Posted By John Sears on August 8, 2010

You’re reading that correctly; a theatre group in Chicago is staging a Zombie musical.

Sadly from the description it appears that this is going to be a retrograde and repressive show pushing all the usual outmoded anti-Zombie stereotypes. You know the ones I mean:

Billed as a “Musical Zom-com” (zombie comedy), Musical of the Living Dead is an original musical parody of classic zombie films and musical theatre. Featuring music inspired by everything from Gershwin to Green Day, Musical of the Living Dead follows the lives of ten very different people trapped in a farmhouse during the breakout of a zombie apocalypse. They are all brought together seeking refuge from the brain-eating zombies outside and, following classic zombie genre rules, we see who gets eaten, who comes back to eat someone else and who lives to fight another day.

Compared to this, Jonathon Coulton seems like a revolutionary thinker! I mean, at least in Re: Your Brains the Zombies can carry on a conversation.

Well, the one Zombie at least. The jerk from down the hall.

Now it appears that a gory spectacle will be staged at Zombie expense, and only a couple hours away from the ZRC World Headquarters by car.

We’re going to have to put our heads together and come up with a plan on this one; it’s hitting a little too close to home, after all.

A special thanks to the Horror Society for bringing this to our attention.

Category: Zombie Media | 1 Comment »
Tags: Music, Social Justice, Zombie Theatre

Posted By John Sears on August 7, 2010

To whom it may concern:

I am writing your company today on behalf of The Zombie Rights Campaign, the world’s premiere Zombie Advocacy organization, about one of the advertisements recently posted on Youtube for the Fiesta (which can be viewed at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iu4_F_QNqYc&feature=player_embedded). Specifically the video entitled “Zombie Survival Guide: Starting Your Car”.

This advertisement is highly, no, *extremely* offensive to the Zombie community, an often misunderstood and frequently maligned portion of humanity who are now subjected to vicious anti-Zombie stereotyping not just in books, comics, videogames and movies, but even when researching a motor vehicle purchase. How do you think this ‘humorous’ ad makes a Zombie feel? Did you give any thought at all to the plight of the Differently Animated when you concocted this hateful little piece of commercial cinema, with a Zombie literally hauled before human ‘prey’ in chains and subjected to mockery and derision? I imagine not.

Is it appropriate to use ethnic or cultural prejudice to sell cars in the first place? Would it be acceptable to do so if it was not Zombies, but perhaps some other minority community? The ZRC is truly curious what your company considers to be going over the line when selling a car, what the outer bounds of ‘good taste’ happen to be. Is it a general lack of sensitivity that motivates commercials like this, or does Ford possess a particular dislike of the Undead American?

The Zombie Rights Campaign wants you to know both that the Zombie community and its many allies are aware of your advertisement, and that we vote with our wallets, sir or madam. You have not merely lost the interest of a concerned community on the internet; you have also lost potential customers by peddling in this defamatory tripe. We hope you will review these concerns and revisit the issue before any future advertising campaigns, in the hope of reclaiming some of the ground lost today between your company and its Zombie patrons. The first step toward healing and reconciliation, however, will have to come from Ford.

Good day to you.

John J Sears
President of The Zombie Rights Campaign
www.zombierightscampaign.org

Category: Zombie Media | 7 Comments »
Tags: Social Justice

Posted By John Sears on August 7, 2010

Dead Rising 2 comes out soon, and before the main event they’re trying an interesting promotional concept: a DLC addon prequel to the main game.

You know, sort of like how a drug dealer might give you a sample to get you hooked.

Naturally the ZRC will have to purchase both; we’re mulling over how to do that, because there’s also a special edition of the game just laden with extra Zombie-bashing propaganda and tchotchkes.

Dead Rising was of course the game that had an Achievement for Zombie Genocide, so we’re expecting the worst, and will probably get it. Expect a full review of both the promotional hit off the Zombie-Bashing crackpipe and the full game shortly after it’s released (unlike a lot of review sites, the ZRC only issues opinions on material it’s had the time to fully review, so please bear with us)

Category: Zombie Media | 1 Comment »
Tags: Videogames

Posted By John Sears on August 5, 2010

So a ‘Zombie Portrait Artist’ named Rob Sacchetto has come out with a faux gossip rag reporting on celebrities as if they were Zombies, called ‘Zombiewood Weekly‘

Sadly, instead of a biting commentary on the similarities between the heartless treatment afforded Zombies and the constant harassment of some celebrities by the tabloid press, this seems to be another crass attempt to cash in on Zombie stereotypes about shambling and flesh-eating and the like.

