I’ve been meaning to get to this review for a while now but had to let it digest a while, so to speak.

‘Zombie High Yearbook ’64′ is a very unusual piece of alternate universe fiction cleverly disguised as a primary artifact from that same parallel history; in a world where the Undead were predominantly teens and high school faculty, enough to fill a single high school, what would that school’s Unlife look like?

How better to answer this question than to produce that singularly high school artifact, the yearbook? The yearbook of ‘Zombie High’ from 1964, to be precise.

(The production values here are excellent, by the way; it even has that odd binding and textured cover that you only ever seem to see on yearbooks.)

I should be clear about something from the outset: this book is very black humor indeed. Set in a society where the Undead are forcibly segregated from the Living, given a cursory education by an ever-diminishing faculty of fellow Zombies only to be set loose into the world to face grisly bloodsport from their fellow citizens, ala ‘The Running Man’ without even the promise of a permanent tropical vacation, this is a tale of woe. But rather than wallow in that suffering, ‘Zombie High Yearbook ’64′ lets us in on the private Unlives and friendly, if of course very juvenile, jocularity and camaraderie of a group of young adult Undead trying to make the best of their existences.

It’s about as moving as any book peppered with graffiti and tawdy sex jokes doodled in the margins could hope to be.

And yet, the ZRC can’t wholeheartedly endorse ‘Zombie High’ because it tragically perpetuates a number of stereotypes even as it satirizes the larger ‘Zombie Apocalypse’ concept. Zombies in this yearbook, due in no small part I’m sure to their terrible, isolated upbringing, have great difficulty Unliving in peace with their warm-blooded counterparts. The ‘fleshbags’ keep them penned up at a school that doubles as a prison and the maladjusted Zombie teens respond by devouring their Living counterparts from rival schools given any opportunity.

For an example look no further than this promotional video for the book:

Is the ugliness organic to the situation? Probably. Is it more artistically daring to ask us to sympathize with the Undead even if they’re not as agreeable and photogenic as our own spokeschild, Zombie Tim? Again, probably. But bad behavior is still bad behavior and demands recognition as such, even within an explanatory context. The ZRC can’t condone eating rival debate teams, or a competing cheerleading squad.

Well, ok. Probably can’t condone eating the cheerleading squad; it’s a judgment call.

(A small joke, nobody get upset)

In the end we have to balance these concerns, and The Zombie Rights Campaign has decided to give a partial endorsement of ‘Zombie High Yearbook ’64′ as a result. It’s an imperfect world, even more so within the pages of the Yearbook, and we have to cope as best we can. On the whole this work encourages a sly reexamination of the ‘Zombie Apocalypse’ mythos and expertly repudiates the Separate But Equal notion for the Differently Animated (which is sometimes presented as a grudging alternative to annihilation to the ZRC and our clients).

‘Zombie High Yearbook ’64′ thusly earns a Zombie Tolerant rating from The Zombie Rights Campaign.

You can pick up your own copy of ‘Zombie High Yearbook ’64′ at, among other retailers, Amazon.com

Full Disclosure: The ZRC met Mr. Busch at an event in Chicago some time ago and had a pleasant conversation. We are also friends on Facebook. Nevertheless, I have strived to maintain our rigorous standards of impartiality with this review.

Also note: Sample photographs included for review purposes, and to show off our personal copy which I intend to have signed at some point. All rights remain that of their original creator (as always).

Tags: Books, ZRC Reviews

This entry was posted by John Sears on Friday, May 13th, 2011 at 12:28 am and is filed under Zombie Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.