Results tagged “zombies”

A few weeks ago, I got into a little discussion with my friends on Twitter (@bantamspectra) about the differences between paranormal romance and urban fantasy. The results (which were posted here on Suvudu), I thought, were pretty interesting.

But this got me thinking a little more about the genre. Or, more specifically, the state of the genre.

As we wind up 2009, one of the big pushes we’ve been noticing throughout the industry is, well, zombies. With what started off as a rather interesting foray into a quietly untapped topic with Max Brooks’ brilliant World War Z quickly exploded with the surprise New York Times bestseller, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. From there, we were basically off to the races.

In case you missed it, George Romero, the father of the modern zombie movie, was the guest of honor on Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me…, NPR’s humorous weekly news quiz show. Here’s the way this game works, for those who are unfamiliar: George is interviewed for the audience and then he’s asked three questions on a subject or topic completely unrelated to their perceived expertise, so in this case George Romero, Mr. Zombie, gets three questions about Disney.

But wait! There are some great tidbits about George and his career contained in the interview. And the game portion isn’t that bad either. For instance, apparently Romero never explicitly called his monsters “zombies” in Night of the Living Dead, it was the press coverage that started calling them such. It’s neat little things like that. You’ll hear a lot about George’s early career and his thoughts on his zombies versus the new zombie trend. Give it a listen, I think you’ll be entertained.

From NPR’s Site:

In honor of Halloween we’re talking zombies with legendary movie director George Romero — how to recognize them, how to defend against them, and—since this is Public Radio—how to try to reason with them, and come to mutual understanding and respect.

Romero is the man behind Dawn of the Dead and Night of the Living Dead. He’s made a career out of zombies and exploding brains and dismemberment, so we’ve invited him to play a gamed called “Bippity-boppityBRAAAAAINS!” Three questions about nice, cuddly Disney movies.

Source: NPR.org, Director George Romero Plays ‘Not My Job’

As it is zombie week it would be wrong if someone didn’t take the time to mention what has become the biggest event in the comic book world this year. DC Comics huge Green Lantern crossover mega event Blackest Night is dominating the comic book sales charts each month. Written by Geoff Johns and pencilled by Ivan Reis, the eight issue series is crossing over into all of the monthly Green Lantern titles as well as many of DC’s other core monthly books.
Just what is Blackest Night, and what does it have to do with zombies? Watch the video below for a little teaser and then jump to learn more about the series and find out how you can download a free copy of the Free Comic Book day Blackest Night issue 0 (cover to the left).

Zombie week continues at Suvudu and Random House. I love watching those Max Brooks zombies gnawing away at the Suvudu logo above, don’t you? So cool.

Joe Schreiber has posted some great photos from the amazing turnouts he got while on his author tour for his haunted house novel No Doors, No Windows and his New York Times bestseller Star Wars: Death Troopers. See the widget below for a clip from the audio book. Finally, ForceCast has a great Podcast featuring a review of the book and interview with Joe up on their site.

[Fan made poster for NEW MOON; credit: Clog]

The LA Times has a lengthy article about the recent proliferation of the supernatural in media today (featuring our very own DavidM!) and we thought this would be the perfect opportunity for another poll. We promise it won’t hurt. Okay, fine. Only as much as the soft flutter of an angel’s wings against your cheek.

It’s very fitting that ZOMBIE WEEK (see them gnawing away above?) begins on the same day that we announce the winner of the Star Wars: Death Troopers Fan Video Trailer Contest. I don’t think anyone was surprised that 5ive By 5ive Studios took home the Grand Prize. Everything just worked brilliantly in this video (above), from the miniatures to the standing sets, and the participation of Eddie Dennis and his mocked up zombiefied armor just sealed the deal. Brilliant work. theNonchalantNod will receive a prize package that includes a signed copy of the book from Joe Schreiber as well as a library of Star Wars books. Our four runners up also created fun and exciting videos that we loved. They will also receive signed copies of Star Wars: Death Troopers. Thank you to everyone who participated, either by creating a video or voting for one. It was a fantastic experience and a lot of fun. Joe Schreiber summed it up best, “Every single one of these videos was a dose of zombified fan brilliance. But 5ive by 5ive’s contribution was simply next level — I can’t tell you how many people came up to me while I was on tour and told me that trailer was the first way they got interested in the book. In a word — magic.”

The Force was with all of you.

