Dead in the Now
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Braz, a clever but cynical boy, believes he's the most fortunate boy in the world when he discovers the world's first, authentic zombie. Dubbing the zombie Z-Rex, Braz decides to keep it, feed it, nurture it and learn its habits. Z-Rex is a jovial sort of zombie, clever in his own way, and capable of learning basic things - like not to bite Braz. Z-Rex and Braz quickly become best friends. Soon enough, Braz and his friends decide that the world is total crap. They've had enough of Earth's monotonous routine and initiate "Project Z" where they usher in an age of chaotic, zombie-infested adventure! Gathering weapons and supplies, Braz sets his friends up like modern, urban Lost Boys with himself as their Pan. They hatch a terrible plot to set Z-Rex up as a "Zombie King" and create a dystopian future where only the strong survive and the rest are zombie food!
this was my favorite of the bunch and it's a shame you didn't win. i hope you continue with the story and don't cut back on the experimental nature just because of the detractors.
the other style was better, anywau ,it's a good job! nice work!
Nearly 40 thousand pageviews.
I guess it's safe to say exposure wasn't a problem?
So what have we learned from this Zudaventure?
Despite the lack of first place, at least your comic has the legs to get published by Image or Dark Horse. Sure those other two have more votes and all that jazz, but I couldn't see them getting higher than Slave Labor Graphics outside the web. I'd personally love to see DITN published or continue as a web comic elsewhere. Aside from Sheldon, this Zuda crap blows.
The DITN jam is still running on SatelliteSoda as well people. Some killer stuff up there right now, especially on page two!
http://satellitesoda.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3638
i still want DitN to win, and it's still got my vote, but... the more i read the new stuff and re-read the old stuff, i really wish it had stayed the same. oh well, it's still nice and i've enjoyed both styles.
...still, i think the world needs a zombie slap to the face. haha
Come on DITN ... Rally to ME!!... Hold the line!!
even tough i liked the old dead in the now better, i still prefer the new one to spudman or re-evolution. so, go DITN, go!
Some nice art work on this title man.
Yo Zuda-base,
Just wanted to let you know there's an awesome Dead in the Now art jam going on on the amazing Satellite Soda art collective website.
Check it out here: http://satellitesoda.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3638
There's a lot of awesome Dead in the Now fanart being generated there! Big thanks to Satellite Soda for all the support!
Let's take that #1 spot back...
**** yes, you kicked it into maximum overdrive this time around, definitely has my vote. PLEASE CONTINUE.
oh, forgot to say - that new Dead in the Now pinup...IT'S BADASS!!! niceoneReyyyyyyy
5 STAR-A-RAMA-FEST! of all the strips this is the one that i wanna see more of, big time! Reyyy your stuff is as awesome as ever, s'got buckets o' style as usual. good times.
Pages 1-8 are amazing.
very good
Dear Zuda Competitors/Creators,
I recently started a Zuda fan blog, and I would love to interview all of this month’s creators. If you would be willing to answer 5-10 questions, to be posted on the Zudafan blog, please contact me at: zudafan@gmail.com (if you haven’t already) .
Feel free to check out the blog: zudafan.blogspot.com
Thanks!
A good work takes time. I draw what I feel is the most exciting, and unique vision I can muster. I knew this wouldn't be what people expected, but I didn't think people would actually be "betrayed" by it.
I know comics is serious business. Don't freak out just coz I added some neon colors. My vision still stands (despite how well you think you know it). But hey, I'm cathartically pleased that people are passionate about it.
I swear, if this comic were to continue, you'd definitely see the potential and the speculation put to the test. Shoot, it's controversial enough already :p
i'll admit that i don't like zombies.
but i did love the original dead in the now.
