Webcomic / The Zombie Hunters

Jenny (left) and Sammie (right), about to kick some undead ass

"Years after the crippling outbreak that turned most of the human population into undead, a small community of survivors have taken up residence on an island, home to the abandoned facilities of the Argus Research Campus."

— LOG ENTRY #1536

The Zombie Hunters is a Science Fiction-Horror Webcomic by Jenny Romanchuk, that started running in late 2006, and went on indefinite hiatus in early 2018. Set in the years after the Zombie Apocalypse, it was originally conceived as a private self-insert comic for herself and friends, after they featured in a funny dream involving zombies, Romanchuk posted some strips online, then decided to expand on the concept when they were well-received. It can be read here.

The comic went on hiatus in early October 2015 due to issues in Romanchuk's personal life, with an update posted in late October 2016 saying Romanchuk was hoping to resume the comic in January 2017, but unfortunately the comeback was delayed. In early August of 2017, Romanchuk posted that the comic would resume "sometime in October", with the comeback happening (very appropriately) on Halloween (October 31).

As of March 5, 2018, the comic is on indefinite hiatus, with Romanchuk tweeting on March 19 that she was unfortunately suffering from a flareup of anxiety and depression, and didn't know when or if she would be able to update the comic again.

The story centers on a motley but seasoned crew of young, government-sponsored Disaster Scavengers, (the eponymous "Zombie Hunters") all carrier Zombie Infectees dividing their time between coping with their expendable, segregated status at home, and trying not to get bitten in the wastelands filled with multiple "species" of zombies. When not fighting for their lives, searching for salvage or Plundering, they're training in New Meat, among them a half-zombie who chafes as much at having to work with his juniors as he does at their treatment of him. Alongside all this, A.R.C doctors and scientists keep working to Find the Cure! for The Virus, engineers keep technology running, Red Halos keep order, and ordinary civilians go about their lives.

It all sounds perfectly reasonable and civilized. It isn't.

The comic is rated R for violence, disturbing images, coarse language, and the occasional zomboobie.

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This webcomic provides examples of:

• Ax-Crazy: The Berserker zombie takes a particularly sadistic time in brutally torturing its victims to death. They also seem to wear Slasher Smiles and their call sounds like they are Laughing Mad.

• Apocalypse How: Class 1: Human Die-Back, but only just. In this near-future Post-Zombie Apocalypse, The Virus was a Depopulation Bomb, humans are an Endangered Species, and Earth is overrun by The Undead. The struggle to avoid becoming a full-bore Class 2 is a driving force in the plot.
• Art Evolution: In the early chapters, the character designs were simpler, with some Animesque stylistic conventions, particularly during comedic moments. Beginning at Chapter Three, and coinciding with the plot's turn for the dark, the designs become more realistic and the atmosphere more gritty and detailed.
• Art Shift: The details get cranked up to 11 whenever a zombie shows up. On the other hand, Animesque facefaults still manifest at given comedic moments.
• A Storm Is Coming: Jasper all but tells Maureen this just before the outbreak on the ARC expands in earnest.

  Maureen: "Laying it on a bit thick, aren't you?"

  Jasper: "I wish I was! Everybody's got their own agenda. Mercer's trying for a cure, Masao doesn't think we should leave the island at all. You don't want Arthur agreeing with that. And Ilea? She thinks she's got a solution to the infected on the Island already."

• Author Avatar:
  • Jenny-As-Author shows up in this strip to respond to readers pointing out a Plot Hole.
  • And here to inform people about the printed comic.

• The Beautiful Elite: Ilea, who is described on the website as a social butterfly. She's uninfected (which on the ARC is a very big deal), a Red Halo, and one of the leaders of the ARC. She's also quite pretty and well-aware of it.
  Ilea: "Yes, I am beautiful, thank you!"
• Beware the Nice Ones:
  • Katie, according to Word of God. When she says she knows how to fence, she's NOT kidding.
  • It has been theorized that a Mercy could protect their dying victim from a Berserker. Mercies are easily the nicest and gentlest zombies.
• Black Eyes of Crazy + Glowing Eyelights of Undeath = Uh-oh.