Here at the ZRC we constantly hope, with the discovery of each new form of Zombie Media, that we will find a kindred spirit creating it, someone who seeks to advance the cause of Undead Equality and rights for the Differently Animated… so this kind of disappointment is both common for us and heartbreaking. Why, Rob, couldn’t you highlight the shared humanity of your subjects, instead of trying to sell Zombies as yet another disposable horror commodity?

Yet again, it’s the Zombies that suffer most.

Category: Zombie Media | 2 Comments »
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Posted By John Sears on August 4, 2010

Apparently the American auto giant Ford has decided to turn to the tried-and-true method of spreading hate to spur sales.

Admittedly, it’s rare that the big carmakers even acknowledge the existence of Zombies, so this Zombie-bashing ad for the new Fiesta came as a surprise.

Essentially, they’re pushing the fact that this particular car has a keyless entry fob and a push-button start on the dash (features which, it must be noted, were old hat for Toyota when the ZRC purchased its ’09 Prius). They claim that this will prevent you from being devoured alive by Zombies as you scramble for your keys outside the door, or struggle to find one to put in the ignition once inside (and there’s a Zombie in the back seat.. apparently).

I’m not sure why starting the car faster when your attacker is behind you makes you ‘safer’. It might get your car a few feet down the road, but you end up just as dead. But hey; since when is prejudice logical?

This commercial is an outrage. First of all, it is demeaning to Zombies, being paraded around as semi-feral farm animals, used to sell cars via terror. But secondly, it’s just crass pandering to some stereotypical ‘hip, young’ consumer class, which must naturally love to hate Zombies, since that’s what the kids are into these days, with their Resident Evils and their horror DVDs and what not.

The whole thing reeks of an over-the-hill relative trying to ‘relate’ to you at a party. Lame. Grow up, Ford. Your cinematic combover isn’t fooling anyone.

The offending ad is featured below:

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

Posted By John Sears on August 2, 2010

Sorry for the scant news on the Lurch auction lately; let’s get up to speed quickly, shall we?

The Zombie Rights Campaign solicited donations for a silent auction/fundraiser with proceeds to benefit the Lynn Sage Cancer Research Foundation, to be held at Famous Monsters of Filmland’s Convention in Indianapolis. We got a great response and a number of fantastic donations from horror luminaries like Lloyd Kaufman, Fred Van Lente and David Wellington, as well as a number of nifty items from Z-Rights fans or Allies like Michelle Hartz and the good folks at Atomic Age Cinema.

At the actual convention itself, we gathered signatures for a special, one of a kind (literally – we only printed one copy) poster sized version of our ‘Zombies Forever’ print (desktop wallpapers available here). Over a dozen big names from the Zombie movie world put their pen to glossy paper for a good cause, even though on any other day we might well have been picketing them, which I say shows good sportsmanship if nothing else. We then put the poster up in the auction.

Being perfectly frank, however, after the first day for whatever reason, convention attendance fell off somewhat, and the auction didn’t do quite as well as we had hoped. A few items were left, and we ran a followup ebay auction, which sold off most of the remaining fine donations. On the other hand, we continued to have items come in even through the days of the convention itself, with fellow vendors Synapse Films donating three movies to the cause, which was outstanding.

I was about to wrap it up and mail off the check when we got yet ANOTHER amazing donation to the cause last week, which gave the ZRC pause – should we extend the auction or fire off a check and save the remaining items for a future event?

First, that last item to come in. When I first fired off a quick email to Shaenon Garrity, artist behind popular webcomic Skin-Horse and the classic Narbonic series, amongst others, she responded saying she’d be happy to donate a quick sketch to the auction. However due to a miscommunication on my part the deadline for the auction was missed, and I received her artwork in the mail last week. I was expecting, as I said, a quick sketch, something quite nice but not an item for her to pour her heart and soul into.

Instead we got this amazing, positive depiction of Zombies:

(The title, which I partially cut off because I’m not great with the scanner, plus the image is delightfully large: “Zombies and Beignets, Morning”)

Utterly incredible! An extremely gratifying scene of Zombie-Living coexistence emphasizing the proud history and diversity of the American Zombie, particularly highlighting their New Orleans heritage and helping reaffirm their bond with the larger human community over the shared experience of breaking bread. Truly a heart-warming scene and a constant inspirational goal for the staff here at the Zombie Rights Campaign.

