Posted By John Sears on September 6, 2010

Well, that was a satisfying 3 days of activism indeed.

Our last day in the Vendor area went quite well, and I’m happy to report that we sold completely out of Zombie Strong wristbands. That’s a ‘nice problem to have’, as they say on Metalocalypse. We’re going to put in a new order, eh, probably this week, and we’re thinking of doing another series of wristbands as well, since people love them so much.

We did cut short the sales and outreach portion of our weekend a bit so that we could go see Dr. Cancer and the SKAmbies, who actually took the time to stop by our place before the show. A productive dialogue was had, and I’ll talk extensively about the band in an upcoming post.

After the concert it was sadly time to go home, as the convention was over. All in all, the ZRC had a fantastic time! We enlightened some anime loving geeks about Zombies, which is very good preventative medicine for when the despicable and morally repugnant spectacle called Highschool of the Dead comes to our shores. In fact, we overheard people at the convention discussing the shallow blood and breast-a-thon at the show, so we arrived on the scene just in time. I shudder to think of the damage this televised sadism will inflict on the Zombie public image once it’s out on DVD in Region 1.

And so, hearts light and cashbox heavy, the ZRC departed from the convention center. In all likelihood we will return next year, ready to beat back prejudice against Zombies once more from the throngs of geeks, nerds and otaku.

Now, onward, to the Resident Evil protest this Friday!

Category: Zombie Media, ZRC News | No Comments »
Tags: Anime or Manga, Public Appearance

Posted By John Sears on September 4, 2010

First of all, I finally got around to verifying the proper spelling of the con, and it’s apparently Geek.kon. I’ve seen it other ways on other forms, and for some reason had fallen into the habit of writing it as “Geek-Kon”

If this has caused immense personal hardship to anyone I deeply apologize.

So, how did Day 2 go? Pretty well, overall. We did some spiffing up for the booth, hanging our mighty ZRC banner high above the table for all to see. We had a number of intriguing conversations with people and were confronted with very different questions and a very different set of biases and levels of Zombie knowledge than the ZRC gets at, say, a horror convention or a film festival. It’s shocking just how little the average American ‘geek’, as it were, knows about Zombies outside of America, even just the stereotyped violence and aggression found in foreign films. Truly, for the American pop culture, Romero is king of a demented realm of hate, to the exclusion of all others.

Thus you have a different set of challenges at a geeky convention. First, one has to broaden the horizons about the basic, widely varying nature of Zombies; their widely differing origins, the cultural backgrounds at play. Voodoo Zombies have their own unique set of issues, as I discussed with one convention-goer in some depth. Often when it comes to Voodoo Zombies you’re dealing with economic matters; hours of labor, monetary compensation, working conditions. Yet, to an average anime-loving Joe or Jane, they apply not just a stereotype about Zombies, but about the wrong SORT of Zombies, and assume that a Zombie raised from the dead by black magic is hungering for their brains.

Sometimes you have to deal with these problems in stages, advancing from the categorically wrong prejudice to the applicable, but factually inaccurate prejudice, and then from there on to Enlightenment.

All in all we’ve learned a great deal here at the ZRC. In some ways we’re a year early to Geek.kon; next year it looks like the odious Highschool of the Dead will be a big hit, and Zombies and anime will intersect in a big way in America for the first time. The ZRC will be ready though, having learned the ropes of an anime con the hard way early, and sharpened our rhetorical and merchandising skills in preparation, thanks to Geek.kon.

Category: ZRC News | No Comments »
Tags: Anime or Manga, Public Appearance, Romero, Social Justice

Posted By John Sears on September 4, 2010

The first day of Geek-Kon was a big success, and we had a number of positive conversations and some great outreach to members of the Madisonian geek community. Today’s schedule is a hectic one – we’re getting started at our booth a bit late so I can hit Staples for some sign-making supplies, because tonight we need to protest a Left 4 Dead Tournament being held at the convention.

Also, I forgot my toolbox somewhere and have to go pick it up, as it has the staplegun. Oopsie.

Come on out after, say, 11 am or so and get your Zombie Rights on, boys and girls!

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

Posted By John Sears on September 4, 2010

Here at the ZRC we of course encourage people to encourage Zombies to participate more fully in public activities. So this IMMD post about a citizen being delighted to see Zombies at a vegetarian restaurant is in part a heartening one.

