Well Waxer, Tim, and R1-K4 have run into and united with another group of survivors. Both of them are hoping to find some sort of glimmer of hope that they will find the grand community of Pandem. Upon finally discovering directions leading to the safe haven, the survivors realize that hope is within their grasp. We also got to see a piece of Waxer's past during the Clone Wars which brings in some controversy of what the future (or to fit into context), and what the past holds for Waxer. Not only that, we also got to see some pretty gory moments in Dead Among the Living that we haven't seen in past episode. We'll get into more detail, here on...

TALKING STAR WARS

 At the beginning of the episode, we find Waxer, Tim Rolando, and the astromech droid R1-K4 venturing in the Rurlian sector hoping to find Pandem. In the original draft of the story, the name of the chapter was actually going to be entitled: "Might As Well Quit". Near the start of the chapter the three were to stumble upon a survivor who committed suicide, with a sign beside him explaining why he killed himself. 

As you can see in the picture, the body in the far left corner is the scene that was going to be introduced in at least one shot of the episode. The reason Zen deleted this scene from the cut was because the sign was written in English, and if this were the star war universe it would have been written in Basic. I spoke to Zen about the sign pertaining to Pandem at the very end of the episode, and he told me that it took everything in him to continue on with this shot because of the fact that it was inaccurately written in English, but at that point, it would take at least two weeks to get the episode back in order and as all photonovelists know: time is a valuable luxury that comes short very often. 

Next the three survivors run into another band of sentient individuals. "Creating the characters for this series is always fun," Zen told me, "I take inspiration for the new characters strictly from zombie apocalypse characters." For example, 

  Beedo Lokee, the Mimbanel accountant introduced in this recent episode was created and inspired based off of Abraham Ford from AMC's The Walking Dead. Knowing this, it actually makes since in the design of the character, mainly because of the facial hair as you can see in the photo. However, upon Beedo's first appearance, we don't really see a gruff, military leader that we see in Walking Dead. Maybe in future episodes the character development will increase??? 

Both of the groups deciding to unite in finding Pandem. Then we get some back story about the new team of survivors. The next day after camping in a creepy cabin, the group stumbles upon the sign leading to Pandem (The same one that nearly drove Dead Among the Living writer, Zen Utaru mad.). Not long after, a group of the undead comes in and we get to see one of the survivors get torn apart. I was greatly impressed with how realistic it was with the blood running black, and the skin getting torn off the man's poor face. I spoke to Zen about how he pulled that scene off. Zen told me he bought two of the same action figure, one he would use as the living, breathing version, and the other he would use when he gets eaten alive. Zen proceeded to fillet pieces of the victim's face so that we got to see the impressive scene of the human getting his face pulled apart. Then Zen simply poured his own blood formula wherever the victim was bit or cut. The result was the bloodiest moment in photo novel history, and I hope we see more of it. 

Next, we get a glimpse of Waxer's past. The moment we got to see was when Waxer and Boil comforted the young Twi'lek girl, Numa. Now as sentimental of a scene as it was, it causes a lot of controversy. In the Clone Wars television series, Waxer is actually killed. 

                                         

Here is one of the first appearances of Waxer in Star Wars the Clone Wars...

 Here is the sad moment when Waxer is killed in action. This is before the end of the Clone War, and Dead Among the Living takes place during the establishment of the Galactic Senate. At this point, Waxer is long gone IF he died. So there are two possibilities, 1: Zen considers the Clone Wars to be noncanon, which would be strange because not only is the Clone Wars canon, it also causes more confusion for clone Commando Gregor, who appeared in the Clone Wars show, as well as Zen's photo novel. Possibility number 2: There is something concealed in Waxer's past. Maybe he didn't die, maybe he survived. If he did, then Zen will have something that could explain not only Waxer's survival but also Gregor who survived the explosion we all saw in Star Wars The Clone Wars.

"Nothing goes unnoticed in my photo novel series," Zen hinted to me when I asked him about Gregor several episodes ago, "not ever."

What does Zen have planned? We'll find out in future episodes. As always, may the Force be with you.