Show your best sides at the same time! Spine Removal!

• Bullet-Proof Fashion Plate: Charlie, especially his labcoat. Lampshaded in this strip.

• Chaotic Stupid: Chaotic Shortbus; one of the Red Halo guys riding with Maureen levies this accusation against Jenny and her cadre in the first arc. Maureen doesn't disagree.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Milo and James turn up in the ARC propaganda film a full chapter ahead of their introduction.

• Cloudcuckoolander: Katie, again. She's always been a little off, but it's recently been revealed that she's a severe PTSD-case and hallucinates zombies when frightened. Her style of being friendly is likely a result of this.

• ''Perfectly'' lampshaded here.

• Cold-Blooded Torture: The next time we see Daniel after the kids are sent off of the island, he had just been subjected to an extensive session of one of these. Ilea promptly executes him once she learns nothing from torturing him, and it's implied that Dr. Mercer is next.
• Comfort the Dying: One rare variety of zombie is infamous for seeking out hopelessly sick and injured humans, trying to comfort them, protecting them from other zombies, and finally delivering a clean Mercy Kill.
• Corrupt the Cutie: Katie. She goes from a skirt-wearing, well-manicured young woman to an unkempt Bad Ass Long Coat tomboy in the span of ~11 months. Milo's death probably has something to do with it. Pretty sure James's death didn't help either.
  • As bad as those are, they probably can't beat Katie disemboweling a Raider. With a sword.

• In one page, she hands Charlie a book to read her, telling him that chapter 3 is the best part. That book is titled "Ebola: A History."

• The Dead Have Eyes: A new Basilisk zombie who has had his entire face eaten off is still able to use a paralyzing gaze on his victim, employing only his empty eye sockets.
  • When Mrs. Walters commits suicide, it's shown that she failed to do so in a way that wouldn't let her raise again by the glowing red eyes from her room.
• Death of a Child: A short strip details a kid running away from the zombies after the initial outbreak. Eventually they find an abandoned house in the woods, the kid goes to sleep hiding under a bed and is woken by a zombie dragging him out. It's heavily implied the kid is killed.

• Deer in the Headlights: "Freezing up" in in-world slang. The characters have started taking bets over whether newbie zombie hunters will do this when confronted with the slavering hordes for the first time.

• Doesn't Like Guns: Charlie, as seen in this sequence.

• Milo.
• And the kid with the Dinosaur Plush in a side arc.

• Driven to Suicide: Mrs. Walters, Jameson's mom, since she is the only member of her family left after her son was violently killed.

• Even Evil Has Standards: Jasper is more of a Jerkass than anyone else, but even he pauses and stares at Daniel's corpse after Ilea has tortured and executed the man, and he was not pleased in the slightest.
• Everything Is Trying to Kill You: Life as a Zombie Hunter is usually measured in hours—days if you're lucky. And like any good Zombie Apocalypse story, zombies are only the most obvious of the Everything. Fellow humans are nearly as bad.
• Expressive Shirt: Jenny's signature, much-loved orange bear hat.
• Eye Scream: Jenny has an eye gouged out by a Berserker zombie.

• Facial Horror: One way to go due to hungry zombies. Jameson bites it this way.
• Fantastic Caste System: The infected live in roach and rat infested barracks, unlike the more mobile noninfected, and only the infected are expected to serve as Zombie Hunters.
• Fantastic Racism: Jenny makes her attitude towards Charlie veryobvious.
  • The infected in general suffer this, as they are not nearly treated as well as the non-infected people in the ARC. To the point that one of the leaders of the ARC, Ilea, evidently has a "solution" for them.
• Fascists' Bed Time: Humans infected with the dormant form of The Virus live under severely restricted conditions for the safety of the uninfected.
• Faux Affably Evil: Jasper, as any politeness he has towards the group is either sarcastic or only a means to underscore what an asshole he is. Plus, he is perfectly content to lie to Jenny's face about Milo's "accident."
  • Ilea as well, as she politely asks Masao to help the guards clean up the guest room that she just got done torturing and executing Daniel in.

