Posted By John Sears on May 15, 2011

I debated making a post about this only after reading the preview, but, yeesh, it’s 250 pages, that might take a while, and in the meantime our readers can always research on their own (something the ZRC heartily encourages):

In perhaps one of the largest free samples we’ve ever seen, illustrator Kagan McLeod has posted the first 250 pages of his 464-page graphic novel Infinite Kung-Fu on Top Shelf Comix’s website.

Seriously? Seriously.

Unfortunately the book’s synopsis makes it clear that this is not likely to be a journey Zombie allies will enjoy:

Catastrophe has knocked most of the world back to the middle ages — and to make matters worse, the dead are rising from the grave as zombies (reincarnation gone wrong)! In this world, where the way of the fist is a way of life, ex-soldier Lei Kung must infiltrate the evil emperor’s five kung fu armies and stop him from destroying all life on the planet. Allegiances are blurred as techniques are perfected, and Lei Kung becomes less certain who’s friend and who’s foe in each chapter!

Fists fly, limbs are lost and blood vessels burst in this tale of furious rivals, supernatural masters, walking corpses, and above all, raging kung fu! — a 464-page deluxe flexi-cover graphic novel, 6.75″ x 9.5″/blockquote>

Reincarnation gone *wrong*? Show me an example of reincarnation gone *right* to contrast it with?

I suppose Top Shelf Comics won’t be happy unless their reincarnation is precisely to spec? Do they require 3 wishes as well?

Honestly, how selfish, not to mention bigoted against the Differently Animated. What’s wrong with coming back as a Zombie, precisely?

At any rate, the preview is up for all to see, and the full length graphic novel comes out in July 2011.

Category: Zombie Media | No Comments »
Tags: Comics

Posted By John Sears on May 15, 2011

When you see that the title of an in-development Zombie movie is ‘Zombex’, your first thought might be, ‘Is this a Dead Rising thing?’

Take a second look, as I had to; the title of the Anti-Zombification drug from ‘Dead Rising 2′ is actually Zombrex, with an ‘r’, not Zombex.

Oops.

Did no one see how that could be confusing? Regardless, ‘Zombex’ looks to be a big deal:

While this film is still in an extremely early stage of production there is a little bit of a bonus on the casting. Who is it going to star? Well: Lew Temple, David Christopher, Malcolm McDowell, Sid Haig, Corey Feldman, Emily Kaye, Desiree McKinney, Pierre Kennel, and Tom Araya of Slayer.

The plot seems to concern a Zombie Apocalypse unleashed by a pharmaceutical company in the South amongst Katrina refugees/survivors, who were used as guinea pigs. So not only does it have a title that’s confusingly similar to a ‘Dead Rising’ trope, it involves an evil pharma company (ala Resident Evil) and is set in the Deep South during a Zombie ‘outbreak’ (ala Left 4 Dead).

Seriously?

My head hurts already.

Homage? Imitation? Who can say. It has a major cast which should help it generate some buzz. Let’s hope that, a: It’s Zombie Friendly, of course, and b: that there’s some originality on display in the finished product and not just a lengthy series of videogame references.

Category: Zombie Media | No Comments »
Tags: Movies, Videogames

Posted By John Sears on May 15, 2011

The art director likes to go through our sitemeter logs in the quest to find out who is linking to our proud organization from around the world wide web and see precisely where our much-valued readers are finding out about The Cause, and so she discovered that we were getting some hits to the site from a firearms enthusiast site.

Unfortunately, they don’t seem to see eye to eye with Zombie Liberation.. to say the last. They have some rather unkind words on the forum for the ZRC as well:

You guys want to see disturbing…look at these knuckleheads!

ZED SYMPATHISERS!!! TRAITORS!!! QUISLINGS!!!

The Zombie Rights Campagn – May is Zombie Appreciation Month

and

Damn dead heads! Probably a bunch of communist sympathizer, guy-liner wearing, bed wetting, necrophiliacs that see the zed apocalypse as their only chance to touch a boob before death. “Mortality challenged Americans,” I puked a little in my mouth. We must take a stand against these rot-lovers!

