Zombillenium
Oct. 31st, 2018 11:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
malurette posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
scans_dailyLet’s get in the mood for Halloween!
This all started with a joke: if nothing in life is certain but death and taxes, would the undead have to pay taxes?
Welcome to Zombillenium, a monster-themed amusement park in the middle of nowhere in the Northern French countryside near the border with Belgium. Joke has it that it’s always raining here… truth is maybe not always but skies are very often overcast at least. The last coal mine closed down in 1990, countless factories followed suit in the next decades. Nowadays unemployment rate is 25%. And Zombillenium only hires the dead! or undead. Zombies, vampires, werewolves, ghosts, mummies, and the likes, and of course humans are often the real monsters here.
Meet Francis von Bloodt, vampire, the park’s director; Sirius Jefferson, skeleton, union delegate, Aton Nedjemet, mummy... former singer and dancer set back t cotton candy seller.
Aton isn’t scary. Patrons think he’s a human actor in a suit. / Because they think I’m really undead? / No, they think you’re animatronic. Does nicely... // Well just take the wrappings off. / Get lost! My wrappings are from 3,000 BC, I’m not an ordinary corpse from any mass burial.
You know what the ordinary corpse has to say? I’m the skeleton of a Black peace activist who died on the electric chair in Louisiana, 1956! / Well that’s a new one. / Really? You’re Black? // Yes I am. Dead for civil rights! / Pull the other one...
That’s why I can’t keep shut. That’s why I’m an unio delegate, fighting for Mr Wraps’s bacon back there. And he’s not the only one grumbling either. We’re in such a shitt region in the first place... // OK Sirius you’re getting on my nerves now. / At least give us jobs that suit us. We’re monsters! / Hey! / not cotton candy sellers! / Now’s not the time! / Guys! There’s a... / And who’ll sell the cotton candy? We don’t have enough personnel and we don’t hire humans!
...pedestrian.
Meet also Aurélien Zahner, legal expert, who… was having a very bad day and gets a brutal hiring opportunity at the park.
He’s... / Dead, of course.
Ok, I got it. / (Munch!) / Where... where am I? what happened?
Ah! Our friend’s coming to. Speaking for management and the personnel of Zombillenium Amusement Park, congratulations on your hiring as a cotton candy seller. I’m Francis von bloodt, the director. This is Sirius Jefferson, personnel manager. Aton Noudjemet sitting by your side who’ll brief you on your work. Almost forgot: it’s a permanent contract.
And now Blaise, werewolf, also from human ressources and ranking higher than Sirius, don’t ask me how it works in an organization with 12,000 employees, it’s not my job.
I’ll let you fill out your names, address, previous experiences in sales or entertainment... // Hey there, we don’t have all night...
Go on easy with the new blood, Blaise, he’s a bit shaken up. // But what in... // You bit him! / To turn him into a werwolf. We already have enough vampires.
May I? / (Munch!) / Vampire!
(Munch!) / Werewolf!
(Yesss, they spend the next half page fighting over it and biting him over and over.One> thing the movie did wrong is to have cut the scene short.)
Aurélien Zahner. Ah ha. It’s a nightmare, right? // Right my dear mister Zahner, it’s a nightmare. A nightmare where families come have fun during their holidays and whose personnel you now belong to. You know the great tower you can see from Road 40... / You’re in it!
Welcome to Zombillenium!
They weren’t joking. They truly put him on the cotton candy cart.
Growing?
I wouldn’t touch that if I were you, it can cut metal. / And, well... sorry. / What for? Slapping me in the director’s office? Didn’t make much of a difference...
No, the slap was just to get back some sense into you. Sorry you landed here. I tried to avoid you jail time earlier this morning but... it didn’t make much of a difference. // OK, it’s bullshit, right? I’m not a vampire or a werewolf...
Meet Gretchen Webb, witch, the intern. So yes, she and Aurélien met shortly before Aurélien met... Francis’ car, but I can’t show you everything, got to keep some surprises, right?
