Comments on: Check Out These Zombie Web Comics!

By: The Pork-Eater

The Pork-Eater — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 03:46:36 +0000

As for viruses, I really think such concepts more or less require the zombie to still be alive, in some sense of the word. I know I’ve seen it in some movie that “dead” bodies still have a heartbeat and a functioning circulatory system. Some basic heart-lung function is also necessary for zombies to have any sort of brain activity, since it needs oxygen. And so forth. The rest of the body (limbs, skin, et.c.) could still be rotting off.

And since when does a “zombie” have to be dead? I just don’t see it.

As for being an Atheist, I think I’m just that much of a role-playing geek that I’m used to think in meta-physical terms when it comes to game/movie concepts. It really doesn’t hurt my suspension of disbelief to work within a say Christian universe, even if I don’t believe in any of it outside of the game/movie. (Most fantasy settings have actual deities, for example.)

With that said, I would still search for a supernatural explanation if the dead would indeed rise – for real! Something would simply be outside of my realm of reasoning, thus being “unnatural”, but I certainly wouldn’t think in terms of established religions when it came to explanations. I would probably reason in terms of a rift in reality or some shit like that. Like that the world of the living and the world of the dead (if there is such a thing) have been inter-twined in someway, or something. (Not meaning that Hell is full in a Biblical sense.) It could also be that I was already dead, in some way, since that shit simply couldn’t be happening in any kind of a “real world”.

By: Don

Don — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 18:57:00 +0000

That is certainly an interesting concept, and one I wish I’d thought of myself.

As for bio-zombies, I see what you’re saying – viruses in particular require living cells to replicate. They wouldn’t, or shouldn’t, affect pre-existing corpses (and frequently, they don’t). I still like the idea of a virus hijacking someone’s body in such a way that most of their systems shut down (rendering them essentially dead and perhaps decomposing), yet they continue to attack the living. An example would be the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead.

I’m also an atheist, which is why most supernatural explanations strain my suspension of disbelief (more than walking corpses, even!), but I do like Romero’s approach – “Fuck it, there’s no explanation.”

By: The Pork-Eater

The Pork-Eater — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 16:18:55 +0000

I really don’t think bio-zombies are believable, for me. A virus, germ, whatever wouldn’t affect the dead, only the living. This leaves us with either “living zombies” (28 Time-Units Later) or people who just die – and don’t come back (Doomsday). No way would a virus (like the “T-virus”) affect someone after their death. That is why I personally prefer supernatural explanations (even if I’m an Atheist myself) – or better yet – no explanation (Romero style).

With that said, I think that the other comic (TZH) is on to something. In that concept it’s only people who already are “infected” that become zombies when they die – but not the uninfected. I’ve only seen that angle once before (in a movie, by the way) and I do think that is one of the best concepts yet.

By: Don

Don — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 23:37:16 +0000

BZTP looks like it took a while to get going, but I can see what they’re setting up in the last strip. As a science nerd, I find it appeals to me. Of course, I’m one of those who feel that you get the best zombies through biology.

By: The Pork-Eater

The Pork-Eater — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 13:08:03 +0000

The first one (TZH) was actually really good! I don’t read comics by principle but I couldn’t resist this one. (Sure, I know there are tons of really good zombie comics out there, but they would just distract me from the movies.) There’s a lot of info and other stuff on the website as well, and I’ll be sure to check back for updates. I guess I’m a fan then.

The other one I really didn’t care for at all, but I guess they both complement each-other in some weird way.