But it ain't the same at all. the art style, the storytelling, the story itself has become something that is overthought, overworked, and nowhere near as fun to read as the original. back when the original dead in the now came out, rey posted thumbnails for like twenty pages of dead in the now, the continuation of the original story. I was looking forward to reading the next eight pages of that genius creation. instead i get some kind of weak remake. Thanks for remaking my favourite zuda ever into the biggest disappointment ever, Rey! you could have just picked up the second chapter of the original in a more polished way if you wanted to ditch the original style and story telling method, at least we wouldn't have felt so betrayed by the remake. You had a very simple, unique and brilliant concept, then you diminished the entire original, by truly making that original bad boy and his humanity ending friend into standard heros of future world. real cool, rey, real cool.
what message are we supposed to take from this drastic alteration of your story - is it like an apology? like you learned your lesson from not winning the first competition and this time you were going to give everybody who didn't vote for dead in the now what they really wanted so that you'd win the competition? well, i hope it isn't mistaken strategy. hopefully it works out for you, so you can take all the criticism from this months competition, and finish off your 44 screens, by scrapping take two and starting over with something else we'll barely recognize. i've got an idea, put those pages at the beginning, so that your story really won't make sense - it'll just stand as three drastically different takes on dead in the now, at least it'll still end with that original eight page stroke of genius.
well dang. i guess you're not allowed any room to be a visionary with your own comic submission you've made, corey. just kidding, i dig the old stuff, i dig the new stuff, i hope you win. my vote has returned (it had to make sure joe comics did better than sixth)
WOOHOO! A+
I feel like I have to jump in and defend Corey a little bit here.
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The main difference between the new screens and the old screens isn't that Braz changed, it was that the world he lived in changed. Originally Corey wrote a fairly simple story about a boy and his Zombie. A sort of zombie version of the buddy flick mentality.
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Sometime between then and now, Corey started really thinking about American culture, and our hive mentality. I'm not going to go into the details of it, but basically, Corey started looking long and hard at the world, decided it was kind of effed-up, and thought that DitN would be a good vessel for that message.
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Those that are writing this story off as superficial or unimaginative need to look long and hard at their motivations for thinking that. I think most of you naysayers will find that you're just not into the style, but instead of admitting that, you're taking it out on the substance.
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The story is really well thought out, and it's not because Corey sold out, or went commercial, or any other ridiculous reason.
He just
A) Had a story he wanted to tell.
B) Decided to put his all into drawing it.
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Hate on it if you want. But I'm telling you, this story hasn't been told before. At least not this way.
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And those of you who say that zombies are a cliche out of one side of your mouth, and then praise superhero content out of the other really need to be more honest with yourselves. We all know that you just don't like zombies. Don't try and act like it's because you're too good for them.
You might agree. You might not. There's only one way to find out and that's to get over to:
http://www.mpd57.blogspot.com
Thoughts aplenty, opinions opined, contradict me - you know you want to!
I prefered the first gig by far, it was much more original material and style... but, hey, you're currently first, so you seem to know what you're doing!
Well done!!
ha ha. ok. you'll just have to see what happens, then.
Well, that's a confirmation of my suspicions.
The main character as originally conceived was unlikeable and unsympathetic. You've introduced deep changes to the character, his situation, and his setting which radically alter the premise. These aren't simply cosmetic changes. These are deep-rooted changes that make the original eight pages a completely different strip from this installment. Some may be okay with this. To me, the concept as originally presented wasn't anything I could get behind for the reasons I've already gone into. This strip POST-CHANGES to the premise is now a very generic underdog hero-against-the-totalitarian-regime story we've seen way too often. That his main tool against the evil regime is a zombie ...and a zombie whose now become a cute ET type character ...isn't fresh or interesting enough for me. Come on. Don't Walking Dead and Marvel Zombies own the zombie genre? Do we need another outlet for this already passe subject?
Maybe whatever concept becomes in the third installment will be for me.
Fern- you are aware that I am "the creators"? :]
Braz is still out to turn [most of] humanity into zombies. He's still an outsider. He's still angry at the world. That much has not changed. The only thing that makes it seem less so in the new installment, is Claire, his one friend you get to see more of in the new part. She is definitely the outside voice of reason.
And I felt a lot of people thought Braz was a jerk, originally. And I am not an authority on morality, so, instead of trying to "justify" his tactics about turning the regular world as we know it into zombies-- I updated my world to make the authority figures seem more like monsters themselves. So when Braz creates his own, it's monster vs monster on equal ground.