• Foregone Conclusion: Milo will die. We already knew this because we are introduced to him after he's died. We see him only through flashbacks. A lot of them. Actually, now he HAS died.
• Foreshadowing: In spades.

• Gilligan Cut: When the sirens start going off at the ARC, Katie assures Charlie - who has no idea what to do - that everything is going to be fine. The very next page features a Spitter crouched on a table in a public ARC area, who caves in someone's head with a vomit shot.
• Glass Cannon: Crawlers. Just as infectious as the rest, but nigh-harmless to the experienced. One bite is still fatal.

• The Heart: Sammie. She can sometimes appear like it. Subverted, as she is not this.
• Hero Antagonist: The main cast is often right off Anti-Hero generally. The Red Halos and zombie hunters don't get along. The main Halo we see is Jasper, the resident Jerkass guy.

• How Many Fingers?
  Sammie: How many hallucinatory fingers am I holding up?
  Katie: *flips Sammie the bird*
  Sammie: Atta girl!
• Improbable Weapon User:
  • Jenny is quite proficient with a shovel
  • Sammie, as seen in the page image, used a brick. The below quickly followed.

• Is That What He Told You?: Jenny has one of these going on in regard to Milo's death. Arthur refers to it as an "accident," when really he ordered the hit himself.
• It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time: Invoked as a chapter title
• It Can Think: These zombies are intelligent enough as a whole that they have their own language, and some types such as Berserkers are not only smart enough to show the hallmarks of tool use such as opening doors and wielding weapons, but they also possess the capability to learn.
• Jade-Colored Glasses: All the veteran zombie hunters have had most of their joy and optimism ground out of them.

• Jerk Ass Woobie:
  • Charlie can be an uptight, surly jerk to pretty much everyone around him, but it's hard not to feel sorry for the poor guy as he earnestly tries to get along and relate to his new squadmates as they coldly rebuff him. Megan's pretty much the only real friend he has, and the only person who treats him like a human being.
  • In theory, all of the main cast can be considered this. Many of them are Wastelanders, who were brought to the ARC after having survived on their own in the wasteland for a very long time, and some of whom had traumatic lives even before that (like Sam, whose parents were extremely abusive). And then, upon being brought onto the island, are treated badly by the ARC and by the island's populace. Even Milo, who is easily the nicest person on the team, is notably a Knight in Sour Armor as a result of all this.

• Mentor Occupational Hazard: Was strongly, strongly implied to be the case for Megan for a long time. Confirmed during the flashback arc.
• Mercy Kill:
  • A decently-likely necessity if you survive being — played with — by Berserkers.
  • One of type of zombie is called a Mercy. They actively seek out the suffering, protect them from other zombies, then put them out of their misery while gently cradling them in their arms. It's both touching and terrifying.
• Night of the Living Mooks: Crawlers, which aren't dangerous unless you get within reach, or they attack en masse.
  "They're only crawlers! Just shoot 'em! With your gun! The gun in your hands there!"
• Nightmare Fuel Coloring Book: A child's doodles feature bloody monstrosities labelled "Mom" and "Dad" eating his sister and dog. It's that trope's picture.
• Ninja: Functionally, Hunters. Excerpt from the Hunter entry:
  I will always find you. Before you ever find me.

• Noisy Guns: Averted: a gun runs out of ammunition with no accompanying sound whatsoever
• Noodle Incident: "The Accident," the cast's shorthand for referring to how Milo died. Turns out Japser murdered him.
• Older Sidekick: The role Charlie's handlers have forced him into alongside more experienced Zombie Hunters, all of whom are under thirty. His resentment is palpable.

