Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Zombie Tales #3: The Dead

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New guy Ed Tadem using a very interesting, kind of indie style with a color wash for my story "Four out of Five" in the third of BOOM!'s Zombie book-pocalypse -- Zombie Tales: The Dead.


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And this panel from Michael Alan Nelson's story, "The Miracle of Bethany." Yes, that is the Vatican. A zombie story set in the Vatican. No, that's not controversial at all.

Mike's finished his blogged novel DINGO. There are already Hollywood mininons poking at it with their evil sticks, and so some publisher with a brain may wish to swing by and take a look.

Oh, and sadly, I only have the small version, but this is Dave Johnson's art for the cover of Cthulhu Tales.

cthulhutalescoversolicitsm


Laurean down in the Cthulego post comments asked how these anthologies came together -- jam session or assignment? For the first Zombie Tales, it was, if I remember, Ross Richie, Andy Cosby, Mark Waid and myself talking about zombie movies, and why they seem to be, er, unkillable. Each of us had a viewpoint on why the zombie myth had resonance, be it isolation, fear of death, decay, loss of identity ... Ross pointed out that separate approaches to the same mythos was, in fact, an anthology.

Ross was just about to launch BOOM!, so it seemd like synchronicity. Or he played us magnificently. If he did, he deserves the win. We had so much fun doing the first one (total story/creative freedom), and it was very well-received, so we just kept hopping on every time Ross asked us if we wanted to do another. The Cthulhu one was kind of an assignment, if Ross calling and saying "Hey, I've decided I really like the anthology style, want to do a Cthulhu book?" can be considered an assignment.

Writing short comics is a great way to exercise certain screenwriting muscles. It's all the challenge of a short story, with the added element of anticipating and structuring the art. It's almost a workout for storyboarding a short film.

20 comments:

Kidsis said...

Cool.

Anonymous said...

Nice.. Thankyou very much for answering that. ^_^ It's always interesting to hear the brainstorming process that goes into coming up with an idea to the finished product. (I guess I'm a geek like that.)

Can't wait for Cthulhu tales now! ^_^

PS. Why do I keep thinking the Zombie tale issue #3 is going to have a zombie pope in it. O.o Or are we going for evil zombie cardinals? (At least they're not just evil, they're zombified!)

Anonymous said...

hey, you going to wondercon by chance, rogers?

Unknown said...

was thinking abot flying up for a day, w'll see.

Anonymous said...

back to back
belly to belly
but i don't give a damn
'cause i'm stone dead already
back to back
belly to belly
at de zombie jamboree . . .

add my voice to those plugging DINGO whenever the opportunity arises. it was a fun ride, would make a great movie, i loved that big ass dog.

Anonymous said...

Speaking of WonderCon, John, we'd love to have you at TransformersCon here in Toronto--you're a big part of the TF film's process. (April 29th) (www.transformerscon.com)

Jacob said...

Angry Christian mobs later burned Nelson's embassy.

moleboy said...

I wonder...
what if zombification was a slower process.
What would that do to religious views?

Anonymous said...

moleboy said: "what if zombification was a slower process.
What would that do to religious views?
"

Can you elaborate?

Rob

moleboy said...

sure.
So, lets say I'm of the belief in an eternal soul.
I believe that, when dead, my soul moves to another plane of existence (be that Heaven, Hell, or some way-station to await reincarnation).
However, when I'm bitten by a zombie, I die.
Then I wake up. A zombie.
However, if the process is slow, I wake up ALMOST human.
I still have all my memories, but I'm slowly deteriorating into full-fledged zombie-hood.
So I now have a few real existential problems on my hands.
1) Do I still have a soul in me? I feel like me, think like me, but my soul?
2) If the answer to #1 is 'no', then I have to deal with the question of 'what part of me ascended?'
'What is this "me" that is left here?'
'What was part of my soul when I was alive and what was not?'

3) If the answer to #1 is 'yes' then
'What does it mean to die?'
'Why has God forsaken me?'
'What will become of my soul now?'
'Will the evil I am sure to do count against me in the great karmic scales?'
'Why has God forsaken me?'

4) Finally, in any case, does it not then become OK to do evil?

moleboy said...

Oh, and if you AREN'T a zombie, is it OK to kill the zombies with souls?
If only humans have souls, and zombies have souls, then aren't zombies human, or, at least, children of god?
Should I be, in fact, feeding zombies to help keep them 'alive'?
Really, the more self-aware method of zombification causes everyone to ask the prime questions.
Who are we?
What happens next?
What is moral?
Is suicide a better idea?
Is life an end unto itself?

Life, death, everything.

moleboy said...

Thats it.
I'm writing 'Zombie Hospice'

Anonymous said...

If I were a practitioner and proponent of those abbreviations that represent some emotional response, I'd probably write something like "LOL".

But instead, I'll just say, damn, that was hilarious. Also, thanks for elaborating. Good questions, interesting stuff to ponder.

Zombie Metaphysics 101. A new course in ethics for a new world . . .

Rob

moleboy said...

sure, yuck it up.
But you'll change your tune when you want a bed and some pretty nurse to take care of you are your zombie ass rots off, wontcha?

actually, it was fun to spend a little time thinking about (dull here at work...)

Anonymous said...

moleboy: "But you'll change your tune when you want a bed and some pretty nurse to take care of you"

Change my tune? I want that now!

{Ahem} . . . perhaps I've said too much . . . .

Rob

moleboy said...

sorry, nurses are reserved for the walking dead.
All other patients, please see the attendent for relocation instructions

Anonymous said...

"reserved for the walking dead"

Some days, this is how it feels.

moleboy said...

so long as the consumption of human brains isn't involved...

.ed_ said...

Hey John, Ed Tadem here, just wanted to clarify that I just did the linework, no clue who the colorist was. =) Thanks for the fun script~

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