’t a butler at all.
Not to mention “Me Tarzan, you Jane” and “Luke, I am you father!”
“I have a bad feeling about this!”
Hmm…Good post. I discover something a lot more challenging on distinct blogs everyday. Most commonly it really is stimulating to see content off their writers and exercise a bit at their store. I’d would prefer to use some while employing content in this s…
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Sluggy Freelance did/does have zombies eating brains, but it’s justified as the magic that animates them requires they eat materials related to what body parts they want to maintain since they still slowly break down and it’s the only way that they can heal. So to keep from devolving into a brainless undead they have to eat brains to keep their own brains ‘healthy’ so to speak.
SF is a very good example that has zombies that are more than brainless eating machines. I wonder if the guys that did the Zombie Twilight (aka as “Warm Bodies”) were readers of SF.
My main problem with “Warm Bodies” is the way they get back to life. Since friendship is magical (i.e. love) that’s their explanation for reverting back to living, thinking guys.
There are a lot of interesting webcomics that play around with the “Our Zombies Are Different” TVTrope. My favorites are these:
Comic about Scavengers against zombies that has a lot of zombie varieties, not just slowpokes or crazy runners.
http://www.thezombiehunters.com/index.php
Your run of the mill survival comic in world infested with zombies with great survivors.
http://deadwinter.cc/
Post-apocalyptic world, where the zombies are the least of the problems. Great story, and concept. Animated in Flash.
http://www.thepocalypse.com/
Think “In The Flesh”, berserk zombies and medicated zombies that can work as functional, normal people that suffers from racism against them.
http://unlifecomic.com/
Interesting concept, Vampires vs Zombies and the good guys are the vampires.
lastblood.keenspot.com/
They don’t eat the rest of the bodies?
And get fat? Oh heck no. Portion control FTW!
People are a low carb diet.
The vegan zombies eat Graaaains!
Well, that’s less hellish then “I can feel myself rot! Brains make the pain go away.”
Return of the Living Dead really changed the way pop culture looked at zombies. It’s nuts.
I think the main reason why they go with eating brains is because it’s less gruesome. That way, it can be marketed to a younger audience, like Grim Adventures, or Plants vs Zombies.
Less gruesome? Did you see the episode of Dare Devil where Kingpin liquified a Russian’s head with a car door? I think spilled guts are less gruesome then pulped brains.
Yeah, but that’s irrelevant. When you look at the examples I mentioned before, you can notice that the zombies, if they ate flesh, would be a whole lot spookier. But because they eat brains, cartoons can show them eating something that’s harder to get too.
Classic Romero zombies just eat anything. In that episode of Grim Adventures where Billy fights a horde of zombies, they didn’t just eat people’s flesh. They were targeting brains, and wouldn’t eat anything else. Thus, less gruesome.
But I dunno, man. Maybe I’m wrong. Wouldn’t be the first time.
I’m on your side on this one. Going after brains is a lot less creepy, and there’s a lot more humor potential.
I recall many cartoons in which zombies chase after the group of characters, and the stupid character trips and gets left behind. The zombies close in and grab him, examine him for a few seconds, put him down, and chase after the rest of the group.
Also, there’s a difference between trying to eat someone’s brain and turning their head into paste with a car door. It’s subtle, so I can see how someone could confuse the two.
Depends on how the brain is eaten, I suppose. Do they neatly remove it and slice it up, or crush the head into mush in the process? When they are desperate to alleviate eternal suffering, they aren’t very neat about eating, from what I have seen. Warm bodies wasn’t very realistic, lacking any arterial spray (he was dripping, but should have been swimming with in it), but the 80’s B-Movies made more of an effort, probably using real pig brains.
The most gruesomely realistic brain eating I have seen in a film, was not by Zombies, but bug aliens in Starship Troopers. The corny scripting tends to cancel out the amazing effects, but that soldier having his living brain hoovered out made me throw up a little bit of my popcorn. That was unspeakably effective on me. Realistic brains still turn my guts all wrong. Maybe those B-Films were not as realistic as I remember them; I saw them on a USA Haloween marathon when I was 12, but that, and the scene from The Fly 2 where a lift crushed a guard’s head, it all came together in a synthesis of dread for spilled brains I now have.
I think that zombies tend to pop off the top of the skull and scoop out the brains. Fairly cartoonish, as far as this sort of thing goes. I don’t think that zombies tend to do smoothies.
Oh, and then there was The War Of The Worlds 80’s series that my dad should NOT have let me watch with him ( I was 8). They had a thing for brains going on, but the plot point of which escapes my recollection, but absolutely freaked me out at the time.
Reminds me of the first couple of magic shows I saw, as a little kid of about 4 or 5. Watching a pair of ladies get sawn in half freaked me the hell out. My parents were pretty good about not exposing us to actual gore, until we were at least in our early teens or so. The scariest movie I saw as a little kid was ghost busters.
Well shit! I was gonna stop shaving and wandering around shouting “CORAL!!!!”, but without zombies trying to eat us in the mix, that’s just stupid!
Hmm… Okay. CORAL!!!
Gotta be an easier way to pick up girls than to try to eat their brains…
Worked, didn’t it?
Yeah, if it works, don’t knock it. Unless you’re one of those pickup-artist assholes.
They’re not as successful as they claim, anyway. They cherry-pick the living hell out of the very tiny number of successes; make up many of the successes out of thin air; and consider slamming a girl as ugly and fat, after she shoots him down, to be a score.
Appreciating a girl for her brain is a much better way to go.
Well, zombies need love too… and pizza!
now we hear the new zombie call
PIIIIIIIZZZZA!
Some half shells are going to object to that.
So we get to see the rest of this date right?
Uhhhh, not sure I’m up for zombie porn.
Well, maybe lesbian zombie porn …
You never watched “Zombie Strippers”, did you? That movie is wretched… *shudder*
I’m pretty sure there’s two girl zombies that makeout in that movie, but I mostly forget everything because of brain scarring :|
But… they are Zombies! They are Strippers!
*cocking shotgun*
They are “Zombie Strippers”!
Saddest Robert Englund part in any movie.
I’m proud to say that I haven’t. Sounds horrifying, just from the title … and not the good kind of horrifying that you normally hope for from horror movies.
Zombies are just homeless people with even worse hygeine :(
Que casa tan bonita y acogedora, con la escalera de caracol me recuerda a la casa de mis padres en la que me criéTienes un blo de lo mas precioso gracias por enseñarnos tantas cosas tan bonita Un abrazo
the first time i saw these on my phone and they seemed to explode. To look at them again i am just awed by the colors the faces and the feelings these photos give. The top two of the little girl who stares down the lens and the one where the father kisses the mom with closed eyes i just melt and rejoice in the love that is human kindness. sometimes i can’t believe that you started this amazing career in the midst of raising a young family is just amazing to me!! You are so inspiring Jayme!
Have I seen the lady character in this strip before?
How many apocalypses could have been avoided if we just shared our pizza?