In this new chapter of Carlos Parra’s “Dark New World“. You will be introduced to many new characters. Enter “The Carnies“, a group of marauders who have survived the initial zombie infestation that hit Las Cruces, NM. “Sometimes the monsters do have smiles on their faces.” Here are my first character design sketches of  ‘The Carnies” for the upcoming zombie comic book. Carlos wanted the feel of  “A Clock Work Orange” mixed with creepy looking carnies. I was given sketch samples of their different pained faces, from there I designed their looks. At this point, the Carnies as individuals do not have names. Which I think actually makes them a bit scarier.

I’m currently workings the first few pages of the comic book. The Carnies are making a huge impact in the lives of the survivors. In the future I will post some of the sequential page thumb nails, but not too many. Don’t want to give away the  story.

Here are some quick sketches I’ve done of some zombies. To help keep the Dark New World zombie comic book fresh and new, I decided to sketch out a bunch of zombie faces. This way I can pick and choose which ones I want to use in the comic. I don’t just want a bunch of stereotypical bland zombies. My goal is to have over 50 different zombies already designed for the comic when I start penciling the sequential pages.

I’ve been looking at people to get ideas for the different looking zombies. I’ll be at the mall or the gas station, making sure to look at the characteristics of all the different people. So basically I’ve been people watching and re-imaging them as zombies.

I’ve tried to make them retain some of the human characteristics, but still bring the horror I feel when I think of zombies. With some rotting flesh, biting jaws and dead eyes. I’ll be posting more of my zombie sketches in the weeks to come.

- Ralph Contreras