I’m a witch, so 100% human. Contrary to populat belief, witching is not genetic, it’s an accident. / I was born in 1984 after my mom fucked a rockstar. According to my investigations it was Robert Smith. According to her she got pregnant by spending a whole night listening the Beatles’ satanic song «Number 9» in reverse and in replay. Nine months later, bam, I was born. During the birth, all the flowers in the hospital wilted off. Funny, innit? // When I was 6 my mom married a Frechman who sent me to a boarding school. This is when my gift started acting up.
So I ended up in Wizardry School. I skipped tow years ahead and was always first ranking student in my class. / Then I got to Wizards College. A bunch of neurotics who only think about comparing wands... (Relax, Harry, these sort of things just happen.) / Once I got my diploma there wasn’t any job offer fiting the skills. I became an au pair in Paris. Rather glad to never hear about potions and spells anymore...
A normal life as it was. I had a boyfriend, we were going out... / Erm. Sometimes nature got the better of me. / And one evening a woman gave me a calling card, calling me Sister—this is how witches call each other—She was working for the Royal Witchcraft Agency. I thought, at least a job for me!
A few weeks later I had my own calling card—here--and after a month I was out on my first mission: demon hunting in an amusement park in Northern France, getting hired as an intern as my cover. / But, Aurélien, here’s the catch: / You are a demon.
(I did a frantic check: july 31st 1980 / february 29th 1984 doesn’t make than much of an age difference if they’re both attending college, and it’s meant as a joke anyway. And you’ll find out later that at least part of her story was a lie, so why not more?)
Thankfully she’s not interested in hunting and killing him. Aurélien has no choice but to set in his new job.
’morning Yves! // Hello Aurélien. Only a week and you feel ghosts’ presence? / Nope, I smell your wine breath.
Bah. Gotta keep the morale up. And you keep that to yourself. // To who do I need to complain about costumes? / To me. I’ll find you something else. Any preference? It only need to be stretchy for when you change...
By the way Aurélien, beware the zombies. Rumours say you’re not their bestie... / I know. // But the only thing that scares me here is my reflection in that stupid costume. // No! I wanna go! It’s not fair! / Theo, shut up.
This, is a kid too short to ride. // So, you ready? / I am. / Try for a full change today. / I don’t control it. I need a stimulus. // Here comes the first train. Showtime!
Boooh... / *Sigh* Not even a frown. Short of a severed head and blood splaterring nothing fazes them.
You do the next one. But... hey! / There! See, when you get to it... Scare them off!/ Erm... Aurélien? What was the stimulus?
...a yoga teacher. Wait for it.
Please! Put me down! You’re squeezing too hard! // Coralie Zahner, name rings a bell? / Er? Yes... what does it have to do with... Who are you?
Her husband.
I... I didn’t do anything! Nothing happened! We only went out a couple of times! But we never... I swear! // You’re lying. /
(Annnd there’s a pun I can’t translate, based on a French idiom saying that cuckholds bear horns. If anyone knows how to convey that...)
So? Do I drop you down or do I crush you? / The hell is that park? Last Judgement?
Your bet is as good as our, Mister Yoga Teacher.
There was one last page I wanted to include but I’ll link it instead of displaying directly in case you don’t want to be spoilered. Gretchen wasn’t entirely honest with her life story...
https://malurette.dreamwidth.org/file/82432.jpg
(Meet... Mister Behemoth. The park’s owner.)
How’s my favourite tout doing? // It’s head huner, please. // Whatever your RWA friends call themselves. Head hunter is it. Nice catch, this Aurélien Zahner. Patrons like him. Good for business.
I think hiring blokes at the end of their rope is disgusting. / He swore to kill a man. In cold blood. His soul is mine. Hey, couldn’t you get a bigger car? I always feel cramped in here. / In exchange for their soul I offer a place to all these losers. I create jobs. I’m a modern Devil.
