Posted By John Sears on May 31, 2014

The Wil Wheaton Project, a new variety/entertainment review program on the SyFy Channel, recently debuted and in that debut included its take on what a Zany, 80s-style theme song would be for the grisly and highly offensive TV program ‘The Walking Dead’.

The song/video does an admirable job exposing the wanton and casual cruelty of The Walking Dead, I think, but because of said explicit cruelty and the many, many spoilers contained in the video, you should watch with caution.

Category: Zombie Media | No Comments »
Tags: Robert Kirkman, Social Justice, Television

Posted By John Sears on May 24, 2014

Hello Zombie Rights Allies! The semester is over for your ZRC President and it’s time to get back to some serious fighting for Undead Equality.

And what do you know, but the Pentagon (yes, THAT Pentagon) is giving us some particular heartburn this week:

Washington (CNN) — Never fear the night of the living dead — the Pentagon has got you covered.
From responses to natural disasters to a catastrophic attack on the homeland, the U.S. military has a plan of action ready to go if either incident occurs.
It has also devised an elaborate plan should a zombie apocalypse befall the country, according to a Defense Department document obtained by CNN.

Now, the CNN piece makes it clear that this is not an actual contingency plan the US military thinks it will have to use in the event of an, ahem, ‘Zombie Apocalypse’. In fact, the military brass readily admit that Undead Americans pose no actual threat…

They just feel that it is ok to use them as the fictional antagonists in a training scenario. Because it’s politically okay to exploit the Differently Animated, even though everyone actually knows no attack is forthcoming:

“Training examples for plans must accommodate the political fallout that occurs if the general public mistakenly believes that a fictional training scenario is actually a real plan,” the document says.

This is a sad reflection of our national political reality, friends. Our military trainers know Zombies are not a threat, know that what they’re ‘preparing’ for is a non-issue, and most likely know how hurtful these stereotypes are to the Undead, and yet, they continue.

Because there’s no appreciable political cost.

Well, with your help, we just might be able to do something about that.

Category: Zombie Media, ZRC News | No Comments »
Tags:

Posted By John Sears on April 5, 2014

Hello out there, Zombies and Zombie Allies! Apologies for the relative dearth of content the last few months; it’s the end of my second year in the school of the law and there are midterms to take, finals to study for, and my law-related job is training me to handle actual clients and their cases.

So far, no Zombie clients per se. Bit of a letdown there.

Other than that, we’ve been biding our time. The art director got a new day job recently, learning the ins-and-outs of a different kind of activism with a firm here in Madison. We also took a trip back to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, which H.P. Lovecraft had previously indicated might be home to lost, ‘deformed’, possibly Undead humans.

We didn’t see any, alas.

Speaking of known Anti-Zombie author H.P. Lovecraft, we’re making a trip to New England this summer to get a better feel for the man’s work. As is fairly-well known, Lovecraft was the author of ‘Herbert West, Re-Animator’, which was made into a classic but tragically Anti-Zombie film.

However, H.P. Lovecraft wrote many other stories dealing, mostly unkindly, with the Undead in one form or another. ‘The Case of Charles Dexter Ward’ involves extensive necromancy, for example, and serious Undead labor rights violations. ‘Cool Air’ is a more sympathetic take on Undeath, perhaps; ‘In the Vault’, ‘Pickman’s Model’ and ‘The Thing on the Doorstep’ also feature the Differently Animated in one form or another.

So the ZRC will be hitting the Massachusetts area to get a feel for the plight of the Lovecraftian Undead. We encourage any in the area to contact us; we’d love to network a little.

As for longer-term and larger-scale plans this year, as previously announced, the ZRC will be going to The Diabolique International (Formerly Dark Carnival) Film Festival this fall, and undoubtedly making a trip to Nightmare on Chicago Street around Halloween.

We may work in a convention during the summer, and I have some projects to get underway once the school season is out.

In the meantime, keep using our resource page and speaking out for Zombie Equality and the Differently Animated! After all, you, dear readers, are the real, if not necessarily beating, heart of this movement.

Category: ZRC News | No Comments »
Tags: Books, Public Appearance

Posted By John Sears on February 24, 2014

Yes, you read that correctly; the makers of foamy toy weapons that have endeared themselves to generations of young people (including myself, at one time) have decided to jump into the lucrative market of catering to those afraid of Zombies.

In the process, of course, they help to indoctrinate the next generation against the Undead. Observe:

You’ll be the ultimate zombie hunter with the Crossfire Bow blaster! Load one of your powerful Zombie Strike darts and draw the string back so you’re locked and loaded when a zombie crosses your path. Take your shot with a quick pull of the trigger and load another dart! Get ready to bring down the zombies one by one with the Crossfire Bow blaster!

This latest affront to our shared humanity has The Walking Dead’s odious influence all over it. I don’t think Hasbro is making NERF crossbows to cater to fans of Resident Evil 2.

(Yes, it had a crossbow in it. No Norman Reedus though).

It’s so sad to see capitalism misused this way. What about toys for the Zombie Children? Won’t somebody think of them?

Shame on you, Hasbro.

Category: Zombie Media | No Comments »
Tags: Anti-Zombie Products, Robert Kirkman

Posted By John Sears on February 24, 2014

As the seemingly endless winter here in Madison comes to a close, ever-so-gradually, the ZRC staff are pondering outdoor projects. Gardening. Putting up a bat house (we’re Bat Friendly too!). Going after invasive weeds.

