Kickstarter Friday: The Milburn Zombies

It’s Kickstarter Friday, once again, and I’m gonna tell you about The Milburn Zombies. Dreamed up by Grant Miles, The Milburn Zombies is a made-for-tv movie about a zombie outbreak in the small town of Milburn. With two weeks left to go on the kickstarter, there is still time for it to reach its funding goal if these details interest you.

First, a brief chat with Grant Miles, creator of The Milburn Zombies.

Could you tell us a little about the Milburn Zombies?

The Milburn Zombies is a made for television/home video movie written produced and soon to be directed by myself. The story takes place in present day when an unexpected outbreak occurs and dominates the small town of Milburn, a hero and his apprentice emerges to save the day.

What made you want to take it to Kick-starter?

On kick-starter, some great creative products get funded. This opportunity is a fantastic way for entrepreneurs to access and obtain needed finance.

Has the response been everything you expected?

I’ve really had some great positive feedback from the viewers; it would be nice if more viewers would invest in the dreams of an artist.

What do you think is the most likely to happen, apocalypse-wise?

Everything would shut down, The President of the United States of America would appear on your flat screen televisions, I pads, IPhones, tablets and tell all the citizens to remain indoors while the military set up around your cities to wipe out all infected personal. If you need food, water etc. We will have certain timed drop off areas in your neighborhood’s to accommodate. Stay home, stay off the streets and remain calm until this situation is over.

Any survival tips for our readers?

Yes. Shelter is a must…stock up on food, water, ammunition and any firearm or shotgun of your choice.

Are you ok with living under the benevolent dictatorship of myself or the other two ICoS ladies?

Hell yeah!!! I love it when a woman tells me what to do!

Now, tell us anything you want about anything you want.

If you are interested in acting or becoming an extra in this film send me your headshot and resume to:

P.O. BOX 5693
FRESNO, CA 93755

If you are interested in funding The Milburn Zombies (and I’m of the opinion that more zombie TV and film is a good, good thing) then pop along to it’s kickstarter.

If you have a kickstarter you’d like us to feature, please CONTACT US.

Enhanced by Zemanta

How To: Murder

We’ve said before that you aren’t going to be able to spend the whole apocalypse hiding away in a basement. You’re going to need to get out there, seize the wastes with both grimy hands. Scavenge strange new foods, barricade a whole new part of town. But there are going to be people out there who want to stop you from doing that. They want to hurt you. So you are going to have to murder them.

Now, now. Stop shaking. Definitely don’t call the police. I’m not saying you should kill someone before society collapses into an anarchic hellhole where joy and hope are far from your grasp. Wait till after. No murder now, got it? No murder. And I’m not saying it’s a good thing to do, either.  Just that if it’s you or them, you should choose you.

First, try to seperate out your guilt. You are a good person, which is why the resistance to the whole murder thing. But this person will kill you, and probably hurt you very badly before they’re done. It’s survival, pure and simple. Forget the emotions in the midst of the act.

Second, go for their vulnerabilities. No matter how big or scary they are, all people have weaknesses, and all people can be killed. Most of the time they’ll be relying on fear to keep you in check, because they know as well as you what you can do.

Murder in the Serail
Murder in the Serail (Photo credit: Wikipedia) This racist picture shows murder

You have nothing to lose. Really, nothing. You are in horrible trouble right now. If you don’t try to kill them, they will murder you – or worse. If you do and fail, they’ll still kill you, but at least it’ll be quick. And if you try and succeed, you’re out of the situation.

Don’t forget – despite what Hollywood tells you it is pretty easy to murder someone. You can do it by accident, even. The human body is pretty fragile. Push someone, they hit their head and their brains are on the floor. It’s going to be much easier to do if you have a weapon. It’s unlikely to be the physically difficult thing that TV shows you.

Emotionally? Not gonna lie. If you have even a trace of decency left in you, you are going to hate yourself after the murder. That’s good. That’s a good thing. It means you aren’t like that monster you just killed, who would have raped, tortured and murdered you with no guilt. You are still a good person. Feel those feelings. Just don’t let them make you self-destructive.

If they have friends around, they are going to go looking. If they find the body, they may be able to track you down. Hide or bury the body, then get out of there, sharpish.