In other Zombie news, our friends at the Star Wars official fan site have posted a great (and spoiler heavy) interview Bonnie Burton conducted with Joe Schreiber. It’s a great read. Check it out here. And whatever you do, do not click on the blood splatters found throughout the interview. You’ve been warned!

Finally, it’s not zombie related, but there are still plenty of tasty guts to look at (and taste!). Our good friend, and amazing Star Wars artist, Chris Trevas was married a few weeks ago. There were Stormtrooper ushers and the usual geek accents on hand, but what is quickly making its way through the InterWebs these days is the brilliant grooms cake that Courtney Clark from Cake Nouveau made. Hmmm….all I can think is 1) I hope I meet a cool lady who would let me have a tauntaun guts cake at our wedding and 2) I want the piece with the most guts please!

Congratulations to Chris and Julie! The Force will be with you, always.

Just about a week ago we asked you to submit your questions to Max Brooks for a chance to see them answered here on our site (in addition to a signed Recorded Attacks graphic novel). Well, Max selected a few at random and has answered them below. Thanks to everyone who wrote in! And now, we beg you to pay close attention to what Max has to say. Some of this might just save your life.

My son is in Iraq and I’m talking to him on Instant Message and asked him to give me a question for the contest…. he won’t stop LOL. He is a great fan of the zombie world and pointed out …. there’s a story about a girl shooting 15 zombies with changing a mag in a 15 shot m-1 and the last was her husband. The M-1 has an 8 round clip. Maybe that makes sense to you?

Yes it does. The U.S. Army M1 GARAND rifle has an 8 round clip. The U.S. Army M1 CARBINE has a 15 round clip. Sorry if I didn’t explain that better in the book. There are more than one of those confusing points in “The Zombie Survival Guide”. Don’t get me started on the use a crossbow!

Who is your favorite author:

My wife, Michelle Kholos. She’s a playwright and a novelist. Her skill at dissecting human weakness astounds me as does her ability to keep me interested in stories that have neither monsters or flame throwers. She writes about real people in real situations with a mix of humor and sadness that I couldn’t even hope to compete with. I’m constantly in awe of her talent with words.

World War Z was amazing, especially for someone who is a history buff like me. How much research did you do for the book and how did you do it?

I probably did more homework for this book than I did in 4 years of college. Simple book learning was one half of the process. I always joked that if the FBI ever raided my office, it would have looked like a terror cell (books on weapons, maps, military journals, etc.) The other half was speaking to friends of mine who actually have real jobs (doctors, journalists, military personnel, even one friend who ‘works for Uncle Sam’.)

What inspires you the most in your work:

Writing what I want to read. I have no idea what’s going to be commercially successful. If I did, I’d probably still be back on Saturday Night Live. I seem to only be good at writing about subjects that deeply interest me. I’ve always said that if “The Zombie Survival Guide” had already been written, I would have bought a copy and gone on with my life.

For your next book or graphic novel, are you planning on creating a new zombie story or are you looking to tackle other genres?

Right now I’m working on a comic book mini-series for “G.I. Joe.” I also have a graphic novel in the works that has nothing to do with zombies, or anything else supernatural, but, at least to me is just as frightening.

Thanks for your interest in this sweepstakes! Unfortunately this sweepstakes has expired. Keep your eyes peeled around here for more chances to win rising from our ashes, though!

At Comic Con, we had a raffle for signed, limited edition lithographs from Max Brooks’ Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks and some early signed galleys of The Werewolf’s Guide to Life. We’re thrilled to announce the winners today! Congratulations to all our winners:

We had such a tremendous response that we’d like to give away even more stuff to Suvudu readers!

So we’re going to be giving away ten Prize Packs, each containing:

• a signed limited edition lithograph from Max Brooks’ upcoming graphic novel, Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks (info here)
• a signed copy of The Werewolf’s Guide to Life.

And one lucky Grand Prize Winner will receive the following:

• two signed lithographs
• a signed edition of The Zombie Survival Guide (info here)
• a signed edition of World War Z (info here)
• a signed edition of Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks (info here)
• a signed edition of The Werewolf’s Guide to Life (info here)!

Wow, right?!

To enter, email us with your name and mailing address and we’ll enter you into the sweepstakes! But you only have until October 4th—the next full moon—to enter…for obvious reasons.

Be sure to read the legal for additional rules and whatnot: Zombies and Werewolves and Artwork - Oh My! Official Rules

And just in case you need some help explaining what may happen when the shining light comes, check out this video:

When I returned home from the San Diego Comic Con I took a quick look through the daily editions of the Seattle Times newspaper that had accrued, to get reacquainted with what I had missed while being gone. I keep up as best I can on world and local affairs, but am truly partial to the Life section where the articles and discussions on books, music and local cultural events are placed.

