An important aspect of many comics lies in the suspension of the reader’s disbelief. The vast majority of comics utilize fantasy aspects and a variety of storytelling tropes to help enrich the story. But if a comic falls off that foundation, the reader can be jarred out of the story and much of the comic’s enjoyment falls apart as a result. Nor is this only something that happens to new writers; even an established cartoonist can stumble and the resulting dissonance can leave fans wondering what the hell happened.

Fred Gallagher’s Megatokyo has done just that with the recent zombie infection of the ‘Zilla that magical girl Sonoda Yuki was using to fight a zombie army. There are a number of tropes that exist with zombie stories, and Gallagher seemed to be utilizing many of Dan O’Bannon (of Return of the Living Dead) tricks of the trade with the zombie army that Sonoda Yuki and Largo had been fighting (including the fact that fire doesn’t hurt them very well, along with the fact the zombies are smart). Unfortunately, the mixture of genres (giant monsters and zombies) has resulted in a story that is suffering dissonance as the zombies infect the ‘Zilla and zombify it.

Okay. I can buy that a zombie bite can turn someone into a zombie. But in the same comic where the zombies are chomping away at the ‘Zilla’s ankles, the ‘Zilla takes a direct tank round to the chest without going down. Obviously the skin of a ‘Zilla is able to handle such things as high-explosive rounds. How the blazes would a zombie’s teeth, which might penetrate an inch if lucky, be able to penetrate the ‘Zilla’s skin and reach its bloodstream? Maybe if the ‘Zilla had eaten some zombies, it might sicken then. But as it lies now? The comic has jumped the ‘Zilla and I’m left shaking my head and hoping for a change of venue.