I hate to be skeptical here, but I am. It seems like there are too many drastic changes to the premise of this one from the first chapter to this installment for it to be anything but an absolute scrapping of the original concept. The main character has been completely changed in terms of motivation and personality. In the previous installment, he was an angry outsider who was more comfortable associating with a zombie than he was with living people and he was so resentful of the rest of the world that he was going to use his pet zombie to DELIBERATELY bring about a zombie apocalypse. Now all of a sudden he's Luke Skywalker out to save the world from fascist overlords! There wasn't a HINT of this in the previous installment.
Now I wasn't crazy about that original concept either. I found the main character unlikeable. It's difficult to get behind a bratty little kid who wants to wipe out the world. I'm guessing the creators came up with this as a "line in the water" sort of thing. It was a throwaway concept they chucked at Zuda to help launch it. I'm guessing they probably just never had any plans to follow up on the original idea. After all, where do you go from there? We watch the kid kill his classmates? His parents? Are we still amused by his cute antics then? The limitations of this premise probably became evident once the creators were asked to continue with a follow-up and thus we get this dramatic make-over where this amoral, psychotic would-be serial killer has been transformed into the saviour of all mankind.
I'm not a mind reader. It may indeed have been part of a master plan, but I'm skeptical that this is the case.
No worries, Rey. I completely respect the silence (but, yeah, we'll talk later).
Can you tell us this much;
Is it more or less than last time and is it different (as to where) this time out?
-Rob
Ok, this is gonna be big. I'm not flipping out or anything, just a good chance to explain some of the subtle aspects of my comic. Here we go!
I never considered DitN "horror". I don't really even recall choosing that for my genre. In fact, I wished to change it for this round. I think it got automatically included because any media with zombies is usually considered scary.
The first entry probably looked more horrific because it was in B&W, with wobbly panel gutters and that crazy "decomposed" filter I screened every page with. I did remove some of that in favor of "polish" this time around. I'm into a zombie book that has tropical starburst colors. Zombies against a neon background is something I don't see a lot.
As you can probably tell, I'm not THAT into gore or gruesome detail (in that vein, I mostly enjoy drawing stylistic blood-- stylistic, "fun violence"). I'm more a fan of the Zombie Species itself than the horrific implications of them. Which is why I really wanted to set up the tone of the zombies almost being "heroes" in this comic.
Of course, the horror of Zombies will come into play. But I don't want it to be the automatic assumption of the comic, like other zombie comics. I want the moments of zombies TURNING ON HUMANS, when they happen, to be like "OH YEAH, THESE ARE HORRIFIC BEINGS. I almost forgot."
Dead in the Now is really a different type of zombie comic. That's why I call it a "reverse-zombie tale".
I respect your opinion, though, Fernview. It is a slightly jarring, and somewhat confusing, change for the comic. But your criticism was good opportunity to point out a few of the finer aspects of why I slightly altered the tone.
But for the record: Braz going to school, having a girly friend help him, and him overthrowing "The Government", was all planned from the original page 1. None of that stuff came from left-field. I just gave "The Government" more substance spice, and crafted the scenario (sci-fi) around that new substance.
In that sense, the new entry really IS a solid continuation of the original entry. The MAIN reason I had the new entry come first, was because I wanted all prospective voters to see the NEW art, first thing. Just in case some people were too lazy to scroll to page 9 :p
Rob- Heh. Yeah, marketing... I'm doing the usual. Marketing is important! I'll be happy to tell you all about it after the contest. haha. Next question! :]
This thing went from a horror zombie story to some good vs evil sci-fi thing. It's never a good sign when the premise is utterly abandoned in favor for some out-of-left field new direction. No vote here.
Not Enough Karate Ray.
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But it's still pretty badass. Obviously has my vote.
Okay, now that we're past the first ranking, it's time for the next question.