You’d rather I send out get fresh meat for tyrants and arms peddlers? Those are for Lucifer. I do with Mr and Mrs Average. You’re an idealist. I was the same when I was your age. You’ll get over it. Like your crush on this Aurélien. / Anyway, I didn’t come to debate on soul trade. I need you to find me four dancers. I’ll keep in touch.
Good evening, Gretchen. // Good evening, Dad.
The series counts 3 volumes as for now, and has been on hold for a few years because the author was working on the movie adaptation,
which was released last year for Halloween. Same park, same supporting cast, different protagonist—they replaced Aurélien who was deemed too passive for one Hector Sachs, safety inspector, widower, and father to the most adorable mixed race little girl, drawed elements form vol. #1 and 3 and created a self-contained original scenario.
It’s CGI and was done in 3D but with a rendering and a finish that looks like 2D, perfectly replicating the comics’ graphic style and it’s gorgeous. Who would have thought that our grey Northen skies could be so beautiful?
The story is maybe a bit light and suffers from a few plot holes but what the hell, it’s entertaining, fun, moving, and makes for a nice family movie.
Here are a few samples:
A possible prequel to either comics or movie, set to another song by the band who did all the movie’s soundtrack: a different backstory for Sirius, featuring Aton!
Video clip on the movie’s signature song, featuring... the singer as Sirius?
And, movie’s trailer!
And! one year later, volume #4 is scheduled for release by the end of November. Only three more weeks to go! and vol. #5 and 6 are planned for the next coming years too.A friend of mine has a subscription to the Journal de Spirou, has already read the prepublications and knows what happens and won’t spoil it for besides «oh yeah it’s getting pretty dark and it’s awesome».
I would have put more scans, but I know there’s an official English translation somewhere so once again, I thought it would be more accessible for the international community if someone could get it instead please?
This all started with a joke: if nothing in life is certain but death and taxes, would the undead have to pay taxes?
Welcome to Zombillenium, a monster-themed amusement park in the middle of nowhere in the Northern French countryside near the border with Belgium. Joke has it that it’s always raining here… truth is maybe not always but skies are very often overcast at least. The last coal mine closed down in 1990, countless factories followed suit in the next decades. Nowadays unemployment rate is 25%. And Zombillenium only hires the dead! or undead. Zombies, vampires, werewolves, ghosts, mummies, and the likes, and of course humans are often the real monsters here.
Meet Francis von Bloodt, vampire, the park’s director; Sirius Jefferson, skeleton, union delegate, Aton Nedjemet, mummy... former singer and dancer set back t cotton candy seller.
Aton isn’t scary. Patrons think he’s a human actor in a suit. / Because they think I’m really undead? / No, they think you’re animatronic. Does nicely... // Well just take the wrappings off. / Get lost! My wrappings are from 3,000 BC, I’m not an ordinary corpse from any mass burial.
You know what the ordinary corpse has to say? I’m the skeleton of a Black peace activist who died on the electric chair in Louisiana, 1956! / Well that’s a new one. / Really? You’re Black? // Yes I am. Dead for civil rights! / Pull the other one...
That’s why I can’t keep shut. That’s why I’m an unio delegate, fighting for Mr Wraps’s bacon back there. And he’s not the only one grumbling either. We’re in such a shitt region in the first place... // OK Sirius you’re getting on my nerves now. / At least give us jobs that suit us. We’re monsters! / Hey! / not cotton candy sellers! / Now’s not the time! / Guys! There’s a... / And who’ll sell the cotton candy? We don’t have enough personnel and we don’t hire humans!
...pedestrian.
Meet also Aurélien Zahner, legal expert, who… was having a very bad day and gets a brutal hiring opportunity at the park.
He’s... / Dead, of course.
Ok, I got it. / (Munch!) / Where... where am I? what happened?
Ah! Our friend’s coming to. Speaking for management and the personnel of Zombillenium Amusement Park, congratulations on your hiring as a cotton candy seller. I’m Francis von bloodt, the director. This is Sirius Jefferson, personnel manager. Aton Noudjemet sitting by your side who’ll brief you on your work. Almost forgot: it’s a permanent contract.
