‘Zombie Dinosaur’ Comic?
Truly we’re reaching a point where absolutely anything is a target for the X + Zombies creative approach. Now it’s apparently Jurassic Park’s turn:
I love AMC’s gritty TV-adaptation of The Walking Dead, and the only way it could be better would be if they added zombie dinosaurs. That isn’t going to happen, but, fortunately for those of us who would like to see undead theropods stomping around the place, young artist Martin Kevil has been working on his own zombie dinosaur horror story called “Reawakening.”
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According to the website, the story is about a sleepy Illinois suburb thrown into chaos when zombie dinosaurs escape from a local research facility.
Unfortunately the Smithsonian blogger couldn’t resist taking a gratuitiously cheap shot at Zombies on his own initiative:
No word yet on whether the dinosaurs will shamble around groaning “BRRRrraaaIINnNS…,” as per tradition, or whether that will have to be translated from their roars and grunts
Meanwhile, the site of the comic in question doesn’t do the comic any favors from a Zombie Friendly perspective. Zombie dinosaurs are depicted with the expected gore and horror, while kept on a separate page from the ‘characters’. Once again, Zombies don’t merit consideration as characters in a work of fiction.
As for the premise itself, I’m not sure how Zombie dinosaurs are any scarier or more menacing than regular ones. I mean, the comic has a lot of very large carnivores. Does it really make a difference to you whether the lumbering reptilian behemoth with six-inch fangs trying to tear your arms off is a Zombie?
If so I think your priorities are a bit skewed.
Sort of like a comic about Zombie dinosaurs, actually.
(A bonus question: the dinosaurs are actually, according to the comic’s site, genetically constructed creatures that merely look like dinosaurs. Which makes me wonder about the title, ‘Reawakening’. If they’re not actually ancient creatures but test-tube lizards, when were they asleep, and how does being created count as waking up?)
About The Author
I can understand your response, and respect it. I have though posted new info on the debates of the animals being true dinosaurs. It has now been changed due to popular demand on JPL and Facebook. The dinosaurs are now indeed true dinosaurs ;)
I agree, perhapes they won’t be scarier then human zombies, I just wanted to make a comic about zombies that haven’t been looked over much…animals. Animal zombies is the goal of this series. Zombies are generally viewed as only humans(Which itself is scary and entertaining), but I aim to contribute to the amount of series that portray animals as zombies.
If you would like, you can give me some constructive criticism and help me improve on my future sequels.
I wouldn’t really expect living dinosaurs to be treated as characters either. Unless they were intelligent dinosaurs (like in, say, Dinosaur Comics), which is a departure from the norm.
Martin -
Thanks for coming and having a dialogue, first of all. We here at the ZRC are always happy to try and have a productive discussion with the creators of Zombie themed works in the hopes of advancing The Cause of Zombie Equality.
Our issue with your project as currently envisioned perhaps can best be described in your own words, that zombies are ‘scary and entertaining’. Entertainment value is a given, at least in a good work of, well, entertainment, but why must Zombies always be ‘scary’? That instinctive fear leads to prejudice, and intolerance, and the next thing you know Tom Savini is hanging around with a shotgun.
So, while the ZRC doesn’t want to meddle in specific artistic works, being big believers in free speech, we would like to see a world where artists feel free to, and indeed do, depict the Differently Animated with compassion and empathy, as something other than ‘monsters’. A world where the marketplace of ideas puts a higher price on understanding than that old instinctive fear.
Cameo -
I have to disagree with you on this one; there’s a long tradition of portraying animals as characters in fiction. Everything from Benji to Flipper to those disney movies where the animals are intelligent and sing musical numbers. More broadly, you have things like Animal Farm or Narnia, but I grant that the animals there are less characters (in some respects) than they are stand-ins for concepts or historical figures (or the spiritual advancement of English kids).
That having been said, we like Dinosaur comics here at the ZRC, and I think Trex would make an awesome Zombie dinosaur.
Thank you for the response! I shouldn’t have been so general, I mean that zombies are scary and ominous, and that fact that people living in a world full of zombies is even more mysterious. I plan to keep herbivore zombies uncarnivorous to deepen creepiness factor. I also want to boost zombie intellegence up just a tad bit. I don’t want a monster series on my hand, that isn’t what I truely want. I’ve been watching and reading zombies in pop culture(such as 28 days later, The Walking Dead, and High School of the Dead).
I know there are stories with zombie animals, I want to contribute to that because for my at least, animal zombies are more creepy and omnious.
If you have osme ideas on what I should incooperate into the comic by all means share it. I want criticism to help further improve the story.
Thank you for your time.
