"ERMIN MEONSTOKE" Sacrifice Upon The Waves - Part Five Post One

As I dislike 'time jumps' in stories, usually indicated by a text box stating "Some time later...", I always try and have something happening 'on screen' when I don't want the audience to see what one of my other characters is up to.

Ermin Meonstoke's surprise entrance at the start of this final instalment to "Sacrifice Upon The Waves" is an example of this technique. However I'm not sure I've quite got the passage of time right considering both the ghoul collector and Mister Gotch somehow managed to row ashore from the ocean liner and bludgeon a load of Nazi zombies in the time it took for Fedor Von Bock to beat up Miss Priscilla. 

Timing quibbles aside though, I think it makes for a good start to this story's conclusion and also brings this series' two main characters together for the first time since the adventure started.

As the German undead launch a final attack in order to rule the World once again, Meonstoke, Miss Priscilla and Mister Gotch stand should-to-shoulder as humanity's last hope. But will a sword, antiquated firing piece and water-logged World War Two machine gun be enough to hold back a tide of Nazi zombies...? 

"ERMIN MEONSTOKE" Sacrifice Upon The Waves - Part Four Post Three

Having given Meonstoke plenty of zed-killing action I wanted to make Miss Priscilla's sub-plot equally as action-packed, and also show that despite his successful resurrection, Fedor Von Bock was still susceptible to the secretary's firing piece.

This sequence also gave me an opportunity to try and give the impression of just how overrun the Cornish homestead was by the Nazi zombies, and thus make the feisty administrator's predicament even more perilous.

Battered and bruised, weaponless and surrounded by the hungry German undead, it looks like the end for Ermin Meonstoke's ever faithful secretary. But surely after all this time it's not Priscilla's fate to be fed to Fedor von Bock...!?!

"ERMIN MEONSTOKE" Sacrifice Upon The Waves - Part Four Post Two

These four panels were really all about trying to firmly tie the events on board the ocean liner with those occurring on the coast of Cornwall, and having a bit of fun with some ludicrous zombie-killing situations. In particular I wanted to get my main protagonist involved with some Undead close combat, and thought it'd be quite amusing having him snatch one of the German corpse's boat paddles and start battering them around the head with it.

Meonstoke's use of the 7.92-MM LMG 34 is heavily influenced by my love of using light machine guns in the "Call Of Duty" zombie-based video games. As a result I thought it would be a bit different if he conveniently 'found' one, not too water-logged, and having propped it up upon Mister Gotch's shoulder's, started to drive the Third Reich ghouls back with one of their own weapons. All silly stuff I realise, but it makes me smile.

Assailed by a seemingly endless number of German zombies, Meonstoke's thoughts momentarily turn to Miss Priscilla's predicament, as his faithful secretary goes hand-to-hand with the long-dead monster behind all these Undead shenanigans... Fedor von Bock!

"ERMIN MEONSTOKE" Sacrifice Upon The Waves - Part Four Post One

This fourth instalment of "Sacrifice Upon The Waves" hopefully starts with something of a shock as the entire sub-plot of Miss Priscilla involved her saving young Weimar's life from the German Undead, and ultimately the secretary fails in her mission. It also gave me the chance to introduce a genuinely intelligent zombie, in the form of Fedor von Bock.   

Priscilla's scene also provided me with the opportunity to suggest that time had also subsequently passed on board the ocean liner. Thus Mister Gotch is able to imply that Meonstoke and his crew have been busy futilely barricading themselves within the vessel. The sailor's dialogue also follows the exact route the zombies would have to have taken if they were aboard the real ship. 

Faced with a seemingly endless number of water-logged hungry corpses, Ermin Meonstoke and Mister Gotch take to the dance-floor in the hopes that they'll be able to disco-dance their decaying foes to death...

"ERMIN MEONSTOKE" Sacrifice Upon The Waves - Part Three Post Three

Having managed to incorporate a few more of the cruise liner's crew members previously, I was able to utilise one of their gory deaths within these first three panels to give a bit more detail about the layout of the vessel, and the composition of its staff. I even managed to squeeze in a quick reference to what type of decaying uniform my German zombies were wearing.   

Meanwhile back on dry land, I needed to finally remove Weimar's grandmother from the action, in order to be able to fully concentrate upon the arrival of the true leader of these Third Reich living dead. It did however give me the opportunity to show just how much affection the elderly woman's young ward still felt for her, despite the pensioner trying to feed her to the undead. 

Desperate to escape a house packed full of zombies Miss Priscilla faces the sinister mastermind behind the German corpses' invasion of the Cornish Coast. Whilst Ermin Meonstoke discovers just how powerful the Undead can be when they wear the Iron Cross...

"ERMIN MEONSTOKE" Sacrifice Upon The Waves - Part Three Post Two

Following on from the last post's revelation as to where the German zombies have risen up from, the first three frames of this instalment clarify just what Weimar's grandmother is up to on the Cornish Coast. But also momentarily give the protagonist's hope that they may be about to escape the ghouls' clutches - Only to have them immediately quashed by more of the walking dead coming in through the back door.  

The last frame finally sets up a genuine purpose for Meonstoke to achieve whilst on board the cruise liner, except for just generally surviving, and also provides the hero with a few more 'souls to save'... or be eaten. Ermin's dialogue is also once again based upon the actual layout of the passenger ship I used for the basis of the narrative.

With the cruise liner's lifeboats within sight, Ermin Meonstoke's fortunes take a turn for the worse as the vessel continues to sink and flood the corridors with even more of the hungry undead. Meanwhile Miss Priscilla confronts Weimar's grandmother for the last time..?

"ERMIN MEONSTOKE" Sacrifice Upon The Waves - Part Three Post One

This scene once again consists of my standard zombie-killing sequence, where a hapless victim is devoured and Ermin Meonstoke then dispatches the offending walking cadaver. However I did want to make it clear that my titular character and Mister Gotch were now surrounded by the living undead. This would allow me to have more of the ghoulish cannibal 'pop' up into frame at the most inopportune of moments for my heroes. 

In addition the dialogue (despite the spelling mistake) is reasonably important as it establishes just where these German zombies have come from, and perhaps more crucially, provides a link with the Third Reich undead also plaguing Miss Priscilla on the Cornish Coast.

Determined to defend her sightless charge, Miss Priscilla stands firm against a seemingly insurmountable horde of German carnivorous corpses... at least until she runs out of ammunition and Weimar's Prussian grandmother decides to open her home's back door...