Depending on how you do it, you are going to need to clean yourself off. Don’t worry about the waste of water, it’s more important that you feel safe and comfortable right now. You’ve just breached a major rule and done a dreadful thing. You had to do it, and it the modern world they’d give you a short sentence, because it was self-defense. Do whatever you need to do to get yourself back in line with the person you are, to reconnect with your basic good-person-ness.

If you can’t do any of these things and you know it, I’d suggest not scavenging alone. Instead hire a loyal sociopath (or marry one) who will attach to you utterly and murder people for you. They’re really useful. Just stay on their good side!

 

And of course, this is all hypothetical. I must reiterate that I have never murdered anyone, nor do I have plans to, though if you break into my house and try and hurt me all bets are off.

 

Enhanced by Zemanta

Kickstarter Friday: The Kings of the Wastelands

In the first of an exciting, new, semi-regular feature, we want to tell you all about  The Kings of the Wastelands.

 Our new feature is Kickstarter Friday, where we feature post-apocalypticish kickstarters and interview the creators. Semi-regular, because it very much depends on the willingness of creators to speak to us.

KingsofWastelandThe Kings of The Wastelands is an online webcomic by Delbert Hewitt featuring the adventures of a group of talking animals in a post-apocalyptic world.  With a clean, cartoony art style and a classic revenge adventure story, it’s a lot of fun. Delbert has recently taken to kickstarter in order to fund the print-run of the first volume.

 Let’s let speak for himself – we interviewed him while we secretly injected him with mind-control chips. Ha, don’t say you’re alright with living under our dictatorship unless you mean it, fella.

Can you tell us a little bit about The Kings of The Wastelands?

Sure, One of the last living dogs in a post apocalyptic wasteland where his kind are seen as a delicacy, Jacob is driven to seek vengeance for the violent death of his family at the hands (or paws) of a Tiger named Hunter and his gang of zoo escapees. Jacob must now journey  cross country to find these twisted animals and bring them to heel, no matter what it takes or who stands in his way. Jacob befriends different animals along the way. Millie the cat and Gib the turtle who become his travel buddies! In this world all the animals have evolved and can do everything we can do. Each section or habitat is controlled by a “King” and each “King” was invovled in the death of his family. Jacob has to put the clues together and figure out who done it? Issue his brand of justice.

I like that it’s animals instead of people. It’s a more unusual choice in this sort of narrative. Can you tell us a little bit about the reasoning behind that?

 I’m a huge anime fan and for those living under a rock, anime is japanese animation. I’ve been hooked on the action,stories and the thinking outside the box. I wanted to create something that could make the easy transition from comics to anime. There is nothing more simplistic than a cartoony animals running around fighting. I’m also a huge movie buff and I love post apac movies and the mesh seemed pretty easy to me. Rango (2011)with Johnny Depp meets The book of Eli with Denzel Washington is the simple way to spin what i was thinking. I can totally see this comic becoming an anime.

You took it to kickstarter to fund the first print run of issue one. What has your experience been?

Well this isn’t my first rodeo. I did a kickstarter last nov called Ebony Kiss and even though funding failed. I was able to gain lots of encouragement from fellow kickstarter peers and sign a publishing deal with Hound Comics! I’m a huge fan of kickstarter and i’ve backed almost 30 projects myself. I think its a great way to get your projects a jumpstart. Like most people i don’t have one thousand dollars lieing around to print a comic. The hardest part is getting your name out there and get a fan base of people who want your product. If you already have a fan base your on easy street. I want the world to know what I have created because it’s different and there are people like me who want something different. How many ways can you spin the superhero genre? That’s why I loved the Watchmen graphic novel because it was different. The walking dead is different and well done! I feel if it’s good it’s good period. I just wanted to create something outside the box and I think I did. I hope the world enjoys it as much as I do.

These are the questions we ask everyone:

What do you think is the most likely apocalypse? What will happen?

It will be bio explosion for sure! something will blow up and release a toxic gas and turn everyone in zombies! Something along those lines lol. Or we are all killed and the animals take over!

Can you offer some survival advice to our readers?

Yeah. Get a bunker and keep it stocked! Make sure you have food, water and weapons in order to survive. People turn crazy when there is no order so you have to create it.