And now Blaise, werewolf, also from human ressources and ranking higher than Sirius, don’t ask me how it works in an organization with 12,000 employees, it’s not my job.
I’ll let you fill out your names, address, previous experiences in sales or entertainment... // Hey there, we don’t have all night...
Go on easy with the new blood, Blaise, he’s a bit shaken up. // But what in... // You bit him! / To turn him into a werwolf. We already have enough vampires.
May I? / (Munch!) / Vampire!
(Munch!) / Werewolf!
(Yesss, they spend the next half page fighting over it and biting him over and over.
Aurélien Zahner. Ah ha. It’s a nightmare, right? // Right my dear mister Zahner, it’s a nightmare. A nightmare where families come have fun during their holidays and whose personnel you now belong to. You know the great tower you can see from Road 40... / You’re in it!
Welcome to Zombillenium!
They weren’t joking. They truly put him on the cotton candy cart.
Growing?
I wouldn’t touch that if I were you, it can cut metal. / And, well... sorry. / What for? Slapping me in the director’s office? Didn’t make much of a difference...
No, the slap was just to get back some sense into you. Sorry you landed here. I tried to avoid you jail time earlier this morning but... it didn’t make much of a difference. // OK, it’s bullshit, right? I’m not a vampire or a werewolf...
Meet Gretchen Webb, witch, the intern. So yes, she and Aurélien met shortly before Aurélien met... Francis’ car, but I can’t show you everything, got to keep some surprises, right?
I’m a witch, so 100% human. Contrary to populat belief, witching is not genetic, it’s an accident. / I was born in 1984 after my mom fucked a rockstar. According to my investigations it was Robert Smith. According to her she got pregnant by spending a whole night listening the Beatles’ satanic song «Number 9» in reverse and in replay. Nine months later, bam, I was born. During the birth, all the flowers in the hospital wilted off. Funny, innit? // When I was 6 my mom married a Frechman who sent me to a boarding school. This is when my gift started acting up.
So I ended up in Wizardry School. I skipped tow years ahead and was always first ranking student in my class. / Then I got to Wizards College. A bunch of neurotics who only think about comparing wands... (Relax, Harry, these sort of things just happen.) / Once I got my diploma there wasn’t any job offer fiting the skills. I became an au pair in Paris. Rather glad to never hear about potions and spells anymore...
A normal life as it was. I had a boyfriend, we were going out... / Erm. Sometimes nature got the better of me. / And one evening a woman gave me a calling card, calling me Sister—this is how witches call each other—She was working for the Royal Witchcraft Agency. I thought, at least a job for me!
A few weeks later I had my own calling card—here--and after a month I was out on my first mission: demon hunting in an amusement park in Northern France, getting hired as an intern as my cover. / But, Aurélien, here’s the catch: / You are a demon.
(I did a frantic check: july 31st 1980 / february 29th 1984 doesn’t make than much of an age difference if they’re both attending college, and it’s meant as a joke anyway. And you’ll find out later that at least part of her story was a lie, so why not more?)
Thankfully she’s not interested in hunting and killing him. Aurélien has no choice but to set in his new job.
’morning Yves! // Hello Aurélien. Only a week and you feel ghosts’ presence? / Nope, I smell your wine breath.
Bah. Gotta keep the morale up. And you keep that to yourself. // To who do I need to complain about costumes? / To me. I’ll find you something else. Any preference? It only need to be stretchy for when you change...
By the way Aurélien, beware the zombies. Rumours say you’re not their bestie... / I know. // But the only thing that scares me here is my reflection in that stupid costume. // No! I wanna go! It’s not fair! / Theo, shut up.
This, is a kid too short to ride. // So, you ready? / I am. / Try for a full change today. / I don’t control it. I need a stimulus. // Here comes the first train. Showtime!
Boooh... / *Sigh* Not even a frown. Short of a severed head and blood splaterring nothing fazes them.
