The Inevitable Zombie Apocalypse

Zombies are a powerful symbol of existential horror but they’re also good for a few laughs now and then. I’ve posted a few zombie comics in the past (check the Whimsy category if you want to catch up) but it’s been a while, so here are a few I’ve found amusing in the relatively recent past. Enjoy, and be sure to share any favorites of your own in the comments. (P.S. Anyone know the original author of that comic above? I can’t quite read it on the file).

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When the zombies come, what weapons will you take up against them? Many of us in the US have the benefit of easy access to some relatively heavy firepower, thanks to the Second Amendment and our nation’s love affair with guns. But what of the civilized world at large, or those few parts of the US that make owning a gun a chore? And more to the point, what happens when even the most gun-happy survivalist, who might wield an arsenal that would make your typical third-world insurgent group jealous, runs low on ammo?

These are the questions that prompted New Yorker Roger Ma to write The Zombie Combat Manual, a complete guide to hand-to-hand combat with the living dead. In the course of its 300 pages, he covers just about every angle on facing the undead with everything from pole arms to ice picks, including advice on weapon selection, exercise and armor. Ma took some time to answer some questions about the book, his inspirations and what he’d choose to stop the zombie hordes. And at the end of the interview, you can read how to win your very own copy of the The Zombie Combat Manual, courtesy of Roger Ma and the Inevitable Zombie Apocalypse.

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There is nothing creepier than a zombie kid. Humans are wired to feel protective toward the little ones, and when you subvert that by making the little bastards into flesh-hungry freaks, it’s just extra unsettling. Similarly, twist it a little more and it becomes funny, maybe even a little cute again — but still fucking creepy. Considering the prevalence of undead tykes in the zombie film mythos, it’s obviously a favorite trope of filmmakers everywhere. It’s also a favorite of mine, perhaps paradoxically since I am a parent, or maybe that’s why I love them so much. Here are ten of my favorite zombie tots from the movies. May you never wake up and have one of them looming over your bed.
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These days, the Romero-inspired vision of flesh-eating zombies is so ingrained as the de facto blueprint for the living dead that it’s hard to remember that anything of substance came before. Yet before he came along and changed the game forever with the now-classic 1968 feature Night of the Living Dead, zombies already had a rich, 35+ year history at the movies. Admittedly, most of those films were, to put it mildly, forgettable. There are a few worthwhile films to be found in the first three and half decades of zombiedom, though. Here’s a guide to five of them that are worth the time to track down, in order from least worthwhile to most.

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Is this a zombie movie?

I saw The Crazies this weekend. I liked it pretty well. It wasn’t a zombie movie. It did contain some very zombie-movie like themes and ideas, and the infected were somewhat zombie-like, but it wasn’t a zombie movie. Director Breck Eisner does a good job of explaining why in this interview. Here’s the key point, for my money:

They don’t lose their personalities and persona completely. It just lets loose this monster within and it does it differently with each person. That’s what makes it different from a zombie movie.

Now, arguably the same could be said about certain Romero works, especially Day of the Dead and Land of the Dead, but even in those movies, the creatures were zombie first (eat the flesh of the living above all else), remaining persona second. The Crazies had some of its infected do nothing more than just mill about aimlessly, while others actively sought revenge on those they perceived to have wronged them. Some worked as a team, some drove cars — does that sound very zombie-like to you? Compare that to other “infected” movies that, to me at least, are zombie movies, such as 28 Days Later. The infected in 28DL act like zombies — they seek out and attack the uninfected. They have lost all vestige of their previous personality, mind or soul. They can’t open a door, much less drive a car or operate a firearm. That’s a zombie.

Time will tell whether Eisner’s The Crazies is considered a zombie movie or not, despite his explanations and intentions. Ultimately, it’s the film’s audience and history that decides how a film is classified (never forget, Romero never considered his creatures zombies until audiences classified them as such and he went with it!). And that definition can be fairly arbitrary. For reference, here’s a look at five movies that utilize zombie-like ideas and creatures, yet alter the zombie mythos in fundamental ways. Some are considered zombie films, some are not.

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2009 was a great year for zombie fans, with releases like Pontypool, Dead Snow and Zombieland at the movies, Left 4 Dead 2 in games and lots of other great stuff. 2010 has the potential to be even better. To get you up to speed on the year to come, I’ve compiled a list of ten of the most exciting zombie projects I expect to see in the coming year. Note that I only included things that I think have a solid chance of being released in 2010, so things like Zombieland 2 or The 4th Reich haven’t been included, as cool as they might be. Without further ado, I present my top ten picks for cool zombie shit coming in 2010. Make sure ot vote in the poll or leave me a comment with your thoughts!

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It doesn't get any better than this

There’s never been a better time for zombies — or, more to the point, for fans of zombies.

Everywhere you look, the zombie is making its mark. Not only do fans have a deep and varied back catalogue of great works to choose from, most of it easily available to anyone with the interest and a decent Internet connection, but the walking dead are the subject of of some of the best books, movies, video games and Internet sites being made. We are, at this very moment, living in the midst of the zombie renaissance.

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Zombie are well represented in nearly every medium, from film to the written word, comics to video games, and now, in the case of We’re Alive, there’s even an excellent zombie audio drama.

“When I was growing up, even as soon as kindergarten or first grade, I listened to old-time radio shows,” admits series co-creator Shane Salk. “When I was around first grade an uncle of mine sent me cassettes of Gunsmoke. I loved them so much that got more and more of them. There’s a place for this again. Everyone drives around, they all have iPods and whatever.”
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I’ve decided to ask a few of my favorite horror bloggers and friends from the online community to share some of their zombie expertise with the site. The first guy I thought of was Jay Clarke, of the excellent blog The Horror Section. Over there, Jay blogs about everything from VHS box covers to the latest releases to horror games. He’s an excellent writer with an encyclopedic knowledge of horror. And he loves zombies, maybe almost as much as I do. He’s contributed a dream-team list of half a dozen zombie-killing badasses he’d want to team up with in case of apocalypse, and it is a fine list. Not all the heroes in the group above made it, obviously — you’ll have to click through to read who did, and why. Without further ado, here’s Jay.

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Ghost zombies? Zombie ghosts? It's all very confusing...

Zombie or ghost: It should be simple. If it has a body, it’s a zombie. If it doesn’t, it’s a ghost. Or to put it another way, a soulless, living dead body is a zombie, while a disembodied spirit is a ghost. But no, filmmakers have to go and make it all confusing and ambiguous — usually in terrible, terrible films.

I can’t say for sure that’s a result of mixing/confusing the two very different undead creatures, but I will say this: chances are good if you don’t know quite what kind of movie you are making, it is going to suck. And if you aren’t really sure what kind of creature your movie features, then almost by definition you aren’t real sure what kind of movie you’re making, right? Here’s a look at a few of the movies that blur the line, in an effort to sort out whether we’re looking at a ghost-like zombie, a zombie-like ghost or some genuine hybrid.

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