Yet here the author still indulges in Zombie stereotyping. Never seen a vegetarian Zombie before? Fair enough, I suppose, but it shouldn’t be so surprising. Zombies are people too, and some people, a small subset, are vegetarians. This stems fairly obviously, I think, from the ‘Zombies are brain-munchers’ stereotyping, and that’s a shame.

Still, whoever this IMMD poster is, they seem to have overcome the negative feelings inspired by the stereotype even as they can’t completely process it out, and welcome Zombies into the public sphere. That’s something at least. It’s a bittersweet thought though, that as Zombies become more accepted and mainstream, such events will inevitably cease being exceptional, and hence, perhaps cease making peoples’ days.

Category: Zombie Media | No Comments »
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Posted By John Sears on September 3, 2010

Come visit The Zombie Rights Campaign booth at Geek-Kon; we’re located in the Vendor’s Room, since there’s no room for civil rights lobbies per se. Plus we will have stuff to sell! Lurch for the Cure shirts, wrist-bands and the like, so on and so forth.

This convention we will also have a semi-limited supply of Atomic Age Cinema TV 2: Electric Boogaloo, the critically acclaimed second feature in the AACTV ongoing series. You can pick up your copy, free with any donation to the Lynn Sage Cancer Research Foundation. Absolutely free, just drop some money in the bowl… or whatever collection device we come up with.

All this plus Zombie Activism and more fun, starting Friday!

So come on out to Geek-Kon at the Marriot West in Middleton, aka Madison’s west side, and see Zombie Rights in action.

Category: Zombie Media, ZRC News | No Comments »
Tags: Public Appearance, Social Justice

Posted By John Sears on September 2, 2010

Details below the cut, but a short version: from a Zombie Rights perspective, atrocious, insulting, disturbing. From a gaming perspective, limited, brief, at times frustrating, more of the same.

Even if you hate Zombies and love videogames where you kill them (for some disturbed reason) there’s no particular reason to do it in this one.

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Category: Zombie Media | No Comments »
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Posted By John Sears on August 31, 2010

Or maybe it’s ‘Case 0′, like in the title screen? Whatever.

Ok, so the ZRC played the Dead Rising 2 prologue for a few hours this evening over dinner (a lovely ricotta and parmesean stuffed tortellini with a simple marinara sauce, thanks for asking). First impressions follow:

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Category: Zombie Media | No Comments »
Tags: Videogames

Posted By John Sears on August 31, 2010

Here’s something we can all enjoy, before the ZRC has to begin its videogame odyssey into the veritable Heart of Darkness that is Capcom’s media empire, first with Dead Rising 2: Case Zero, then Resident Evil: Afterlife, the full game, and who knows what other horrors yet to come: a lighthearted youtube video about accepting Zombies, for the good of America.

Yes, America. Watch this short film to learn why hating Zombies is, in fact, akin to hating the very United States itself.

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

Posted By John Sears on August 31, 2010

A very important ZRC Expose on Dead Rising 2 and Fake Zombie Advocates below the cut.

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Category: Zombie Media, ZRC News | 5 Comments »
Tags: Movies, Public Appearance, Social Justice, Videogames, Zombie Products

Posted By John Sears on August 31, 2010

As of this morning, my Xbox informs me, you can download the prologue to upcoming Zombie-bashing megahit Dead Rising 2. Not that I’m suggesting that you SHOULD, of course. It’s just something that all Zombies and Zombie allies need to be aware of.

The Zombie Rights Campaign has bitten the bullet on this issue and as we speak, having handed good American money over to the morally dubious folks at Capcom (via their partners in crime on Case Zero at the Xbox Live Marketplace, vendors of many an anti-Zombie product). The outrageously large download (824 megs) is streaming onto our hard drive as I write this entry, and soon you will have a first-hand account of the horrors of this sequel to a game that should never have seen the light of day to begin with. The moral outrages and indifference to Undead Rights will be fully catalogued, and rest assured, exposed for all the world to see by your dedicated Zombie Rights staffers here at the ZRC.

The Zombie Rights Campaign: We see, and play, these terrible things so that you don’t have to. So that you can keep your hands… clean.

Category: Zombie Media | No Comments »
Tags: Videogames