Animals yes, dinosaurs no. The most common/well-known portrayal of dinosaurs is gigantic fearsome beasts who, if they’re at all carnivorous, want to eat your face. (Not entirely unlike the stereotyped image of zombies! Except for the “gigantic” part.) I agree with you about non-prehistoric animals being treated more as full-fledged characters than “dumb animals” most of the time, but dinosaurs aren’t often included in that category. (Though they do get the talking-animal treatment reasonably often.) Probably because, since they’ve been extinct for a minimum of 65 million years, dinosaurs don’t live alongside humans.
Non-avian dinosaurs don’t exist anymore, but dinosaurs do still exist(birds) Dinosaurs are animals so why not?
I think dinosaurs as characters comes in waves. There was that Dinosaurs tv show in the 90s, Denver the Last Dinosaur when I was a kid, Land of the Lost had one intelligent dinosaur I think. Jurassic Park had the raptors get smarter and smarter; if they make another sequel they’ll probably have jetpacks.
Right now, dinosaurs are out, granted. Still, we’re the Zombie Rights Campaign, not the Dinosaur Rights Campaign; there’s only so much time to be outraged in a day!
I forgot to mention that human zombies do play a big role ;)
Unless that role is ‘saving the day’, we might have issues over said role.
their role is to just eat ;) and act like traditional zombies.
See, that’s the sort of prejudiced depiction we’re trying to combat here at the ZRC. I am shocked and appalled, good sir.
Trying to go with Romero style geez.
I’m a big fan of him. Of course the zombies are faster and sleeker though.
…to a degree.
Hate to come in onto your conversation here but Zombie Rights actually DO play an important role in Reawakening, see in the second series the zombies are split into THREE groups. The Zombies – the slow flesh eating walking dead running on the virus instinct, The Zombie Dinosaurs – the main antagonists of the series wreak havoc on the entire town, and The Infected – Introduced in the second series – similar to those in REC and 28 Days Later are the alive counterparts of the Zombies and as such follow much the same requirements as humans – water, food, etc. When the infected are killed they return as zombies.
As in saying such — The infected are still humans. Just full of anger, the zombies are merely walking corpes and the zombie dinosaurs are just following base instinct as if they were alive. There is no “Monster” in this series. Well I can’t truely say that because the virus that creates them can also have some “Vampiristic Effects” if digested directly, But to be honest the zombies mostly don’t have a choice on their actions. They loose control and that is all thee reason to give them rights.
Thank William, couldn’t ahve said it better ;)
While we support giving the ‘Infected’ type humans/Proto-Zombies full equality, of course, the Zombie Rights Campaign can’t agree with the assertion that Zombies are merely corpses. Zombies, as we often say, are people too, and while they may, in some limited cases, have some difficult to fulfill dietary requirements, I think it’s society’s responsibility to help them meet their needs.
And if, say, coming back from the dead has made them a bit cranky, or disoriented, and led to some.. unfortunate.. interactions with the Living, well, can you really blame them? Death can be very traumatic after all. People often seem to think that the Zombies should just shrug it off, but that doesn’t seem realistic, does it?
We appreciate not calling Zombies monsters, but in order to truly obtain equality for the Differently Animated we need to respect and encourage them toward full agency. First, fallies, petitions, free speech, more positive media portrayal. Then equality in the workforce, better representation in society and culture, and of course finally, Zombies for higher office.
It’s a long term plan.
I think there is four types actually in Reawakening, the fourth type are the “Neutrals” which are zombies which do not eat flesh, but plants instead and carry on with their lives as they did when they were alive (Obviously herbivore direct animals)
To help clear this up, the “corpses” which I am referring to (The Walking Dead) are merely brain-dead they have no recollection of anything. The zombie is no threat to man unless they have evolved to a point where they can do a full out war to protect their species and needs (as seen in Land of the Dead). The virus is the real monster here. The virus is what creates and controls the zombie, It is not the zombie itself.
Another key point here Martin is that people aren’t going to just help you out because you have a neat storyline as in some places that has no importance (Like on Wikipedia), Just stick up to explaining why you should have it up in some places and then you can debate if they ask about the story in itself.
As for this forth type, I can assume they still have half of their brain-function but the creative and intellectual areas are probably highly damaged, I can assume that these people may not be the undead at all but rather people who are immune to the virus – but never consumed the undead or infected blood – thus the Vampire stage doesn’t progress. If so this is basically like brain cancer in a way.
I know that I should defend, but before all of this, the story was more simple, and now it has diversified due to advice from outside sources ;)
As for the Fourth type, actually it doesn’t pertian to humans, but to herbivore dinosaurs and other animals. It is still the same virus, but agian has mutated. Sort of what you say is right, but they are in fact dead.
No need to defend your work here and now, Martin; just let us know when it’s done so you can defend it properly at that point. :D