The Comic Tear's

[Rissole25]

Hey guys, I just wanted share these similarities between the tears in the comic pages. Not sure if many of you know about them, but I wanted to get your thoughts on them.

There are 9 maps that seem to share tears with each other, the rest don't. These 9 maps include:

• Shi No Numa*
• Der Riese*
• Kino der Toten
• Shangri-La
• Moon
• Nuketown
• Die Rise
• Mob of the Dead
• Buried

*Shi No Numa and Der Riese aren't closely related to the rest, but there are still some similarities. These appear on both WaW and BO loading screens.

Here are the comic tears. I'm showing the top, bottom, left and right sides of the comics. The top and bottom have the most similarities though. I've tried making them all roughly the same size and parallel to each other.

From top to bottom: Buried, Mob of the Dead, Die Rise, Nuketown, Moon, Shangri-La, Kino der Toten, Der Riese, and Shi No Numa. I apologize for Buried's part being smaller, the similarities are still in the same areas though.

I'll start off with the bottom three (SNN, Der Riese, Kino). Between half way and three quarters of the page are three dents/rips. Der Riese's is a little abstract with the black line, but it should be noticable with SNN and Kino. These rips don't appear again till Nuketown, looking like the Kino one. Die Rise and Mob of the Dead have the same rips too.

Just before halfway, or the crease, is a dent/rip, and another to the left of it. These appear in all of them. It's easier to see them in Mob and Die Rise's, but scan up and down and you will notice similar dents as well.

Nuketown, Die Rise and Mob share a tear just before a quarter way through. It has a shadow behind it so it should be easy to appear.

From top to bottom: Shi No Numa, Der Riese, Kino der Toten, Shangri-La, Moon, Nuketown, Die Rise, Mob of the Dead, and Buried.

There are four distinct bends/rips noticable on all of them. Two on each side. One just before a quarter way through, one before halfway/crease, one just before three quarters of the way, and a small one at the end. If you're having trouble, start from the bottom (Buried) and work your upwards, it should be very noticable than.

From left to right: Buried, Mob of the Dead, Die Rise, Nuketown, Moon, Shangri-La, Kino der Toten, and Der Riese. Shi No Numa is not included because the majority of the left side is covered up.

Der Riese just made this one. It has one similarity to Kino; a small tear halfway down (above the metal object on Der Riese's).

The back page seen on Shangri-La's, Moon's and Nuketown's has a small half triangle pointing downwards just before halfway down. This is seen on a back page of Mob and Buried's.

The top quarter of this same back page also appears on Die Rise, Mob and Buried, but with what appears to a faded brown page/mark behind/around it.

About halfway, all except Der Riese and Kino seem to have a tear. Buried and Die Rise share the same tear, Shangri-La and Moon share the same tear, and Nuketown and Mob share very similar tears.

This is the same as the bottom part, except Mob and Nuketown aren't similar.

From left to right: Kino der Toten, Shangri-La, Moon, Nuketown, Die Rise, Mob of the Dead, and Buried. Shi No Numa and Der Riese are not included because the majority of the right side for both is covered up.

About halfway they all share the same tear.

At the bottom, Shangri-La, Moon, Die Rise and Buried share the small tears on a backpage.

These are just some of the similarities pointed out, but there are many more that are just to complicated to explain. Basically, different parts of different loading screens are mixed together to create new loading screens, adding or removing new tear's. Make of that what you will. Shangri-La and Kino seem to share the most qualities with most at an early glance. Most likely being a base for new loading screens, than Nuketown being the base for BO2 loading screens.

There are some points I want to bring up, that you guys might want to talk about as well.

Shared tears on Mob of the Dead

This is an important one I think needs addressing. With shared tear's, does this mean Al's Journal (well that page), is in the overall comic? Or is it another sign of Treyarch laziness?

Same page or different?

There are some examples, such as on the Left side, the back page on Shangri-La, Moon and Nuketown appearing on Die Rise, Mob and Buried but with a weird brown mark. Is this the same page on the last three? The brown marks make it appear that there is a page behind it now, as well as a couple before it (naturally as the pages turn, though comparing Nuketown's to Die Rise, it suddenly appears).

Another example is on the Right side at the bottom. Shangri-La, Moon, Die Rise and Buried seem to share a brown/orange back page. Is this the same page?

Tear's don't make sense

This one is more a statement, and just obvious. Going from one map to the next, or "turning" the page in the comic, tear's on the right page of the previous map, should now appear on the left page reversed correct? Nope. Basically the reason why this thread was made.

