Scooby Doo Zombie Tee

Over at Threadless, you can find this awesome take on Scooby Doo (in the time of the zombie apocalypse). Dibs.

List of Zombie/Undead-Related Video Games

Thank you Wikipedia:

This is a selected list of video games with an undead theme, containing games featuring undead as the central theme or a major theme. Subjects for an undead theme may include zombies, vampires or ghosts. It also covers werewolves which can be portrayed as allies of the undead.

Doghouse: The Trailer

From Film School Rejects:

Doghouse is the new film from Jake West (Evil Aliens) and is about a group of guy friends who take a road trip to help one of their own get over his ex. They end up in a town where the women outnumber the men three to one and the ratio keeps growing… because the ladies are killing and eating the dudes. Yes yes, sounds vaguely reminiscent of LVK, but judging by the new trailer Doghouse isn’t going to shy away from the red stuff.

Only One of the Truest Things CNN Has Ever Reported

Romero to Pen His First Novel

I won't say that George A. Romero single-handedly created the zombie film genre, but he is widely regarded as the father of it. What he did was take what was ostensibly a throwaway movie trope and turn it collectively into a viable force in the horror genre. Today there is a certain canonical zombie archetype, which can ultimately be traced to Romero, and that is why it's impressive that he's writing a novel about it.


Here is what The Guardian UK had to say about the project:

"There is no one more qualified to write a zombie novel," said Mellor, who pointed to the success of the films Shaun of the Dead, I Am Legend and 28 Days Later, and the runaway bestselling book Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, as proof that the genre "has legs". "You just have to look on the internet and around the world at the enthusiasm with which Romero, and zombies, are greeted, to see that there's a huge amount of potential for these books," she said. The Living Dead will be published in July next year.

The problem is, and I'm just being honest, by writing this novel, Romero is ultimately not playing to his strengths. He's not the best writer, and it's his visual style that defines him most successfully. If he can manage to translate the gritty, gory, paranoid claustrophobia of his films intact in the novel, then it may be hugely successful. Let's hope that's what happens.

[Cult director George A Romero to pen zombie foundation myth]
[George Romero to Write his Definitive Guide to Zombies]

Victorian Undead

I just saw over at io9.com some hype for Victorian Undead, a comic premiering next month that features Sherlock Holmes and his erstwhile compadre Dr. Watson during the zombie apocalypse.

It seems like an awesome steampunk-meets-zombies collaboration, and I, for one, look forward to seeing it. The comic hits stores November 18.

[Wildstorm]
io9.com]
[img source: shootforthehead]

'28 Days Later' in One Minute

I know that one minute re-enactments of less-than-decade old films may seem a bit too high school drama-y and quite overly nostalgic, but that sort of sums up America, I think. The above vid is '28 Days Later' in one minute - if you couldn't or didn't read the post title - and the below vid is 'Kill Bill, Parts 1 AND 2' in under a minute. If you enjoyed these brief productions, head over to College Humor to watch them again. Apparently, they'll make money if you watch them enough times.

Zombies: A Record of the Year Infection

Zombies are a pet fancy of mine (did I just say that? I think I did), and so in my quest for all things zombie, I run across items just outside the mainstream. Zombie fandom, I think, is like the punk rock of horror, though I could totally be mistaken about that. It makes sense in this context, though: people into zombies tend to go to drastic lengths to get their love of the undead out of their systems.

To hell with mohawks; mohawks haven't been punk rock since 1978. Try walking around Sunset Blvd holding a rare steak, with fake blood pouring down the front of your shirt, just for SNGs. That's something people actually do (see zombie walks.

Another thing people do is create art and fiction to illustrate a love for the walking dead. Some of it hits the bestseller lists - see Max Brooks - but most of it does not. But the DIY spirit of the whole thing is commendable, and when I find something that's different, if not *gasp* good, then I get the same kind of rush I got in high school, when I picked up a band no one else had heard of.

So, I present Zombies: A Record of the Year Infection. I found out about it over at io9.com, so I'm not exactly the Hernando De Soto of zombie swag, but this is pretty low-profile. Here's some more info:

ombies: A Record of the Year of Infection, actually written by Don Roff and illustrated by Chris Lane, purports to be the account of Dr. Robert Twombly, a physician who was working in a hospital during the first wave of the zombie outbreak. In addition to chronicling his weeks of improbably survival, Twombly also tries to understand the zombies, keeping careful records of their decay, behavior, and abilities, while trying to figure out what caused the outbreak in the first place.

