Whole psychological theories have been based on what shows up in our horror films. I could go on and on about them, but as I only have an A level in Psychology, I’m sure I would be ill-informed.
But one theory that I do agree with is that fear of monsters – of zombies, vampires, demons, whatever – is simply a way of dealing with our awareness of our own capability to be monsters.
Coming off the Christmas holidays, my older daughter’s school has a few random days off in January. My younger daughter gets to stay home those days, and I unfortunately get no work done. (Unless I want to work at midnight, which I usually have to do in order to meet my deadlines. Yay.)
Those are also the days when I have to come up with new and creative ways to entertain my daughters. Since Christmas wasn’t that long ago, I can’t just plunk them down in front of the craft box, because they’d just spent two weeks digging around in there to find random things with which to decorate the walls.
At some point during the day, I run out of things to do, they get bored with their toys, and everybody ends up watching “Yo Gabba Gabba.”
This, of course, leads me to wonder how the hell we’ll entertain the kidlets come the post apocalypse. I’m sure that in the immediate aftermath of the end of the world, nobody’s going to care that there are a bunch of kids running around whining about being bored, because there probably won’t be any kids running around whining about being bored.
And if there are, I’m sure you could just point them in the direction of a collapsing building and tell them to find things for you. If you present it like a game, it will be fun and exciting. And dangerous, which will make it even more fun and exciting.
Crossed is a graphic novel written by Garth Ennis, drawn by Jacen Burrows, and published via Avatar Press. The story is set in a world where suddenly there are people who “stop being nice, and start being real.” Unfortunately, “real” in this scenario is bloodthirsty, rape-crazy, and straight up ultra-violent.
“Crossed” is how the infected in this universe are described because they develop a cross-like rash across their faces. The rash isn’t an issue. What is and issue is that fact that the infected, unlike other apocalyptic infected, want to rape you to death and mutilate you and destroy you as slowly and horrifically as possible. Because that’s fun now, and okay, because no one can or will stop them. Don’t get me wrong, the Crossed can and do feel pain — but they love it and it won’t slow them down. So, either kill them dead or don’t get caught.
One of the main themes in Crossed was not getting caught. Our protagonists pushed on and on in a constant effort to not get caught by the Crossed until eventually they realized that there are some serious flaws in a plan to live just so you won’t die.
anninyn and I both read volume one recently and needed to discuss it. So we did. Together. In detail. With spoilers, and swears, and graphic descriptions, and even some spoilers for the movie Serenity (which, if you haven’t seen you need to; so, go fix that ASAP).
Below is our discussion and we hope you join in on it if you’ve read the book too. Continue reading “A Discussion of CROSSED”
Poor Char. The apocalypse is always hitting Canada and Canadians the hardest. Even in this tongue-in-cheek video game about surviving the apocalypse on a island, Zombie Apocalypse: Never Die Alone, Canada gets more than theirs.
PlayStation®Network, Zombie Apocalypse: Never Die Alone, casts users as four unlikely heroes who are put to the test when the Zombie Apocalypse hits their small Canadian Island. Banding together for survival, and armed with weapons including guns, chainsaws, and C4-impregnated teddy bears, the heroes must work together to find a way to survive the zombie hordes and get off the island.”
The game basks in the more camp aspects of apocalyptic culture in the way that Army of Darkness or The Evil Dead do.
Zombie Apocalypse: Never Die Alone could be a fun, lighthearted survival romp worth trying for 800 Microsoft points or $9.99 on PlayStation Network. Both networks have demos available so you don’t regret your purchase.
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Happy new year, everyone! Welcome to 2012!
Now, we all know that 2012 will be a banner year for apocalypse theorists, conspiracy theorists, paranoid freaks, not-so-paranoid freaks, paranoid non-freaks, and, well, you get the idea.
Unfortunately for everyone who wants to see the world explode on December 21, NASA has debunked all the (popular) apocalypse predictions. Not that that will stop any of them from proclaiming the end is near, but hey, at least you’ve got yet another article in your arsenal when you point out why they really need to quit buying all those cans of Spam. In case you want to get into an argument with any of the doomsday types, that is. (Personally, I don’t. It just gives me a headache.)
We’re going to be hearing a lot from the conspiracy/apocalypse theorists, and they’re likely going to be talking about the same thing. For a quick recap on what they’re probably going to be talking about, here’s a list of the most popular doomsday predictions.
(Warning: Contains more silliness than usual.)
One of the many possible types of possible apocalypses is the vague and terrifying Invasion by Aliens.
Aliens might invade Earth for a number of reasons. These reasons might be tactical, commercial, political, evolutionary, or simply expansionary.
Continue reading “5 Reasons Earth Might be Invaded by Aliens”
I’ve been eating and drinking too much to do a post. I don’t even have Chars ‘family’ excuse. I’m just lazy.
I leave you with this.
Have a very merry Post Apocalypse Christmas, from this utter heathen.
As I said last week, I’ve got family visiting for the holidays, so I haven’t had much time to do much of anything that doesn’t involve Christmas (or touristy things, hehe). So I thought I’d have to put the apocalypse to rest until January (because the apocalypse needs a holiday too).
Then while putzing around Amazon, I found some Kindle deals, and bought a thriller called The Breach for $0.99. (Haven’t read it? You should. Go read it. I’ll wait. Why are you still reading this post?
GO READ THE BOOK.)
And THEN I discovered that it was the first book in a trilogy. Because of course it is. So I skipped off to the Kindle Store and bought the second book, Ghost Country (at full price). Because of course I did. And guess what?
IT HAS TO DO WITH THE APOCALYPSE.
Because of course it does.
Continue reading “Thinking of the apocalypse during the holidays”
Holidays are a time to be thankful, stressed, and threaten your children with the loss of a strange man’s affection. For me, comics tend to be a medium that consistently keeps it real – often straight up hyperbolic.
Check out these comics that mash up our holiday notions with apocalyptic ones.
Brian Posehn (Author), Gerry Duggan (Author), Rick Remender (Illustrator)
After the apocalypse no one is safe – even at the North Pole. After tragedy strikes Santa withdraws from life and turns his back on Christmas. When Claus finally emerges from seclusion the old world is gone forever. As Santa struggles to find his way in a Mad Max-like world – can he find a way to save Christmas too?
There are people in the world who seem to delight in making themselves a target for painful death post apocalypse.
Not necessarily at your hands, but the way they live pretty much screams out for zombies to start chowing down on their brains.
Among those people are the over-decorators.
Those people whose houses are covered in lights and mechanical gewgaws, obnoxious ‘amusing’ christmas decorations.
Continue reading “Making yourself a target – with your Christmas Decorations.”
