A comedy webcomic featuring zombie gourmet N and zombie-slayer extraordinaire Alex. N is a zombie, and a picky eater. He goes for days after his conversion trying to find the perfect human to eat, and finally finds one in Alex. There's only one problem. He can't eat her until at least three days have passed, to confirm she isn't diseased or otherwise unhealthy, and so has to both convince her to stay with him (and not kill him) and keep her safe from other zombies who want to eat her themselves. Hilarity Ensues.
Created by Ushio, it can be found on Webtoons.
First page here.
Boyfriend of the Dead provides examples of:
- Action Survivor: The "human girly" Alex is as badass as they come, with a zombie kill count well over 117. Note that this number may refer solely to the zombies killed while applying makeup. Most zombies now flee from her on sight, with only the most determined considering her a threat that must be eradicated for the safety of zombie-kind.
- Berserk Button: If you are a slovenly eater that doesn't care about hygiene, best not to demonstrate this around N. He has beaten several zombies to (re)death for attempting to eat Alex without properly cooking her first (also for attempting to steal 'his' meal).
- Black Comedy: A significant chunk of the humor in the webcomic, typically involving humans being caught by zombies in the background; often utilizes Mood Whiplash. This page probably demonstrates best.
- Bland-Name Product : N mentions to a lot of real life pop culture reference, such as Twibright, Harvest Noon, President Evil, etc.
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You: N can't kill Alex because he needs to wait three days to make sure she's not diseased. For her part, Alex (who doesn't know N view(ed) her as essentially livestock) reasons that N is useful and she can easily kill him if he turns on her. Later, the two come to an understanding with N finally giving up on eating Alex when he realizes that he does love her.
- Cranial Eruption: After N does something particularly cringe-worthy or childish in front of Alex it will typically cut to him sporting one or two of these. It's a good thing as a zombie he can't feel pain (except to his pride, of course).
- Deuteragonist: N and Alex are both protagonists with viewpoint chapters and sections, though N probably gets the spotlight a little bit more.
- Faking the Dead: The smarter zombies play dead when attacked by humans. The humans assume they've killed them and move on, then the zombies can just get back up and move on with their day.
- Fantastic Racism: On both sides, there are those strongly against those different from then. Notable examples are the chef who tried to have Alex eaten in a restaurant full of zombies and the addict Slippy who insists that all the zombies are just "things"
- The Gadfly: Several characters in the series do this to the main couple, mostly towards Alex than N.
- Gender-Blender Name: Alex, to N's amusement.N: Sorry, I've mistaken you for a girl this whole time.
- Ghost Amnesia: Zombies typically can't remember anything before zombification. N gets occasional flashbacks, and the impression that he was incredibly lonely while alive; other zombies probably have similar experiences. We see one such new zombie forget the name of a person he wanted to say goodbye to literally minutes after his zombification.
- Hate Sink: Slippy the addict. Constantly referring to zombies as "things," trying to kill both N and Alex, and consuming all the tranquilizers in Doc's stash. Nobody seemed to be upset when he finally got kicked out both in-universe and by fans.
- There's also the chef who tried to incite a restaurant full of zombies to eat Alex which leads to N admitting afterwards that he wanted to eat her. He is almost as reviled as Slippy.
- "It" Is Dehumanizing: Before the humans start to understand and empathize with the zombies, they often refer to them as "it" and "things"
- It's All My Fault: Elsa heavily blames herself for the zombie outbreak due to creating the fungus and finding that a traitor within her company caused someone to get infected.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: It is basically impossible to talk about the current plot without revealing that the zombie gourmet's name is N and the human girly's name is Alex, and that they are now an Official Couple.
- Line-of-Sight Name: When Alex and N first meet Lily, she has Ghost Amnesia the same as all other zombies and has not picked a new name yet. Alex points to the Lily prints on Lily's dress and suggests that as a name and Lily agrees.
- Manchild: N's desire to feed is temporarily outweighed by the desire to play with kid's his (mental) age in the toystore. On that note, why was he in the toy store in the first place? To get an Elsa doodleboard to communicate with Alex.Eins: How old are you?
- Mass "Oh, Crap!": Recognizing Alex is enough to do this to zombie hordes. The humans get their turn when she shows up to reclaim her boyfriend with an entire zombie army backing her up.