As I flipped through, I stopped on a very cool article. It was about the libraries of our area and what people were mostly checking out. Seattle is a bookie city, and its libraries are some of the best used—and loved—in the country. The article writer did a bit of research and posted the top-five books in Fiction and Non-Fiction people were checking out and how many holds were in place.

It was really neat to see what people were reading—new books by Janet Evanovich, Lisa See, Carlos Ruiz Zafon, James Rollins, Malcolm Gladwell and several others.

One shocked me though, mostly for its cover.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith.

Yes, it is the classic Regency romance—now with ultra violent zombie mayhem!

Since Seattle holds the Guinness World Record for largest zombie walk in the world at 4200+ stumbling, brain-eating dead, I read a bit deeper into Pride and Prejudice and Zombies to learn exactly what it is.

And if you haven’t done so, do so. Sounds awesome!

Then imagine my surprise yesterday when Del Rey announced this!

Max Brooks was a hot ticket item at this year’s Comic-Con. It seems like every other person who visited our area wanted to know something about Max and his books. Was he attending Comic-Con? Was he signing? Where was he signing? When was his new book coming out? Did we know about the movie? Would there be an unabridged full-cast audio edition of World War Z? Those were just a few of the questions we got many times over during the days of the Con.

Well, Max took some time out of his very busy Con schedule to speak to us about the forthcoming graphic novel, The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks (due out on October 6, check it out here) as well as zombie preparedness in general, before asking for a wake-up call at the highest levels of leadership.

Max is always a fun time. Here’s what he had to say.

Zombies are HUGE. The roaming hoards are shuffling through Comic-Con and across everyone’s bookshelves. One of the most talked about authors in our booths this year has been S.G. Browne, author of Breathers, which spins a slightly different take on the idea of a Zombie. What’s his take? That zombies are human, too. Kinda. There’s really no better way to explain the book than to listen to the author. So if you’re looking for a humorous horrific take on Zombies and zombie rights, then you need to check out S.G. Browne.

S.G. took some time out from his busy schedule to talk to us about his book and the other goings on and here is what he said:

What is the book and why should we run out to buy it?

Zombies are everywhere. They’re in our movies, in books (where they’ve even begun eating their way into classic public domain literature), in our Comic-Con wishlists, and now they’re attempting to hitch a ride cross-country.

Or, they’re at least looking to nosh some cross-country traveler’s brains.

Well, we’re not going to let that happen…to at least one of you. And that one person is: Bobby M. Congratulations, Bobby! We’ve shipped you the audio editions of Max Brooks’ Zombie Survival Guide (to help you survive any zombie-infested trip) and World War Z, a star-studded full-cast audio treatment that will serve as a reminder of why zombie preparedness is so important. It’s also fun for Halloween and camping trips!

But don’t let that dissuade you from making a trip. We asked everyone to list three household items that they would bring on a trip to prepare them for crossing paths with hordes of the undead. Your answers ranged from deadly (a .357 with hollow points), to menacing (gardening equipment), to practical (Neosporin), to insane (a rubber duckie).

We’ve run through your items and broken them down by household category, making it easier to pack in case you have to leave in a hurry. We want each and every one of you to make it to Comic-Con this year as alive as possible. With that in mind, your recommended household items are as follows:

Really? Ten days? I had to do a double-take this morning when the calendar alert began popping up on my computer, but it’s true. In ten days, the world’s largest comics, science fiction, fantasy, and gaming culture convention will open it’s doors and take in a population base larger than the town I grew up in. And this year, I’ll be one of those in the swarm.

But before the plane touches down in San Diego and I am awash in the thousands upon thousands of other fans like me, I’m going to take these 10 days of lead up to look at one element of the Con each day. Some of them are big events and others are smaller item things of which you might never have heard. But they all come together to make up, at least in part, the whole of Comic-Con.

Blah, blah, blah.

