Xombie

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Screenshot from Xombie: The Animated Series
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Screenshot from Xombie: The Animated Series

Xombie is a series of Flash cartoons produced by James Farr[1] that Wetsand Animation is producing a feature-length animated film based upon. [1] Farr has said that his reason for using Flash as his medium was its economity. [2]

Xombie tells the story of a little girl named Zoe, who washes ashore several decades after a zombie plague has wiped out most life on Earth and replaced it with bloodthirsty reanimated versions of the planet's previous inhabitants. She is saved from a swarm of zombies by Dirge, a "variant", a zombie who has retained their conscious mind and the ability to think like a human. (According to the official website, the variants are called "xombies", but the term has yet to be used in the series itself, likely because it is pronounced the same way as "zombie".) Dirge takes it upon himself to perform one last good deed before his zombie body withers away and begins a journey to reunite Zoe with the few remaining live humans and save her from a gruesome death at the hands of the undead.

Contents

[edit] Chapters

The first chapter is hosted exclusively on the official Xombie website, while the rest are hosted on Newgrounds. These animations make up the bulk of the Xombie series:

  • Chapter 1 The Dead Sea
  • Chapter 2 Cadillacs and Cadavers
  • Chapter 3 Grinding Organs
  • Chapter 4 Relics and Reptiles
  • Chapter 5 The Exhibit, Reel 1
  • Chapter 5 The Exhibit, Reel 2
  • Chapter 6 The Hands of God
  • Chapter 7 Thunder and Lightning
  • Chapter 8 Death under Wraps

There are also some comic-like strips on the official Xombie website, which tell what happened in the events before the animation chapter "The Dead Sea". These are called "Xombie: Breathless":

  • Page 1 Eyes on the Water
  • Page 2 Enough Surprises
  • Page 3 No Worries
  • Page 4 The Shot
  • Page 5 A Cold One

[edit] Story

Xombie: Breathless
The Earth has been over-run by a plague, which turns living beings (not just Humans) into the undead, roaming and searching for the living to feast upon (in typical Romero Zombie fashion). The remnants of the living take shelter in various shelters (it is unknown how many of these shelters exist), hoping to survive. Chronologically, the "strips" take place before the actual animated series.

The date is November 17th, 2042, and the time is 9:42 PM. A helicopter is flying above a mass of water, when one of its occupants, a young child named Zoe, is clinging onto a rope ladder. Squid tentacles arise from the sea and try to grasp the helicopter, but Zoe loses her grip and falls into the water below. An undead sea creature tries to devour her, but fails, and Zoe sinks more into the water, with her teddy bear. In the helicopter now are only three people; a woman who resembles Zoe (possibly her mother), a miltary man, and a pilot. The military man refers to the woman as "Dr. Elgin" and (in later strips) "Marrow", and orders the pilot, "Daschle Branch", to turn the vehicle around. They search the waters from above for around half an hour, but find no sign of Zoe. Feeling the search is in vain, the "Lieutenant" orders branch to return to "Acropolis" (a Human survivor shelter). Whilst on their course, Lietenant and Branch talk, stating that "the reef is officially cold" and Branch saying "I doubt he had a hand in it" and they reveal that they have been on some sort of rescue mission, and Zora and Zoe were the only survivors.

Then, at 10:29 PM, an undead Human shoots at the helicopter - the single shot that is fired lands in Branch's chest - 3 minutes later, he becomes an undead, but is quickly killed by Lieutenant...

Xombie: Dead On Arrival
"Dead On Arrvial" observes the struggle of Zoe, after falling from the helicopter in "Breathless", and her friendship with Dirge and Cerberus, both of which are undead but are "variants" (they retain their intelligence and do not feast on living beings).

Zoe wakes up, washed ashore onto a beach. Dazed and confused, she walks away from the beach, and sees a huge city in the distance (Destiny City), and the road leading up to it riddled with wrecked cars. She hears music, and proceeds towards its source, which turns out to be a nearby graveyard. She stands at the enterance, and shortly afterwards, people are showing coming forward in the distance, and hands sprouting from the ground. To her horror, they are revealed to be reanimated corpses and are coming closer to her. However, a man jumps over the tombstone behind her and he fights off the zombies, which nothing more than a shovel. He turns to her, but overwhelmed with what's going on, Zoe faints. Xombie: Reanimated
Xombie: Dead End

[edit] Awards

On Newgrounds:

  1. Xombie: Chapter 8, Daily Feature, 10/10/06
  2. Xombie: Chapter 8, Weekly Users' Choice, 10/11/06
  3. Xombie: Chapter 7, Daily Feature, 2/1/06
  4. Xombie: Chapter 7, Review Crew Pick, 2/1/06
  5. Xombie: Chapter 7, Weekly Users' Choice, 2/1/06
  6. Xombie: Chapter 6, Review Crew Pick, 6/22/05
  7. Xombie: Chapter 6, Weekly Users' Choice, 6/22/05
  8. Xombie: Chapter 6, Daily Feature, 6/21/05
  9. Xombie: Chapter 5 | Reel2, Review Crew Pick, 10/13/04
  10. Xombie: Chapter 5 | Reel2, Weekly Users' Choice, 10/13/04
  11. Xombie: Chapter 5 | Reel1, Weekly 2nd Place, 10/13/04
  12. Xombie: Chapter 5 | Reel2, Daily Feature, 10/10/04
  13. Xombie: Chapter 5 | Reel1, Daily 2nd Place, 10/10/04
  14. Xombie: Chapter 4, Review Crew Pick, 6/23/04
  15. Xombie: Chapter 4, Weekly Users' Choice, 6/22/04
  16. Xombie: Chapter 4, Daily Feature, 6/19/04
  17. Xombie: Chapter 3, Review Crew Pick, 2/11/04
  18. Xombie: Chapter 3, Weekly Users' Choice, 2/11/04
  19. Xombie: Chapter 3, Daily Feature, 2/5/04
  20. Xombie: Chapter 2, Review Crew Pick, 12/17/03
  21. Xombie: Chapter 2, Weekly Users' Choice, 12/17/03
  22. Xombie: Chapter 2, Daily Feature, 12/11/03

[edit] Xombie Forum

The official Xombie community where fans can talk about all things Xombie.

Here you can also roleplay in the massive Xombie RPG forum, based on the Xombie series where players take on the lives of people in the Xombie world. Although dozens of campaigns were lost when the forum went down, the community is beginning to pick up the pieces and start anew. Recently, Version 2.0 of the rules has been posted under the title "XRPG2: Dead Meat", and is currently in Alpha testing.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Alexander, Dave. "Flash Freak Show". Rue Morgue, August 2005.
  2. ^ Morrow, Jennifer. "Xombie" Undead and on-line. Fangoria, August 2005.

[edit] External links

For more information or to view the currently available episodes of Xombie go to:

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