There are exceptions, such as new tear's as you "turn" the page (Ascension-CotD-Shangri-La, Shangri-La-Moon, Nuketown-Die Rise). This can work in reverse, such as Call of the Dead's tear hinting at Shangri-La. But there's one like that, that doesn't work. I'm talking about Die Rise's tear on the right side, that looks like a person. "Turning" to Buried, this tear is gone and does not fit Buried's left side. Is it a retcon? A story reason? Treyarch being lazy?

I guess that's it for now. Basically wanted to get your guys input and feedback on this, get the brain juices rolling on it. Is everything or some things simply put down to Treyarch's laziness, or do some or all have any merit and insight to reveal? Don't forget to take a good look again, I may have missed out on some important aspects and things to focus on that you guys may pick up or notice. :P

[InfestLithium]

Hm, never thought to look at the comic pages in that way. Good eye!

 

What you said about the dents on the top-right of the pages: they wouldn't [and couldn't] appear on the left side because each map had its own page. That being said, none of the pages are a backside to an existing page. It's more of a page which sits on another which sits on another and so on. For instance, Shangri-la's page sits on top of Call of the Dead as Moon sits on Shangri-la. This is important to see because it removes the whole Die Rise/Buried figure outline, since Buried would not have it (as it's a totally different page).

 

Let's keep this rolling, friendo. I love playing eye candy.

[Rissole25]

I think I understand what you're saying, but it doesn't make much sense realistically.

I just realised we do have a correct example of a tear showing a future map. Call of the Dead has the tear on the left, showing Ascension. But it also has a tear on the right, hinting Shangri-La. Shangri-La has this tear on the left. As if the page was turned.

Die Rise's tear does not work, because its just non-existent on Buried's, and has turned into the same tear as Nuketown's.

[Rissole25]

Bumpity bump.

117 views (just over haha) and no one wants to discuss this? I appreciate the brains but that's why I added the last part, because I wanted input/discussion, not brains.

[Cheesegrater28]

Its a really good post. I'm just not sure what to make of the comic pages. As you perfectly show, the major things like holes in pages and images of the next page rarely match. The pages Die Rise and Buried were the specific ones that made me give up trying to make sense of the comic. We had to wait two DLCs to theorize about the ripped corner image on Die Rise, and then when Buried came out, the image was obviously changed. And it wasn't a major change that transformed the image, which makes you wonder why even bother changing it in the first place. Maybe the change is intentional as a clue of something else, like alternate universes or time travel or something, but if that is the case, then why bother analysing anything in the game. Thats the same thing to me as it all being in two kids heads making it up and changing it as they go. 

 

So to me, it just seems like the comic pages are made without the detail we think goes into them. As you show, most of the pages look like they start from the same page design and the artist just makes their own changes as they go, without a preplanned goal. Thats why the rips are the same on a lot of them. Laziness. Which is a shame because we all, or at least myself, keep thinking Treyarch are geniuses and everything is intentional. This seems to be another case, as BO2 had a few of these cases, where the zombie storyline isn't as deep and clever as we think it to be.

 

I hope I'm wrong, and frequently am, so maybe there is more to it then I can understand. But as I said above, I saw very little reason for the changes in some of the pages other than just laziness. Different artists doing different pages and not haveing a clever goal in mind.

Edited May 6, 2014 by Cheesegrater28

[Rissole25]

Yeah, I differently agree with you. The Die Rise-Buried thing took a huge curveball. The tear is one thing I could maybe live with, but the changing of Buried's artwork seen in Die Rise is just a really big mistake to overlook, and it's hard thinking of a reasonable explanation for it.

And I was really surprised to see a trend starting from Shi No Numa with those tears, maybe even Verruckt, if we could see behind the photo's. Granted the tears on the WaW loading screens aren't of the comics edges, but of a piece of paper inside the comic, it still applies.

But yeah, like you said, Treyarch doesn't seem like they are putting in as much effort as we think they are, and that is very evident with BO2.

Hopefully we see an improvement with the next game. I'll come back to this when we get the next loading screen/s, see if they are largely the same as this.

[Edward Richtofen]

I would say most likely laziness and lack of forethought by treyarch. Although, if we want to stretch I'd say it could be that we are looking at separate copies of the same comic book. It's a pretty cop out answer though.

 

Good analysis on this btw, hadn't thought about using the tears to gain further insight. 

Edited May 18, 2014 by Edward Richtofen

[Z0MB13SL4Y3R115]

Do you think if we found the order of the comic pages that we would solve the timeline or will it just lead to another mystery?

[Rissole25]

I think the order is pretty much seen as the maps come along. Of course with a few exceptions but yeah. I don't think it really helps though. I mean Nacht's Loading Screen is probably the most confusing. I don't think anyone has really come with an explanation of what it, how it ties in with the story line and what it has to do with Nacht der Untoten.