• Our Zombies Are Different: There are at least seven different types of zombie, ranging from the shuffling, pathetic Crawler to the deadly efficient Hunter. Two other types have superabilities to paralyze or incapacitate humans, and yet another exists to give a sickeningly gentle Mercy Kill to the suffering. Perhaps the most feared are the Berserker zombies, which have near-human intelligence, are insanely strong, and like to kill slowly and creatively.
• Painting the Medium : Zombies get the Black Speech bubbles, whether or not they're being "translated".
• Parental Abandonment: It's hard to find a character with even one living parent.
• Personal Space Invader: Katie when being friendly. As seen in the latter Cloudcuckoolander link.
• Pet the Dog: Jasper defending Katie from some bullies. Lampshaded in The Rant.

• Please Subscribe to Our Channel: A now-defunct "Please Vote" initiative included incentive bonus art.
• Plunder: What Disaster Scavengers wouldn't skim a little off the communal salvage? Or hide contraband in their bra to smuggle in on the sly? Or foolishly lead their team into a zombie-infested Red Zone while looking for things to loot? "I <3 looting" even appears as a Fun T-Shirt slogan worn by a Zombie Hunter.

• Pretend We're Dead: Inverted. Charlie's Half-Human Hybrid nature allows him to stride purposefully through the groaning, shuffling zombie hordes, peevishly bellowing for his teammates, completely unmolested.

• Put on a Bus: Daniel. He hasn't been seen since the comic began its epic flashback storyline. Justified in that he was apparently a new addition to the group—ala-Jameson—at the start of the story, and the flashback hasn't caught up to his introduction yet.

• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: On a botched mission, Charlie rants at great length how his young team-mates are all going to die since Youth Is Wasted On The Too Dumb to Live.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: The Basilisk class of zombie sports red irises instead of the typical white, to denote its uniquely paralyzing gaze.
• Red Shirt: Several, most notably Jameson
  • The death of Jameson caused a Despair Event Horizon with his mother, who is also a widow. So much so, that she decides to end her life, which is going to cause problems, seeing as she was infected. Word of God states that he was never really a red shirt, but just a catalyst for an incoming ripple effect.

• The Reveal: It turns out Jasper killed Milo, apparently under Arthur's orders.
• Rule of Scary: Why do zombies want to eat you? Why do some want to torture you to death and others want to give you a nice deadly cuddle? Because it's fucking scarier that way, that's why.
• Scarpia Ultimatum: Apparently part of the deal Maureen makes with Jasper to get her friends to safety after a botched mission.

• Self-Insert Fic: The principle characters are based upon the comic's artist and friends (right down to their hometowns).

• Shoot the Medic First: Played With. Part of how Sammie survived out in the wasteland for as long as she did was because doctors and medics are increasingly rare, and so were treated very well by survivors. As such, nobody shot the medic, even rival groups, because said medic could be just as useful to them as they were to the group they were against. It's why Sammie faked being one. She did, however, get very good at it through field experience and sheer trial and error.
  Sammie: "No one shoots the medic. You know doctor shit? You get treated like royalty out there. I caught onto this and faked it. ...I didn't know anything about doctor shit. I just put on a medic badge and did shit I saw on TV. Some of it worked, some of it didn't. Eventually I got kinda good at it."
• Shout-Out:
  • Halo
  • Half-Life
  • Dead Space
  • VG Cats
  "It's a brick flai..."
  "No. No it's not."
  • Blade Runner
  • The Animals of Farthing Wood: Farthing Woods is the name of an apartment complex.
  • The Sixth Sense
  "Well, Jenny. I have something to tell you. I see dead people."
• Skeleton Government: Jasper elucidates this to Marlene during their date. And there's trouble in the ranks, because Arthur is losing his grip on reality and running the ARC, and the other three have designs on running things themselves.
  Jasper: "Look, d'you pay attention to how they run things here? It's just Arthur, and then Ilea, Omar, and Masao. That's it."
• Slasher Smile: The Manual's Berserker is a Most Triumphant ExampleCharlie had one, but he got better.