Would you mind living under the benevolent dictatorship of myself or the other two ICoS ladies?

ICoS ladies can rule over me anytime! I thought I was in the benevolent dictatorship of ICoS ladies?  Did I miss the monday memo?

And tell us anything you want about anything you want.

I want to say thank you so much for the chance to share my love and my heart with the world! This is just the tip of the Iceberg. I have many more comics in the works as we speak. Just for the ICoS ladies here are some future titles in the works. Kollectas, Noted Winds, Analog, Ebony Kiss and much more of the Kings of the Wastelands to come! Check out all my links and please share this kickstarter with everyone you know! you’ll be amazed by what a post will do or a tweet! Just pledge and share because we are seven days in and we are already at 50% of the way to my goal! A special thank you to Caitlin because your awesome!

 Thanks very much, Delbert.

If you are interested in the Kings of the Wastelands comic, check it out. If you would like to see it as a print comic, back it.

If you have a Kickstarter you’d like us to feature, please CONTACT US.

 

Corpses Everywhere: What to do with The Dead.

When it all goes to shit, the corpses will be everywhere. No, not the zombies, but the dead. The regular dead. The bodies of people who didn’t make it. You think I’m kidding? Take a look on the news about what happens to regions after a natural disaster hits. In places without a unified emergency services, the corpses just lie around decomposing until volunteers and citizens can get to burying them. Post-Apocalypse, there won’t be emergency services, or groups of volunteers, and citizens are going to be too busy fleeing for their lives to dig out the corpses and lay them to rest.

 

Initally, you’ll be among those fleeing citizens, and that’s fine. But when you start settling down, building your community, you are going to need to do something about all those corpses lying around. Why? Two reasons – 1. Health, 2. Morale.

 

Lets get down to the nitty-gritty here. Not wanting to be indelicate, but a decomposing corpse is a health hazard. Bacteria, rot, rats, to mention only the most obvious. Several hundred or thousand corpses are worse. You don’t want to do all the dreadful things needed in order to survive just to end up dying because you didn’t clear out the houses, do you? Plus, the knowledge that all those dead people are there, behind their locked doors, just rotting into oblivion, is bound to be too much for some of your community.

 

So what do you do? In Stephen King’s The Stand, the survivors who massed in Boulder set up a house-clearing team, who went from house to house, removing corpses and planting them in a mass grave. It sounds harsh and cold, but it’s a good idea. You don’t have time to bury everyone individually, and while a funeral pyre seems like a nice idea you probably have more important things to do with the wood.

 

Make sure your burial pit is well outside of town, far enough that your farmers won’t accidentally dig into it in ten or twenty years. Set your team up – ensure they all wear masks and protective suits – and have them go from house to house, clearing out the bodies. If you have any religious leaders in your compound, this is a good time to have them bless the pit. You can’t have them buried individually, but such a guesture will make you look good and make the more faith-inclined among you more comfortable with the idea.

 

Plague pit sign, council estate, Pitfield St, ...
Plague pit sign, council estate, Pitfield St, Hackney, London, UK (Photo credit: gruntzooki)

If you feel guilty, remember it’s a perfectly legitimate choice. During the Black Death, the victims were interred in Plague Pits. These places are now remembered by stone markers. The survivors of the plague- an apocalyptic event if there ever was one, in which around 60% of the population of Europe died – didn’t have time to find out the names of the dead or give them a proper burial, and neither do you.

 

It’s best to do this task sooner rather than later, especially if the apocalypse happens in the warmer months. It should be one of the first thigns you do, in fact, just after building your barriacdes and setting up your government. The volunteers who do the task should be well rewarded, with extra rations or luxury goods. When all the dead have been removed, and the pit has been filled, apply some consideration to the feelings of your people and put some kind of memorial there. Maybe plant a tree, or some flowers. It’ll grow good and strong.

 

In 500 years, when it’s all long gone and a new society has arisen, the archaeologists of the future will find your mass grave and make assumptions based on it. Here is a good chance to put an explanation in with the corpses, if you care about that sort of thing.

 

Enhanced by Zemanta

Cannibal Ettiquette

Cannibalism which took place in Russia and Lit...
Cannibalism which took place in Russia and Lithuania during the famine of 1571 (Photo credit: Wikipedia) This is you. This is your future.