Getting this in the ZRC mailbox sincerely made my day, and the ZRC’s week, in fact. You can see why receiving this astoundingly brilliant and totally uplifting original Zombie art could give a person pause; how do you best make use of something like this? It really deserves to be framed and shown in person, not put up for some impersonal net auction, I think.

So for now, with the kind permission of Ms. Garrity, the original work you see above, “Zombies & Beignets, Morning”, will stay in the ZRC archives until our next charity fundraising event. We’ll find a good way to part with it, painful as that prospect may be.

And so, with the sale of Lurch shirts, prints, the auction, the ebay auction and some in-person sales to kind friends of Zombiekind, we can bring the first and prototypical Lurch auction to a close. The grand total is a not-too-shabby $302.20 donation to the Lynn Sage Cancer Research Foundation, on behalf of Zombies, their Allies and Living people everywhere.

Naturally I wish it could be more, but that’s always going to be the case, isn’t it? We here at the ZRC are very grateful to all our kind donatees and, yes, even the Zombie movie people who graciously signed our poster at the convention. We wish to extend our sincerest thanks, in no particular order, to:

Fred Van Lente
David Wellington
Lloyd Kaufman
Todd and Kerry Breitenstein
Wayne West
Michelle Hartz
Baron Mardi and the entire Atomic Age Cinema Cast
Judith O’Dea
George Konana
John Russo
Charles Craig
Gary Streiner
Herbert Summer
Kyra Schon
Bill Hinzman
Allan Trautman
Beverly Randolph
Tom Savini
Terry Alexander
Michael Gornick
Mark Tierno
Leonard A. Lies
Shaenon Garrity
Synapse Films
Famous Monsters of Filmland
The staff of the Wyndham West hotel in Indianapolis
All the patrons and purchasers of fine Zombie Rights wares

Thank you all for helping out a truly worthy cause, in addition to promoting equality for the Differently Animated.

–From the staff of The Zombie Rights Campaign

Category: Lurch for the Cure, ZRC News | No Comments »
Tags: Charity Auction, Social Justice

Posted By John Sears on July 31, 2010

Just a quick note that even the purveyors of fine, mostly non-sweatshop products over at Topatoco have fallen for the lure of sweet Zombie-bashing dollars from Jonathan Coulton as they are now selling a Re: Your Brains shirt.

Yeah, the blood splattered on black thing, that’s original. *rolls eyes*

As usual, shame on Jonathan Coulton.

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

Posted By John Sears on July 30, 2010

So the ‘Dean of the dead’ has graced the world with his presence once more to hold court on what further indignities and misery he can inflict upon the Differently Animated.

It’s a short interview but he still manages to dismiss both the damage he’s done and the cultural significance of Zombies, both within works foisted on the public by his followers and by the legitimate contributions to art that have been made by Zombies themselves, like Baron Mardi of Atomic Age Cinema.

Instead the interviewer seems to regard Mr. Romero as some sort of modern day oracle, posing questions about actual flesh and blood people to the man as if his word alone, by fiat, determines both the accuracy of fictional depictions and the actual nature of reality itself. “Let there be brain-eating”, he could say, and apparently it would be so.

And even the question of the modernization of Zombies is boiled down to meaningless pap as Romero is asked to choose between ‘lurching’ and ‘running’ Zombies:

Q: And where do you stand on the running vs. lurching issue?

A: Lurching. You have to shamble, man. You can’t run. In 28 Days Later, they ran, but they’re not dead. They ran in the remake of Dawn of the Dead. What did they do? Immediately join a health club? Come on. Their ankles would snap.

What a lovely image you conjure there, Mr. Anti-Zombie bigot.

Uggh.

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

Posted By John Sears on July 30, 2010

I really should have mentioned this at the time, but in my fervor for the new Atomic Age movie I neglected to mention the kind editorial and consulting assistance of Andrew Leal, long-time Zombie Rights supporter and noted Pop Culture Historian.

The ZRC regrets this omission.

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

Posted By John Sears on July 29, 2010

Deadpool Merc with a Mouth has been the high point of Zombie comics, at least Marvel ones, for some time for the ZRC, so it was sad to learn in these issues that the series would end/has ended at #13.

Merc, we hardly knew ye. More behind the cut.

(more…)

Category: Zombie Media | No Comments »
Tags: Comics