You do the next one. But... hey! / There! See, when you get to it... Scare them off!/ Erm... Aurélien? What was the stimulus?
...a yoga teacher. Wait for it.
Please! Put me down! You’re squeezing too hard! // Coralie Zahner, name rings a bell? / Er? Yes... what does it have to do with... Who are you?
Her husband.
I... I didn’t do anything! Nothing happened! We only went out a couple of times! But we never... I swear! // You’re lying. /
(Annnd there’s a pun I can’t translate, based on a French idiom saying that cuckholds bear horns. If anyone knows how to convey that...)
So? Do I drop you down or do I crush you? / The hell is that park? Last Judgement?
Your bet is as good as our, Mister Yoga Teacher.
There was one last page I wanted to include but I’ll link it instead of displaying directly in case you don’t want to be spoilered. Gretchen wasn’t entirely honest with her life story...
https://malurette.dreamwidth.org/file/82432.jpg
(Meet... Mister Behemoth. The park’s owner.)
How’s my favourite tout doing? // It’s head huner, please. // Whatever your RWA friends call themselves. Head hunter is it. Nice catch, this Aurélien Zahner. Patrons like him. Good for business.
I think hiring blokes at the end of their rope is disgusting. / He swore to kill a man. In cold blood. His soul is mine. Hey, couldn’t you get a bigger car? I always feel cramped in here. / In exchange for their soul I offer a place to all these losers. I create jobs. I’m a modern Devil.
You’d rather I send out get fresh meat for tyrants and arms peddlers? Those are for Lucifer. I do with Mr and Mrs Average. You’re an idealist. I was the same when I was your age. You’ll get over it. Like your crush on this Aurélien. / Anyway, I didn’t come to debate on soul trade. I need you to find me four dancers. I’ll keep in touch.
Good evening, Gretchen. // Good evening, Dad.
The series counts 3 volumes as for now, and has been on hold for a few years because the author was working on the movie adaptation,
which was released last year for Halloween. Same park, same supporting cast, different protagonist—they replaced Aurélien who was deemed too passive for one Hector Sachs, safety inspector, widower, and father to the most adorable mixed race little girl, drawed elements form vol. #1 and 3 and created a self-contained original scenario.
It’s CGI and was done in 3D but with a rendering and a finish that looks like 2D, perfectly replicating the comics’ graphic style and it’s gorgeous. Who would have thought that our grey Northen skies could be so beautiful?
The story is maybe a bit light and suffers from a few plot holes but what the hell, it’s entertaining, fun, moving, and makes for a nice family movie.
Here are a few samples:
A possible prequel to either comics or movie, set to another song by the band who did all the movie’s soundtrack: a different backstory for Sirius, featuring Aton!
Video clip on the movie’s signature song, featuring... the singer as Sirius?
And, movie’s trailer!
And! one year later, volume #4 is scheduled for release by the end of November. Only three more weeks to go! and vol. #5 and 6 are planned for the next coming years too.
I would have put more scans, but I know there’s an official English translation somewhere so once again, I thought it would be more accessible for the international community if someone could get it instead please?
no subject
Date: 2018-11-01 12:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-11-01 12:47 pm (UTC)(The speech bubble goes "Don't you think I look like a cuckold?" while pointing at the horns so yes it fits, thanks.)
no subject
Date: 2018-11-01 04:14 am (UTC)That’s pretty much the plot of the Fred the Vampire Accountant series
Alright, I was pretty much sold from the scene of him waking up after getting hit by the car
no subject
Date: 2018-11-01 12:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-11-01 02:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-11-02 10:56 am (UTC)Mod Note!
Date: 2018-11-01 11:11 am (UTC)Thanks
Re: Mod Note!
Date: 2018-11-01 12:44 pm (UTC)Re: Mod Note!
Date: 2018-11-01 01:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-11-01 02:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-11-02 10:58 am (UTC)I saw it before reading the comics, with a friend who had read them; he was disappointed but I loved it to bits.