Being A Polite Person When Eating A Person.

Does being a cannibal have to mean rudeness?

At some point in your post-apocalyptic future, you may be required to resort to cannabalism. Please be aware, there is no shame in this choice. You did what you had to do to ensure the survival of yourself and your community. You are still a good person, even if you’re a cannibal. Let go of the guilt.

It’ll probably help with the guilt if you at least display some basic ettiquette about the situation. Just because you’re chowing down on your friends leg is no reason to be rude about it.

But isn’t eating a person inherently rude? No! Not necessarily. I will be your guide to the complex and distrubing world of Cannibal Ettiquette.

Continue reading “Cannibal Ettiquette”

Post-Apocalyptic E3

Screenshot from The Division, Ubisofts new post-apocalypse game, as seen at E3 2013
Screenshot from The Division, Ubisofts new post-apocalypse game, as seen at E3 2013

Lots of post-apocalyptic games revealed at E3 2013

The big news of E3 was obviously the struggle between the PS4 and the Xbox One. That’s not really of interest to us here at ICoS unless that struggle leads to the destruction of all we know and love. Instead, I’ve found information on post-apocalyptic games of interest revealed at this years E3.  It’s looking like a good couple of years for the apocalypse.

Check under the cut for videos

Continue reading “Post-Apocalyptic E3”

Review: A Departure by Tom Ward

A Departure by Tom Ward is a post-apocalyptic coming of age story.

In a heartbeat

Michael’s life is good.
He’s in love and about to leave home for university. Things couldn’t be better.

Then a natural disaster hits Britain.

With his family and friends dead, and no help forthcoming from the government, Michael sets off, alone, aiming to reach the potential safety of the continent. Along the way, he forges a new family amongst the ruins of England when he is joined by former teacher, David, parish council head, Judith, and Zanna, a student.

As the group travels south, what remains of society deteriorates around them, revealing the darkest aspects of human desire. Amongst so much darkness, Michael must fight to uphold his own ideals.

A tale of coming of age on a road where rules no longer apply

A good, but flawed book.

Continue reading “Review: A Departure by Tom Ward”

Be Prepared! With Coursera

A graphic representation of the four phases in...
A graphic representation of the four phases in emergency management. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Fancy joining me on a FREE Disaster Preparedness Course?

Of course you do. Fortunately, with Coursera, you can do just that.

Continue reading “Be Prepared! With Coursera”

Review: After the Ending by Lindsey Fairleigh and Lindsey Pogue

After the Ending by Lindsey Fairleigh and Lindsey Pogue is the first in The Ending Series. A post-apocalyptic book focusing on two women.

The Virus spread. Billions died. The Ending began. We may have survived the apocalypse, but the Virus changed us.

When people started getting sick, “they” thought it was just the flu. My roommate, my boyfriend, my family…they’re all gone now. I got sick too. I should have died with them, but I didn’t. I thought witnessing the human population almost disappear off the face of the earth was the craziest thing I’d ever experience. I was wrong. My name is Dani, I’m twenty-six-years-old, and I survived The Ending.

The Virus changed everything. The world I knew is gone, and life is backwards. We’ve all had to start over. I’m someone else now—broken and changed. Other survivors’ memories and emotions haunt me.

online pharmacy buy champix with best prices today in the USA

They invade my mind until I can no longer separate them from my own. I won’t let them consume me. I can’t. My name is Zoe, I’m twenty-six-years-old, and I survived The Ending.

online pharmacy buy apixaban with best prices today in the USA

We’ve been inseparable for most of our lives, and now our friendship is all we have left. The aftermath of the Virus has stranded us on opposite sides of the United States. Trusting strangers, making sacrifices, killing—we’ll do anything to reach one another.

This was, sadly, a bit of a disappointment.

Continue reading “Review: After the Ending by Lindsey Fairleigh and Lindsey Pogue”

Join us on Lost Zombies- the social network for the zombie apocalypse.

Yes, I DO spend all my time online, why do you ask?

Anyway, thanks to Tumblr, I discovered Lost Zombies, the social network for the zombie apocalypse. It’s basically a gigantic community for creating a massive zombocalypse documentary.

Continue reading “Join us on Lost Zombies- the social network for the zombie apocalypse.”