A Diary of the Zombie Outbreak

'Survival of the Dead' Sneak Peek

Here is a sneak peek at the new George A. Romero movie, Survival of the Dead, about humans surviving off the coast of North America post-zombie-apocalypse. It's not anything particularly novel, especially from the man who basically invented the zombie sub-genre of horror, but it may be enjoyable nonetheless. The Hollywood Reporter has an interesting review of it posted online:

George A. Romero's latest zombie fest, "Survival of the Dead," is a polished, fast-moving, entertaining picture whose mainstream success will depend on audiences' tolerance of its tendency to become an abattoir of extreme carnage.

'Polished' and 'fast-moving' are not adjectives generally associated with Romero's zombie flicks. Romero usually treats these flicks with an old-school style of slow burn, building the tension to a mad crescendo, but, alas, times have changed. After the release of a somewhat disappointing bit of social commentary masked in blood and guts called 'Land of the Dead', he bounced back with an entertaining, smallish production in 'Diary of the Dead' (which I enjoyed enormously). Let's hope that 'Survival' is one of the fittest of his post-'Day' apocalyptic visions (I couldn't help myself with the pun).

Rotten Comic

'Rotten' is a new zombie-phile comic set in the Old West, from creators Mark Rahner, Robert Horton, and Dan Dougherty. Don't fret, though, if you don't want to get behind, because issue # 3 only came out a few days ago. There's even a sample opening page of the comic on the web site, if you're unsure whether or not a Wild West-era zombie story is exactly in your wheel house.

I read on the site that comic book shops are having trouble keeping the book in stock, because it's selling out fairly quickly, so if you're in dire need of reading it and can't find it, you can order it directly from the publisher, MoonStone Books.

Linnea Quigley's Zombie Workout - Today's WTF

If you're a zombie aficionado, you may remember Linnea Quigley from Return of the Living Dead, and - I guess - to capitalize on that, there's a video of her working some undead mother-effers into shape. A zombie workout video. I've almost seen everything now.

It's weird, awkwardly bad, and I wouldn't recommend you watch it if it weren't so strange. I found it on a list of the 20 strangest zombie videos over at ninetythrees.com, so you may want to wander over there and see what else the weird world of the undead has to offer.

Last Blood: Graphic Novel

Last Blood is a B&W graphic novel about the zombie apocalypse. Hold on. It's also about vampires protecting the last of the humans from said other undead menace, and it's free online. The team working on it also uploads a new page every Saturday, so once you catch up, it won't take much effort to stay afloat with it. It seemed to have started in 2006, so you do the math.

The first scene involves a zombie breaking through his watery grave and attacking some bikini-clad girls on the beach, and then it cuts to a time later to fill in backstory. It's not bad, and it's free, so I can't complain too much. Zombies are my faves, obviously, and even adding vampires into the mix doesn't really bum me out THAT much.

The author, Bobby Crosby, also includes commentary below each page - at least I think that's who provides the commentary - but if you don't scroll down, you don't really see it, so it doesn't really matter. 'Last Blood' Definitely has a 'Walking Dead' vibe to it, but it's earnest and sort of in the DIY low-budget spirit, so I thought I would include it on the blog. Enjoy.

How to Loot Properly in the Zombie Apocalypse

Zombie Research has posted a way for people who want to survive the Zombie Apocalypse to loot effectively. Otherwise, you might end up being someone's snack, rather than taking someone's snack. Apocalypse Dan gives invaluable advice.

To start, Dan suggests avoiding the obvious spots like Walmart, CostCo, and other mega-super food warehouses. Though they might seem like a looter’s paradise - with tons of food, conveniences, solid walls, and controlled entrances – every panicked, trigger-happy moron within a fifty mile radius will be thinking the same thing.

'Dead Rising 2' Trailer

I didn't even play the first 'Dead Rising' - sadly, I have a PS3 and not an XBox - but this game looks crazy. It doesn't have any actual gameplay, I don't think, but it does have a lot of what I do like: zombies doing zombie shit. So there's that.

'Generation Dead' - Daniel Waters

Normally I don't comment on books until I'm done with them, but I'm bored and don't feel like writing 'fiction', so here goes. Furthermore, I'm only a measly seventy pages from finishing the book, so I feel justified in talking about [some of] it.

