The Inevitable Zombie Apocalypse

I know I’ve mentioned my admiration and appreciation for the work of Eric Weiss’s Zombie! project here once or twice (hint: the second most recent Fashion Zombie was from Weiss’s collection!). Seems other people are getting the message, too — Weiss’s Zombie! project is the subject of a nice little story from AMP magazine.

Not only do you get a cool little Q&A about the band/project and its origins, you also get a full stream of his album, a solid disc full of horror-inspired rock and roll in the vein of classic Misfits. My favorite is “Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things,” at least partially for creating a piece of art that lives up to the awesomeness of the title. Check it out, and have an awesome Halloween!

Today, our Undead Diversion is a short sketch from Canada’s all-time funniest comedy troupe. In just over two minutes, the Kids in the Hall manage to capture the essential essence of the zombie movie — the running, the inevitable standoff and the ambiguous ending that constitute the raw material of half the zombie movies ever made, boiled down to one short skit. Plus, there is a great recurring shoe gag in it. Enjoy, and happy Friday.

This would usually qualify as news, and make no mistake, it is news. But I’m posting it as an Undead Diversion for two reasons — first, there was no fucking way I could wait until the end of the day to share it with you. Second, it deserves its own post, because it is that fucking awesome.  AMC has released this five-minute behind the scenes video on The Walking Dead and it shows a lot more footage than we’ve seen before. Also, did I mention it was awesome? You’ll see some seriously gory shit, for one thing. And some nice character moments. Anyway, enough yapping, click play and enjoy.

I’m not 100 percent sure where the hell Big Shiny Robot found this, because I couldn’t find it anywhere but their site/YouTube page, but nice fucking job for finding it!

Longtime readers, or those who actually use that sidebar rotator to find cool shit to look at, may remember me posting a live clip of Kirby Krackle’s “Zombie Apocalypse” in May of 2009. Back then I wrote this about the band and song:

Kirby Krackle is the self-styled “World’s First Comic Book Rock Band,” and they have produced this lovely ukelele-driven ballad about the horrific inconveniences of the zombie apocalypse. It’s a fun, clever ditty that should appeal to anyone who’s ever spent way too much time pondering what the zombie apocalypse would look like in real life.

Well, I don’t have much to add to that except that now there is an awesome new animated video for the already awesome song (that’s it embedded above if you didn’t already figure that out). And it is your Undead Diversion of the week. Spread it far and wide — it deserves to be seen/heard.

For more info on Kirby Krackle or to buy their album, visit the band’s web site.

I enjoy boardgames. They’re cheap, they’re fun and they’re a lot more interactive a way to spend time with friends and family that watching a movie (yes, even a zombie movie). That’s why I’m pleased to bring you Dead of Night, a free, downloadable zombie board game, as this week’s Undead Diversion.

Designed by Simon Spearing, Dead of Night is a game for up to six people (four is the recommended number) that more or less turns Night of the Living Dead into a game. As mentioned, it is free, but it will probably cost you a few dollars worth of printing supplies to print out the rules, tokens and other necessities (or it will cost your employer a few dollars worth of printing supplies…). Sound fun? Continue through to get the rest of the info, including where to download it.

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A while back, I posted my very first guest post. It was a dream-team list of zombie-killing badasses, contributed to the site by Jay Clarke of The Horror Section. It was awesome and if you haven’t read it yet, click that link back there and get on it. We’ll wait.

Back? Great. That brings us to today’s Undead Diversion. See, no such list can be definitive. There are pros and cons to each member, everyone has their own way of approaching problems and, most importantly, among 50,000 zombie movies, games and books, there’s a lot of options to be utilized. Besides, it’s fun to read other lists, right? Thus I was quite pleased to stumble across another fine zombie apocalypse dream team list recently, and I’d like to share it with you. It’s by Justin Robinson of The Satellite Show and I knew it was worth my time before I finished the first blurb. Have a look:

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Where I come from, people love to hunt. Deer, elk, duck — whatever. If it flies, runs and/or can be cooked or stuffed, it’s fair game. And having grown up in this culture, I couldn’t help but appreciate today’s video, where we follow an intrepid zombie hunter on the track of a wily “zomber.” The narration, the after-kill photos — it just rang true to many a hunting video I’ve seen.

The video itself is a commercial of sorts for the Zombie Blood energy potion and zombie jerky of Harcos Laboratories. The commercial aspect is pretty light — there’s no outright shilling for the product, so even if you hate commercials, you can still enjoy the zombie hunting goodness within.

What’s cute, gory and another way to blow your money on Etsy? This guy! Lately I seem to be finding all sorts of cute-and-cuddly zombie shit — must be something in the air. Anyway, when I heard about a zombie crafter (that’s a crafter who makes zombie stuff, not an undead person who crafts) right here in my hometown of Denver, I knew she’d be this week’s Undead Diversion.

Her name is Corinne Buchholz and she goes by the moniker of mischiefmaker on Etsy and she makes lots of non-zombie stuff, too. But hey, we’re here to talk zombies, damn it. This handsome, bloody chap goers by the name Benny and will set you back $35. She’s got another zombie pal named Melvin, who you cna see after the break, that’s $30. Not bad, considering their hand made. And when it comes to introducing the offspring to the world of the undead at a tender age, is price really an object?

Undead Diversion is your Friday afternoon cool link/video/etc. to help you transition to the weekend.

[Via Examiner.com]

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This week’s cool thing is the LiveDead campaign. If I’m not mistaken, it’s a viral advertising campaign for the upcoming AMC TV series The Walking Dead. Besides the use of the images, there’s also the use of the term “walkers” to describe the zombies, which the series is also using. If I am mistaken, expect the people behind LiveDead to receive a cease-and-desist from AMC damn soon, because those are clearly images of zombies from the series all over their page.

Yep, seen this guy before...

I caught wind of it from this blog from io9 from Comic Con. Apparently you could get the bracelets you see above there for $1! Unfortunately, the LiveDead site seems to be purely decorative — none of the links work, you can’t go the “store,” etc. Bummer. But maybe AMC (if they are, indeed, behind it) will make it go live as the series gets closer? I hope so. I want a LiveDead bracelet to go with my DeadStrong one. Are you listening AMC? I will give you real American dollars for one of those bracelets!

Undead Diversion is your Friday afternoon cool link/video/etc. to help you transition to the weekend.

Happy Friday, all. Today’s undead diversion is the first episode of a promising new webseries called Matt and Wes vs. the Zombie Apocalypse. It’s got hipsters, zombies, a deep and nuanced discussion of what makes a zombie, lots of blood and some great jokes. I’m quite taken with it and can’t wait for the continuation. It also works beautifully as a stand alone zombie skit, so don’t hesitate to hit play even if you aren’t up for the “commitment” of watching a new webseries, or are worried you’ll get into it only to have it die a premature death (with no subsequent undead revival, of course).

Undead Diversion is your Friday afternoon cool link/video/etc. to help you transition to the weekend.