The SMILE Tapes

Warning: Spoilers ahead

What are The SMILE Tapes?

The SMILE Tapes is an analog horror series created by Patorikku. The series tell the story of an epidemic of an exterrestrial fungus that came to Earth during the extinction of the dinosaurs. No one has touched the fungus until at least the early to mid 1990s when people used it as a drug. When they use this fungal drug, they start to have psychedelic visions and eventually have delusions with an agonizing smile on their faces. These delusions will cause the people turn into violent zombies and they will kill everyone and everything else in their path.

Meanwhile, scientists receive contact from unknown extraterrestrial beings nearby as they investigate the fungus. The fungus would be officially dubbed Abaliomundo Risus (The Jester). As the death count rises and chances of hope for a cure grows slimmer, the extraterrestrial beings arrive on Earth to clean up any evidence of the fungus and the disease that it brings, therefore ending the series.

Why do you admire The SMILE Tapes?

For a long time, I never really cared for zombie-related media such as World War Z or The Walking Dead. However, that changed when I saw The SMILE Tapes. Ever since I saw the series, I always wondered what would it be like surviving a dangerous epidemic in which zombies bear a facial gesture that we sometimes pull off whenever we express joy and laughter. Then, a few months ago, I saw this fan creation here below.

That was when I decided to make a story that heavily borrows the elements from the series. I had a webcomic going on in which Manson and his short and beefy friend Diablo go on wild (and sometimes dirty) adventures but I wanted something more full of horrors, thrills, and intense action like what I saw in The SMILE Tapes. A teaser poster I made is seen here below, too.

Moris Plahagia is the current big project that is currently a WIP, but thus far I combined the Marilyn Manson elements such as egoism, anarcho-nihilism, and resentment to the United States government with the elements of delusions of grandeur and survival in The SMILE Tapes. Will this comic be controversial? I assume so. Manson is a morally grey character who fights for the justice of those who are suffering, but isn't afraid to also call them worthless. Also, the disease that turns people to zombies in the story isn't a fungus with three mutant variants, but a virus with four mutant variants. Isn't it cool what an analog horror could do to help me make a big comic project that is in the works?