Others, it seems, are busy preparing for the end of the world, and at least some internet wags think that might come from, yes, Zombies:

If you fear a nuclear war (or even just the future), then you probably think of a few backup plans for emergencies to protect yourself and your loved ones. You may not have the money to build an all-out zombie fortress, but if you have less than $40k on hand, you’re in luck.

The actual product in question seems to be geared more toward a nuclear war, chemical spill, or sudden, complete, inexplicable collapse of the fabric of human society, than a ‘Zombie Apocalypse’ per se.

The nexus between the survivalist community and casual Anti-Zombiism has been well documented on this blog the last few years, however. Anti-Zombie ammunition, targets, bladed weapons of all stripes… fear sells, apparently.

Still, the ZRC encourages you to skip the doomsday shelter and get to know your zombie neighbor.

Who knows? Maybe they’ll even help you put up a bat house or something.

Category: Zombie Media | No Comments »
Tags: Social Justice

Posted By John Sears on February 1, 2014

The Zombie Rights Campaign will be making our annual pilgrimage back to Southern Indiana this year for a trip to the Dark Carnival Film Festival!

Well, not quite; they’ve had an upgrade and a name change. Now it’s the ‘Diabolique’ Film Festival. But we still anticipate a slate of engaging and challenging, occasionally heartwarming (if your hearts warm; we do not judge) films on the topic of the Differently Animated and other ‘monsters’ rejected by our callous society.

Plus they’re really cool about how we picket them almost every year.

So the Zombie Rights Campaign will be in Bloomington, Indiana September 19th and 20th of 2014 to agitate for Undead Equality! We hope to see you there.

Category: Zombie Media, ZRC News | No Comments »
Tags: Movies, Public Appearance, The Dark Carnival

Posted By John Sears on February 1, 2014

I highlighted this on twitter, but it’s worth repeating just how young some of the Differently Animated exploited by our TV nemeses at The Walking Dead are.

That poor little exploited Zombie girl. We hope that, as she ages into an adult Zombie (assuming she does, in fact, age; not all Zombies do) she isn’t paralyzed by guilt over this sad event in her acting career.

It’s not your fault, little Zombie Girl. It’s not your fault.

Category: Zombie Media | No Comments »
Tags: Robert Kirkman, Television

Posted By John Sears on February 1, 2014

I have started the second semester of my second year at law school, and am busy learning things to advance the cause of Zombie Rights (I hope). I have taken all my required Constitutional Law classes, which are of obvious import, but everything could have implications for the Differently Animated, at least to my so-far-relatively-inexperienced legal mind.

Contracts? Sure. Zombies should be able to sign those.

Business Organizations? Why shouldn’t Zombies own businesses?

Property? Zombies could use land of their own. It would do a lot to counter the ‘invading the lonely farmhouse’ stereotype if said farmhouse belonged to a Zombie family in fee simple.

See what I did there, dropping legal jargon like ‘fee simple’, which you can all go google for. I’m a legit law student, yo.

It has made it hard to keep things up on the blog, but the settling in period is just about over, and we’re thinking about summer conventions already. The ZRC is taking a couple of not strictly Zombie related trips this year, to Kentucky in March and out to the Northeast in May, and we’re going to see if we can work some ZRC events or research into those journeys.

(For an example, the ZRC would like to consider the impact of H.P. Lovecraft on American Anti-Zombiism in depth, and a trip to Providence would be very useful in that regard)

We may try to rope ZRC research pal Andrew Leal into writing a few pieces for the blog to highbrow it up around here too. With his fancy humanities degrees and such.

We’re also looking forward to new creative efforts by Zombie Friendly Author Michelle Hartz, and will promote those on the blog so long as they continue to meet our exacting standards (which we anticipate, of course).

Category: Zombie Media, ZRC News | No Comments »
Tags: Academia, Books, Zombie Art, Zombie Fiction, Zombie Products

Posted By John Sears on January 9, 2014

It is a well-known fact among Zombie Rights Activists, though not in the general population, that Zombies of all stripes are generally capable of learning, even if they are (temporarily, we hope) impaired by the death-Undeath transition.

It has been a staple of George Romero’s work for decades; John Russo agreed, in Return of the Living Dead.

But amongst the public, it is widely and erroneously assumed that a: Zombies are ‘dumb’, and b: Zombies cannot get smarter.

So it’s a bit heartening to see someone else who has become aware of even the highly-distorted view of reality presented by the media.

It’s a pity that this does not necessarily make people question their dislike of Zombies, though. Case in point, this comic from Ctrl+Alt+Delete.

The ZRC has gone out on a limb to defend Zombie pornography, so we are hardly in a position to disclaim Zombie strippers. Nor would we want to. So mocking Zombie strippers isn’t exactly Zombie Friendly.

Still, spreading the word that Zombies can learn means it isn’t all bad.

Category: Zombie Media | No Comments »
Tags: Comics, Movies, Romero, Social Justice, Videogames

Posted By John Sears on January 9, 2014

A fascinating infographic was forwarded to us recently by ZRC pal and Zombie Friendly Author (or perhaps, with the move into audiobooks, Auteur) Michelle Hartz (PHZ).

The economic implications are particularly interesting from the ZRC perspective. If these figures are correct, bashing Zombies is a billion dollar plus annual industry. That is quite the juggernaut to overcome.

But we believe the movement, or perhaps, The Movement, can do it. All of us. Together.

Category: Zombie Media | No Comments »
Tags: Anti-Zombie Products