- Mood Whiplash: The comic will often switch instantly from a problem straight out of a horror movie to a humorous treatment of or solution to that problem. Hemmed in by zombies reaching through the walls on all sides, threatening to grab you and tear you apart? Tickle them.
- Moral Event Horizon: In-Universe, the other zombies are disgusted that N is defending Alex because he doesn't want to share her. They consider this incredibly antisocial, and worthy of death.
- Name Amnesia: All zombies suffer this as part of their Ghost Amnesia. Most clearly shown with K, who indicates he knows his name and other personal information is on his phone, but it's weird for him because he doesn't remeber the information himself (though not entirely consistent because when he points out his real name is Josef and he's always gone by K, when Claire questions what's with the zombie initial naming scheming. He seems to remember that much). His experience is most telling because he turned during the story and on camera and forgot these things almost immediately.
- No Name Given: True of every character until Episode 28, when we learn the names of the two main characters, or at least the name of one and the first initial of the other. Alex first and then N. After that, we learn the names or an initial of other character, or at times, they are given a name,
- Not Using the "Z" Word: The only survivors that call the undead "zombies" are Claire's dad and of course Alex. The rest insist on using the standard euphemisms, which drives N crazy.N: It's like reverse discrimination!!!
- Offhand Backhand: Alex is shocked that a zombie communicated with her and didn't attack. Not so shocked she won't decapitate a zombie coming up behind her. Left-handed. Without looking or so much as changing her expression.
- Official Couple: N and Alex.N (via whiteboard): I'm her zombie boyfriend.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Due to Ghost Amnesia N has no idea what his name was while alive. He does have a business card with his face on it, but a combination of being ripped up then taped back together and covered in bloodstains has rendered it illegible, save for the first letter of his name: "N". So that's what they call him.
- Our Zombies Are Different:
- Being bitten by a zombie causes near instantaneous clinical death and reanimation as a zombie (to the point that they won't necessarily fall over if standing during the conversion). Although the disease has damaged the parts of their brains that deal with speaking, all zombies seem to retain their full intelligence, the ability to understand each others' groans like speech, and at least some of their personality... plus a compulsion to devour uninfected humans upon smelling them. Initially act like Romero Zombies, slow and shambling, but going long enough without eating humans apparently restores their full speed and balance.
- Main character N is disgusted by most humans, refusing to eat them. He feels no moral compulsion to help them, but does believe it's only fair that humans defend themselves from zombies.
- The Twins turned into zombies because they attacked and bit a hapless zombie, and feel no desire to eat humans when the toy store they turned in has a perfectly good bakery.Eins: Why would you want to eat humans when there're cakes???
- Pinball Projectile: Alex takes out three zombies with the head of a fourth in a single ricocheting shot. She's probably right that she could have been a pro golfer.
- Plot Hole: Despite the Zombie Apocalypse, cell phones work, the Internet works, there is power and running water. There is no explanation as to who maintains the infrastructure.
- Poor Communication Kills: The Twins are nearly killed by Alex before N can explain that they are just harmlessly reenacting The Shining and not actually after anyone's flesh.
- The Reveal: The source of the outbreak was a fungus created by Elsa. When she found a member of her team stealing it, a fight broke out and someone got infected. While she doesn't say it, the person in the back-flash clearly shows a human N fighting off the infected while Elsa hid.
- Revenant Zombie and Friendly Zombie: Zombies who have resisted the initial urge to bite humans lose this urge and remain sapient. This includes N and several other characters.
- Shipper on Deck: Alex's mom is delighted by the idea that N is Alex's boyfriend. He meets every one of her criteria for an ideal boyfriend for her daughter, apparently.Mom: Your new boyfriend is awesome!
- Zwei, despite never speaking, still lights up with a big grin whenever the two start acting romantic.
- Lady (the mother of the baby girl zombie) agrees with Zwei on this one, to Eins's irritation.
- Lily playfully teases Alex about her and N's relationship.
- Shout-Out:
- The Twins invoke Creepy Twins to reenact a scene from The Shining.
- Frozen (2013) is referenced a lot. N gets an Elsa doodle board to communicate, and one human character is a girl named Elsa who hates references to Frozen (2013).
- Took a Level in Kindness: Max, Claire, and Doc all wind up befriending the group after initially starting as antagonists. It helps that N's cooking certainly beats the instant meals (or horrifically improvised meals) everyone was eating. Lewis, the zombie botanist, also comes into this, mostly due to being a fellow nerd.