• Sour Supporter: Charlie, chafing against his position as Older Sidekick and the foolhardiness and immaturity of his more seasoned, but much younger teammates.

• Strapped to a Hospital Bed: Charlie, the first time Jenny meets him. He wasn't quite himself at the time.
• Subtext: Several places. The subtext corners the text in a dark alley, beats it up, and steals its lunch money in the sequence of strips starting here.
• Super-Speed/Super-Reflexes: Hunters and Berserkers.
• Taking the Bullet: Justified. Charlie puts up an arm to block a zombie bite intended for his wounded teammate Katie. Since he's a Half-Zombie, it barely registers as painful to him.
• Team Dad: Charlie is a dysfunctional version towards Jenny, lecturing and yelling orders he knows will go ignored, but when his teammates are threatened, he becomes brutally efficient.

• Tear Off Your Face: One Mauve Shirt gets his face eaten off. He is alive and paralyzed during this process. He shows up in the next couple pages as a faceless zombie.
• Tempting Fate/Foreshadowing: I won't be here forever, Charlie.
• Too Dumb to Live: A deeply frustrated Charlie's opinion of his young teammates,(Jenny in particular) after a routine mission goes FUBAR.
• Tranquil Fury: Mau sure looks calm for someone who probably is so mad she can't see straight.

• Undeathly Pallor: Apart from his mismatched zombie eye, this also more subtly marks Charlie as undead.
• Victoria's Secret Compartment: According to Sammie, the perfect place in which to smuggle beer. Jenny tries it, but... well...
• The Virus: D'uh. Subverted as a Zombie Infectee isn't killed by it, but they will turn upon dying (of natural causes or otherwise).
• Villain with Good Publicity: Ilea. According to her character bio on the site itself, she frequently inquires about the lives of the people on the island, and infected and uninfected alike tend to open up to her about it despite her status as a Red Halo. Her introduction to the story proper involves her calmly torturing and executing Daniel, and according to Jasper she has a "solution" for the infected on the ARC.

• Wham Episode: The zombie outbreak on the ARC, followed by the revelation that Megan was murdered. The crew is also immediately dispatched on a mission to get them off the island, and it's implied that they might be no longer welcome.
• Wham Line: Page 603 has two in rapid succession.
  • "Good, then I can make this quick. You're all leaving the island immediately."
  • "There's a lot going on at ARC that you don't know about. Megan's death wasn't an accident."
• Whole Episode Flashback: Chapters 5 to 21. The comic took six whole years to slowly work its way back to the present, but it finally got there.
• White Shirt of Death: Subverted. The half-zombie is dressed in bright white - and manages to stay that way - despite his constant wading through blood and gore. He explains how this is possible while during a "fan mail" strip : he uses Gain laundry detergent between every panel.

• Your Mom: Sammie and Jenny share some Casual Danger Dialogue.
  Sammie: These guys could be, like, berserker zombies.
  Jenny: Heh. Berserker zombies on fire.
  Sammie: In bed.
  Jenny: With?
  Both: YOUR MOM!
• Youth Is Wasted on the Dumb: The opening arc finds the Zombie Hunters led astray into a zombie-dense "red zone," for three days straight, because the young team captain felt like doing a little looting.

• Zombie Gait: Some zombies do the requisite shuffle and moan, but others are swift, silent, and lethal. Mercies are graceful and patient, while Berserkers are swift, loud, cruel, and lethal.
• Zombie Infectee: Infected humans "turn" shortly after death. The introduction of zombie saliva into the bloodstream (usually through a bite) causes an active infection which is fatal within hours. But contact with any other bodily fluid merely causes a latent infection in which the Virus remains dormant and has no real effect on the victim's health. Infected humans may spread the Virus to others but they will not die of it themselves.
• Zombie Puke Attack: The comic features 7 different subspecies of zombie, one of which can attack by vomiting a sort of corrosive poison up to 50 ft. Suitably, they are called spitters.

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