Starring Estelle Getty as Bub! Oh, like you'd ever tell the difference...

[thehefner]

The script for the first issue of BUB AND JOHNNY GO is coming along brilliantly. This has the potential of being an excellent "pilot issue" comic, if I do say so myself. Except for one little thing. I still don't know exactly how they beat the bad guy. I've been stuck on this damn plot point for three days now, and no answers have come. There's no resolution that just says "Johnny Go and Bub." So the evil Sheriff has his gun on them, now what? Johnny can't smoothly snap it out of his hand and beat him. I don't think Johnny's an effective fighter in the least. And Bub can't shoot the Sheriff because, well, Bub may be a zombie with a gun but he's a lousy shot. What to do, what to do.

So instead of writing today, I just spent the last couple of hourse making this icon instead.

Now I need pants and food.

Comments

[chickenhat.livejournal.com]

Well, does the Sherrif know you have to shoot a zombie in the head? Bub just stepping in front as the Sherrif unloads his revolver into him in order to save Johnny Go would be, well, what Bub would do. The Sherrif, stupidly, falls over backwards onto or over something and knocks himself out, or dies, whatever. What Johnny gets to do afterwards is make the decision to try and reach Bub's humanity in the presence of fresh meat and with a few new holes in his belly. Bub can't heal, so he'll have to stay that way. Thing is, without Go to stop him, Bub probably would eat the Sherrif.

Um, anyway, that's how I'd finish the scene.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that might be the right way to take it. Thing is, I'm just trying to think of a way for them to accidentally beat/kill the Sheriff while still making it look intentional enough so they can take the credit.

At this point in the world, it's common knowledge that you have to shoot them in the brain to kill zombies. So the Sheriff would think of that, but in the same way, he's planning on arresting/killing/or worse to them both.

I'm still struggling with whether or not Bub even craves meat anymore. He doesn't eat people at all; doesn't need to, as zombies get no nourishment. Still, not sure where I wanna take that.

And yeah, any injuries Bub sustains aren't ever gonna heal, so I have to be damn careful what I do to the poor guy. Unless of course I find a way to patch him up someway somewhere down the line...

Thanks for the help! I always need people with whom I can brainstorm when it comes to the logistics of plotting.

[fishymcb.livejournal.com]

Solomon Grundy want pants too!

HMMM...

[spirit-o-fire.livejournal.com]

Maybe eating people/live/resently living things allows zombies to heal?

Just an idea.

If you are writing the tale, you have say in the nature of the reality.

[chickenhat.livejournal.com]

Oh... holy crap, i think i've got it, even if the Sherrif knows about shooting him in the head and Bub doesn't need to eat human flesh anymore, he still knows how and the idea isn't repulsive, just pointless.

Bub is tied to a table or a chair or whatever, and the Sherrif is gloating over Bub while his gun is pointed at Johnny Go. The Sherrif is taunting Bub about how he's "domesticated" and "harmless", and then the Sherrif gets too close...

Re: HMMM...

[fiveseconddelay.livejournal.com]

During moments of clarity, when Johnny is more lucid, "Whoa, you need some patching there, Bub!" and sewing him back together.

[fiveseconddelay.livejournal.com]

Bub may be a lousy shot, but does the sheriff know he can even shoot at all?

Re: HMMM...

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

I toyed with that idea too, but it can't work. It's imperitive that the zombies gain no nourishment from flesh so the zombie apocalypse will naturally calm down and end as the zombies rot and die. This world is after the zombie apocalypse, but I want there to be very few zombies left. Of course, they're always be some around so we'll occasionally have to fight them, but mainly it's the remains of the human race trying to restart society... or destroy it.

It was DAY OF THE DEAD that established that they eat flesh out of instinct but gain no nourishment. So it is canon...

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Now that I really like, but not for this story. No, I want to use that one down the line a bit with a character who thinks, just like the readers will think, that he's domesticated and harmless, so when he does something it'll be even more of a shock. Bub is a character who can be frequently be surprising, whether it's when he actually speaks or when he plays the piano or when he actually eats somebody.

I think I've gotten an idea figured out for this scene, but any more ideas that come your way, by all means let's hear 'em. I love brainstorming this stuff.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

The way I have it plotted so far, yeah, he does and he takes Bub's piece from him before Bub can do anything with it. But what I'm working with now is that Bub does have military training buried deep, even if he doesn't remember it...

Re: Ahh... But what if...

[spirit-o-fire.livejournal.com]

What if a few, just a few, a tiny... variant, were different. What is to say that just a few could be a different kind of zombie. A zombie that could heal. A zombie that ate for nourishment. Not all. Just a tiny percentage.

Infinitely small variations are what makes harmless viri become incredible plagues or one harmless chemical reaction become lethal or mutating.

Just offering ideas.

Re: Ahh... But what if...

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

See, that's what I'd kinda been wondering about Bub... maybe he's different from normal zombies in more ways than we've seen? What if he's a fluke, a variation, something different? Like, what you're saying above, mayhaps? Still something I'm toying with. I just don't want it to diminish the character, y'know?

And that virus example is exactly the kind of legit excuse I needed to make this a very real possibility. Thankee!