Let’s talk about exclusives, shall we? Oh I know, Shawn Speakman already wrote a great post about his top Exclusives for this year’s Comic-Con and, just today, Geek Dad over on Wired.com posted their top Exclusives list. Those are both great lists and you should use them to guide you in your buying frenzy. So I’m not going to do a Best Exclusives list. I’m going to do a list of the stuff that makes you feel good inside. The things you know you’ll have to get just because, well, just because. These may never garner a freakishly high collector’s value (or, then again, by their very nature, they might), but who cares? That’s not why we grab them. Not when you’re dealing with things on…

My Quirkiest Comic-Con Exclusives List

Smilin’ Luke Skywalker

Star Wars: Smiling Luke Skywalker Action Figure

From the Comic-Con website:

“It was LUKE SKYWALKER’S boyhood dream to one day pilot an X-WING STARFIGHTER for the REBEL ALLIANCE - and when that day came, he was all smiles. Hasbro is offering a 3-3/4-inch “SMILING LUKE” action figure exclusively at Comic-Con 2009! Includes ladder and pilot helmet.”

The greatest Jedi ever? Perhaps, but we now know this much, if smiles could kill, then Luke’s cheesy grin would be lethal. He’s the happiest Sith-killer this side of the galaxy. Golly. And, he comes with a ladder! You know what, I don’t even care where the design came from, the longer I look at it, the more I want one. I could put him at my desk and mount the slide on some of the Star Wars books and…well, you get the idea.

“Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” -Benjamin Franklin, Nov. 13, 1789 (from a letter to Jean-Baptiste Leroy)

Credit Benjamin Franklin for attempting to warn us about the zombie threat. As with anything else Franklin-ian, you have to read between the lines a bit: if death is a certainty, then rising from the grave to nosh on noggins is soon to follow. If only we’d listened sooner, perhaps we would be rid of the walking undead by now. Of course, Franklin could have been a little clearer on the matter. That would have helped too.

And that’s where Max Brooks steps in. Max has dedicated himself to speaking plainly about the zombie menace and preparing us to deal with their attacks. So, with so many of us preparing to make the arduous journey to San Diego for Comic-Con International, we here at Suvudu felt it was our duty to keep you safe. At least one of you, anyway. But the rest of you will be well prepared!

We’re giving away a Max Brooks prize bundle containing the audio editions of World War Z and The Zombie Survival Guide to some lucky contest entrant who will be picked at random. To enter, you need email us your answer to the question below:

What household items (limit of 3) would you pack to be ready for zombie encounters on your road trip to Comic-Con?
Please note that this contest has expired. Thank you!

When we announce the winner, we’ll also list the items that everyone mentioned they’d be packing; that way the rest of you have a fighting chance. You have until July 3 to enter, so get emailing! As always, you should read over the official rules carefully.

Good luck! And, if you want a taste of the books on offer, you can sample them below:

Watched Resident Evil: Extinction for the first time last night. I grew up on the Resident Evil games, and first two films - while different - both proved to be competent. My thoughts about Resident Evil: Extinction? It’s differenter and competenter. I utterly love how it’s not a slavish recreation of the games, instead cherry picking characters and ideas from the game’s mythos and spinning an original narrative that stands alone.

Also, it wasn’t a bad thing having Milla Jovovich parade around the whole thing dressed up as post-apocalyptic cowgirl. Not a bad thing at all.

Of course, more than anything - and I’m spoiling the ending here - the film’s conclusion is easily the best ending ever. An army of Milla Jovoviches fighting zombies in Tokyo? Sequel, please!

Have you heard of bookthesequel.com? No? Well, it’s awesome.

Perseus Books will be creating a book - from beginning to end — at BookExpo America (May 28-31) this year. This book is “Book: The Sequel” and will be designed, edited, published, promoted, and sold live from BEA’s show floor. That’s awesome. And what’s even awesomer (I know “awesomer” isn’t a word) is the plot of Book: The Sequel. The book will be a collection of the first sentences of made-up sequels to famous books. And what’s even awesomer still (again, I know it’s not a word), is that you can submit your own sentences to be considered for the project.

Sentences can be submitted at bookthesequel.com until May 28. My contribution?

“Brains!” - The Great Gatsby II: The Zombie Years.

You have to love some of the little oddities that you find along your surfings on the web. This is one such item and it involves a small project by one of my favorite storytellers as he warmed up for a new project.

This is a Neil Gamain short story brought to life by Gahan Wilson. As Gaiman writes on his blog concerning this very video, this was a writing exercise that he undertook on his way to writing The Graveyard Book. It found it’s way into a story collection of the same name edited by Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly, and now animated by Gahan Wilson.

Hot dog there’ve been some talented hands all over this story!