Generation Dead has a charming readability to it that I'll credit to Daniel Waters's prose style, which is fluid and somewhat witty, and it does tackle its main theme - social acceptance - quite deftly, so for that it gets a round of applause from me.

I cannot fault the preachiness it exudes, either, because it is YA fiction, and the entire medium has had a history of making everything so bloody melodramatic. I feel British today. The entire novel revolves around how silly people can be in not accepting others as 'human', even if those people are dead and not necessarily 'human'. Okay, let me clarify that thought. The entire conceit of the book seems, to me, to be that, if it seems sort of silly to discredit the undead solely based on whether they breathe or not, then isn't it silly to discredit others for other lifestyles? I can already hear how it would be taught in eighth grade classrooms everywhere.

If you took the words for undead - zombie, differently biotic, etc. - and changed the people from zombies to, let's say, gays, blacks, or middle easterners, then the message remains the same. Which, I guess, doesn't speak well of how the book is constructed. I can say, however, that there are some good zombie-ish moments in there, even if the book isn't drenched in gore and Romero mythology. Overall, it does present some very good points about humanity as a whole and what things actually divide us into our little cabals.

The problem is that it gets too muddled in what I'll call its 'Twilightishness'. SPOILER ALERT: [One of] The main characters falls halfway in love with a zombie, but their love/like situation isn't as transformational or transcendent as it is in Stephanie Meyer's books. It is marred by a type of discouraging real-ness not often found in these kinds of novels, and the main character, Phoebe, rides the fence through the latter third of the book, at a point when she should have either been totally in love or her passive prejudice should have shone through a little more clearly. Instead, we get a half-and-half working of Phoebe and Tommy Williams' relationship...and that's about as far as I've gotten.

Now, Generation Dead is more brain than brawn/lust, so approach with caution. There are a few "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" moments in there, so be prepared to see the soapbox come out and be prominent onstage. Other than that, it's a fairly quick, engaging read. And it has zomb, er, differently biotic people.

Pride & Prejudice & Zombies: Update

I just read on BoingBoing that you can read the first three chapters of P&P&Z online for free.

Burn, Zombie, Burn! Review [Not My Own!]

Now, I'm not intentionally looking for zombie content to bombard you with - well, okay, maybe a little I am - but it just seems to be popping up everywhere I look. Which, I guess, if video game sites are where I'm looking, then that's to be expected. Zombies have almost always been present in video games - Ghouls N Ghosts, Zombies At My Neighbors, Resident Evil - and on gaming sites, and so it should be natural to expect them now to pop up on the downloadable content areas of the newest consoles.

I saw the review for a simple little game called Burn, Zombie, Burn, which is about as sophisticated as last year's game, oh, what was it called? The one that's just like this one on the Playstation Network. Oh well, it's sort of like a dollar-store version of Dead Rising. There. That does it. Click here to read the Escapist Magazine Review.

Pride & Prejudice & Zombies

Zombies are one of the things Yahtzee over at Zero Punctuation says nerds should shut the fuck up about, and yet, here we, are in the Age of Aquarius of the Undead. Zombies are as least as popular now as whale tails were a couple of years ago.

Zombies are getting their moment in the ashen, nuclear-winter, apocalyptic sun, and not a moment too soon. Beyond popular video game series - which are still, sadly, considered the realm of the nerd - and movies, now there are books. Yes, books. It didn't quite start with Max Brooks's Zombie Survival Guide, but that book provided the final bridge to coolness and acceptability in the written realm.

Ditto on the not a moment too soon stuff, either. There was only so much Romero fanfic to go around.

Well, now, the latest in the series is the reworking of the late-Romantic period Jane Austen novel into a book replete with the undead. If there has ever been a more awkward mash-up - other than Bruce Willis and Puff Daddy at that awards event a couple of years back - then I haven't seen it. I can't wait for this homage, not-homage to come out on April 9, and you should be stoked too. According to Bam Kapow!, the book was even featured on NPR. Wow.

'Evil' Political Cartoon

I want anybody who patronizes this site to go and visit the web comic I saw today over at This Historic Times. It's totally worth it, and if you don't get the reference...[shrugs]

Left 4 Dead Gameplay - Zombie Attack!