3) Marketing;
There seems to be a general agreement here at Zuda of the importance of outside marketing to boost a comic's ranking. I've also spoken with a number of creators who, for different and equally valid reasons, don't really feel that's something they want to do themselves. I realize that successful marketing can be an edge in the competition and as such some creators don't want to say too much about they're own methods while the contest is running, but could you discuss your own approach to outside marketing? How much time have you devoted to it in this first week of the contest? Has your approach to it changed since your first time in a competition here at Zuda? Are you marketing the comic more, less or differently than you did the first time around?
-Rob
Man Corey, DITN leveled up ten fold. I'm proud to see what you did with it.
tturtle- Don't worry bra, there will be EVIL. Like I mentioned before, I'm setting things up kinda "bright" right now, so when things start to spiral into chaos, the change is very noticeable! At least, knowing that the original 8-pages exist, you can rest assured I am capable of evil >:}
rob- Ok, FORMAT:
Dead in the Now was created specifically for Zuda, so the page dimensions were always intended for the viewer. The only challenges I faced this time, were that a couple of the pages were a BIT off. Page 3, for example, is squished (vertically) a bit, so it fits the viewer dimensions. Luckily, none of the other pages were that affected.
The only other change to format I made this time around, as opposed to the first entry, was the actual panel gutters. The first 8-pages had a loose, organic feel to them (I didn't even use a ruler). The new pages are solid grid-style. I think it helps the overall presentation a lot.
congrats on getting #1 this week Rey
Awesome work Rey, I always liked your style.
Corey is a comics-machine from outerspace and that is why he scares the narrowminded. He doesnt try to give you what you want, because he's been to the future, and he KNOWS what you want. And here it is.
Congratualtions brother.
I like the style of the original 8 pages A LOT more. Put some more evilness in!!!
aaahhhh corey, i'm happy to see you kickin culo amigo.
remember to eat your grapes!
Kudos on the early lead, Corey!
Congrats on 1st! Maybe Zuda will get a zombie book now?
congrats on the 1st place start. I liked the new material a lot.
I am always impressed with how much you improve and grow as an artist with new thing that you do!
Best of luck this time round man.
i really just need some sort of assurance that the wooden sword's gonna be there if we get this for a year... that's all i want hahah
Thanks Passive, and THANKS everyone who made DitN #1 in week 1!
And also, finally the comic has four stars!! Wooo! It's a celebration!
Just wanted to plug this again for people who haven't seen it: Special DEAD IN THE NOW Promotional Poster thingy!
Big version: http://www.reyyy.com/art/ditn_pin_l.jpg
Smaller version: http://www.reyyy.com/art/ditn_pin_s.jpg
(cut and paste URL into your browser)
Thanks again everyone.
I'm totally down with the new look, it's got alot more FIRE.
Rey, I did embrace. It just took me awhile. I hope others who felt jarred...like I did...do likewise. I liked the original and I like this one more. I think what you did took a lot of courage and I think you did a great job!
Okay, next question;
2)Format
Zuda's "monitor-friendly" 4X3 format is something new to most of us since it premiered last year. It does create some unique differences in how the page is composed and i think artists and readers alike don't really fully appreciate that until they experiment with it a bit. Contestants this month have been working with that format for awhile longer and had some time to reconsider it since their first eight page submission. You were in the first contest and have changed things quite a bit since then. Can you talk about some of the challenges of the format? was DitN originally conceived for a different format?
-Rob
looks like you're fleshing out the concept, awesome. A little clunky, but for zuda's page format it works. I'd rather see jam-packed pages from a weekly release than incredibly slow pacing that would leave me feeling cheated.
Anxious to see how it unfurls, win so I can be sated!
Wow, I had no idea people were so nit-picky. If people can't see this is easily the best Zuda submission (in terms of scope, art, story and just plain epicness) then my faith in comic books is wavering. Good luck Corey.
Corey, that visual treat you recently posted is the perfect fusion of both styles. I fully support the idea that you carry out with that one once DitN comes out the victor. As well, I'm beginning to get the impression that some readers have been under the heavy influence of spanish soap operas. Seriously, kids, take a chill pill and stray from the razor.