Posted February 20, 2015 at 1:01 am

Thursday Sketchbookery

See? Short storyline! Only nine comics long. So we're done with zombies in EGS:NP, right?

...Uh, Right?

ANYWAY, panel one of this comic is what ultimately made me decide to officially declare this storyline canon. For reasons. Also, this being the last comic of the storyline, I officially knew that there was room for it in canon, so BOOM. Canon-cannon.

And now, stuff I could have talked about in yesterday's commentary, but was better saved for this one.

Zombie Plans

Government plans for dealing with zombies do exist. I wasn't aware of this prior to starting this storyline, but I was almost immediately made aware of them by fans once this storyline began. I'm not entirely sure how serious they are (it's possible they're more for disaster preparation awareness than anything else), but they do exist.

It's my understanding that they're basically what Tensaided suggested, with the possible exception of the part about the weaponry.

Be Specific

The word "Zombie" can refer to any number of things. If you're going to have a discussion about zombies, you need to specify what you mean by "zombie". This also applies to vampires, which have history in folklore, old fiction, modern fiction, and whatever the heck Twilight counts as (I believe it is historical fact?).

That's all fairly obvious. What's less obvious is that it needs to be done for more mundane, and often much more important, things.

Don't just depend on everyone involved being in agreement in regard to what a single word is defined as. Words have multiple meanings, not every dictionary is in agreement on what those meanings are, personal and cultural meanings exist, etc. If you're going to ask an important question, elaborate. Word the question in such a way that everyone will know what exactly you're asking about, or at least provide some form of clarification.

That is, of course, if one's goal is actual debate or problem solving. If your goal is fueling a false dychotomy between political parties while gathering support for yourself, by all means, be vague enough to appear to be taking a stand on something while leaving interpretation wide open. People will hear what they want to hear.

Braaaaains...