The Littlest Zombie
The Littlest Zombie is an Antarctic Press comic book from Gold Digger creator Fred Perry. It tells the story of a world ruined by nuclear warfare, where zombies now roam the Earth, looking for any survivors on whom to feed. Our protagonist is the titular unnamed zombie, who's doing his best to survive any way he can, though it's rather difficult when you're missing a foot and much bigger zombies get in your way.
The comic mostly flip-flops between said zombie and the current humans he's hunting, who are trying to avoid being killed. More often than not, the humans tend to be amoral characters willing to stab one another in the back. This is good for TLZ, however, as the end result is that he gets a meal from it.
The character first appeared in December, 2009. So far,[when?] TLZ has three short stories (one each in A Very Zombie Christmas, A Very Zombie Summer and A Very Zombie Christmas 2), two full issues (possibly headed for a full (mini)series) and one full-length special (The Littlest Zombie vs. The Littlest Vampire). Fred describes the series as Casper if he were a zombie. Indeed, TLZ does seem like a nice individual, but he can't ignore his hunger for human flesh.
- After the End
- Anyone Can Die: Mostly the human characters
- Black Comedy: especially the second TLZ Christmas story.
- Bratty Half-Pint: Cindy, the littlest vampire.
- Comically Missing the Point: Cindy when told why they have to ration blood.
- Creepy Child: Elmyria Fuhd, also a Child Prodigy.
- Downer Ending: If you're human, that is.
- Expy: Elmyria Fuhd, Just think about that for a minute.
- Fang Thpeak: Cindy, though this is more due to the gap between her front teeth than her fangs.
- Groin Attack: Elmyria Fuhd pulls this on one of her soldiers with a gun. Luckily, said soldier is gen-enhanced, so he almost doesn't feel it.
- Infant Immortality: Heavily averted in the Zombie Christmas story when TLZ gets the drop on a child going to bed.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Both humans and zombies can get this.
- No Name Given: We're really never given a name for the title character.
- Our Zombies Are Different: Turns out the infection comes from spores that have infected all living humans. They lay dormant in living humans, as the immune system keeps them from spreading. But once a human dies, the spores take over and feed on the decomposed cells, reanimating the body and enhancing certain areas of it along the way. Zombies also don't just eat brains for food, but also to maintain/restore what brain cells they have. It's theorized that TLZ is a special case from the mindless zombies around him.
- Shout-Out: Tiny Toon Adventures in the second issue. A Christmas Story in second Zombie Christmas compilation.
- Spot of Tea: Elymria plays tea party with TLZ in the second issue.
- Taking You with Me: The first issue features a group of survivors trying to head back to their camp who are boxed in by a zombie horde. One of the survivors is a mole from a group of marauders looking to take the camp resources for themselves. However, when rescue from the camp arrives and reveals they know her secret, she opts to try and kill everyone with a grenade.
- The Voiceless: TLZ, explained because his tongue and throat have atrophied, so he can't even moan much. (He occasionally growls.) However, this works to his advantage, since this plus his small size allow him to sneak up on victims undetected.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: The U.S. government's plan to solve the zombie problem is to wipe out all the survivor camps to deprive the zombies of food. Anyone who doesn't get with the plan, no matter how smart they are, is "let go", so to speak.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Elmyria finds herself on the end of this when the government/military agency she works for tires of her petty demands for ponies, puppies, kitties, etc. in exchange for information on the zombies. Well, that and she shot the main general in the groin. He didn't take kindly to it.
- Zombie Apocalypse