And as if all of that wasn’t enough, check this out: this little bit of animation comes via The New Yorker (of all places). Just saying that makes me feel all kinds of intellectual and somewhat swarthy. We’re breaking new ground here. Well, actually, maybe they’re doing that over at the New Yorker as well. Regardless, this is a really well-done web video and everyone involved deserves a pat on the back.

The story involves a group of kids who’s get together is crashed by the undead*, who teach them all manner of new and fantastic games. Also, there’s a little jazz involved.

Check it out below:

“Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth and the Zombies sprang forth from the roiling foam of creation, barking in uncontrollable rage, hungry for human flesh to eat and pestork (…)”

Who doesn’t remember the above passage from? Perhaps you were in your religious-oriented daycare of choice, the sun shone through the windows illuminating the glossy wooden floor of your classroom, and the story of the Earth’s creation and the first zombie horde, as read by a kindly [fill in your religion and/or denomination of choice] educator, filled your ears.

Well, okay, perhaps it didn’t go down like that. In fact, I’m sure that it didn’t, as that particular bible hadn’t been created yet. But it is now, and you can help. Over the past few months we’ve seen public domain books get a zombie workover, such as the immensely successful and now-published Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Now, it’s the Bible’s turn.

The Zombie Bible is being compiled Wiki-style by viewers like you. Of course, you’re free to just pop on by and read it as well. But a word of warning, while I haven’t found any pictures on the site, you should be advised that some of the material isn’t exactly safe for work*.

After the jump, you’ll find a few samples of what can be found on the site. If you’re interested, I encourage you to hop on over and have a look.

As I’ve said in the past, I’m not a zombie fan. I have problems with them. Namely, the scare me stupid and not in a fun way. Zombies break that cardinal rule in my book, when something is dead, it stays dead, inanimate, finished. It does not being to get back up and hunt you down with a mindless fury.

You can mutate, you can be cybernetically enhanced, you can graft yourself to another species, you can be cursed or transformed, fine, whatever, cast all the spells you want, but you do not rise from the dead to eat my thinking cap. It’s rude and nasty and wrong.

Now, I’m being a little hypocritical here as a couple of my favorite movies involve zombies or zombie-like infected folks, and I previously recommended a pretty kickin’ webcomic about Zombie Hunters.

And here I am about to break my own viewing habits again to bring you a new breed of zombie hunter. We’ve seen svelt zombie merchants of re-death, we’ve had cartoon zombie exterminators, and now we have one with a plush matte exterior and cuddly red nose. When you need someone willing to dive deeper than Fraggle Rock and into the bowels of hell, you need Agent Redfield…

It’s been a helluva year for horror movies. I count more than 32 horror movies I saw in the theater this year — not bad for a genre that gets no attention. But before we count down the best of the best, let’s take a look at some hot trends this year:

• Movies based on beloved books: Box office was mixed, but it was a great year if you loved faithful book-to-film transformations including Let the Right One In, Red, The Ruins, Blindness, and of course, Twilight.


• Zombies: From a box office perspective, zombies didn’t burn up the box office, but that didn’t stop plenty of films from using them, such as The Signal, Diary of the Dead, and Otto (or Up With Dead People). And while the folks in Quarantine aren’t technically zombies, let’s face it — it’s a zombie flick.


• Remakes: On the other hand, with a ton of remakes this year, all did fairly well at the box office except one (sorry, Funny Games). But still — moviegoers who hated subtitles were treated to remakes of The Eye, One Missed Call, Mirrors, Funny Games, and Quarantine. And this trend ain’t going anywhere — 3 remakes will arrive in the first six weeks of 2009.


• Hand-Held Documentary Style: Many people hate to see ‘em, but 2 of the 3 this year were box office hits, so don’t expect them to go away. Cloverfield was a smash, and Quarantine hit pretty big too. Only Diary of the Dead didn’t take off.

meat-trained [meet·trānd], verb: the action of dumping a horror movie into a handful of obscure second-run theaters to fulfill a contractual obligation. i.e., Did you see Rogue? It was sweet. Too bad it got meat-trained.

But enough of that. Now onto the top 10 horror movies of the year, starting with #10.

#10. The Strangers

Writer/director Bryan Bertino instantly made himself a talent to watch with this creepy, genuinely scary debut. While the ad campaign and an unnecessary opening-movie crawl removed some of the suspense, it still had audiences screaming, particularly in the first half. A refreshing lack of score did a great job of making you feel you were there, in the house, waiting for the strangers to make their next move. Rumor has it Bertino is already on board for a Strangers sequel, but we’re more eager to see his next original creation, Alone.

The top 9 films after the jump.