These are weighty accusations against The Zombie Rights Campaign, and I feel they must be addressed in an appropriately
serious tone:

1) ‘dead heads’? If this is meant to indicate that we are Zombies, in fact, the ZRC’s small staff does not have any full time Differently Animated members. Baron Mardi is our designated spiritual advisor/necromancer but he’s not on the payroll as such.

2) ‘Communist sympathizer’: Well, there’s no point in denying the ZRC has a somewhat liberal bent, as do most civil rights organizations/movements. However, the pedantic Poli-Sci degree holder in me gets a bit nitpicky here. The ZRC as an organization takes few formal positions on the traditional, and completely outdated, left-right 1 axis political spectrum. Personally, your ZRC President (that’d be me) is basically a Social Democrat. The Art Director’s politics tend leftist, I suppose. I don’t have a great deal of knowledge about the politics of our Cultural Historian but I don’t think he’s a Marxist plant per se.

At any rate, we reserve most of our sympathy for Zombies, Mummies, Liches and the other Differently Animated regardless of their political affiliations.

3) ‘Guy-liner wearing’. This one’s easy: I don’t wear ‘guy-liner’. I do dye my hair sometimes:

4) ‘bed wetting’ I haven’t wet the bed since I was a kid. I’m not sure why bed-wetting is the mark of Cain in this context anyway, it’s a medical condition, not a sin. (If you believe in sin to begin with.)

5) ‘necrophiliacs’: No. No no no no no no. Undead does not equal Dead, and not everyone in Wisconsin is like Ed Gein, thanks very much. Our dealings with the Differently Animated for the ZRC are strictly professional. Advocate-client, if you will.

6) on seeing the ‘zed apocalypse’ as a chance to ‘touch a boob before death’: we don’t believe in the Zombie Apocalypse here at the ZRC. I’ve mentioned that on innumerable occasions. We see a worldwide revivification explosion as not a reason to panic but a cause for celebration. Undead Global Block Party!

7) ‘rot-lovers’: Zombies and their allies tend to be Anti-Rot for fairly obvious reasons. Decomposition is a bummer.

8) ‘ZED SYMPATHISERS!!! TRAITORS!!! QUISLINGS!!!’ First, multiple exclamation points are a sure sign of a diseased mind.

Second, we do in fact sympathize with Zombies. Well spotted.

Third, sympathizing with Zombies does not make you a traitor, presumably to humanity, because Zombies are human.

Fourth, Quislings? If you mean politically,Quislings were fascists, and we’ve already been accused of communist sympathies here so the AR15 guys should really pick a coherent slur. (As explained above, we tend somewhat liberal, but that’s not hugely relevant.) If you mean to use the term as a synonym for ‘traitor’ you’re being redundant. If you’re using the term ala Max Brooks then you’re both a reader of sick Anti-Zombie fiction and incorrect; I do not dress up as a Zombie, even for Zombie Walks, in the interests of avoiding Greenface and in demonstrating Living-Zombie solidarity.

I hope this detailed refutation helps inform the dialogue and correct the record.

Category: Zombie Media, ZRC News | 3 Comments »
Tags: Journamalism, Social Justice, The Internet

Posted By John Sears on May 14, 2011

Much of the time, especially with the properties we’ve taken to describing as ‘Just Add Zombies’ or with our blog tag ‘Zombie Flavored Creativity Substitute’, when you see something with Zombies, or their caricatures, the creator rushes to get some Anti-Undead imagery to the viewer/reader as fast as possible, to assure the bloodthirsty fans that, yes, their sick depraved needs will be met.

Often this is even done before any plot or characterization. Witness ‘Zombies of Mass Destruction’ for a handy example.

Given that, to be presented with an upcoming show that may or may not be about the Differently Animated but keeps its cards closer to the vest… is interesting. Or at least a bit novel.

From Horror Society:

HELP! I’M ALIVE… brings you an exclusive behind-the-scenes feature as make-up artist Chrysalis Rose creates “Frank the Zombie” (portrayed by Ethan Parsonage) for the WonderCon Promo coming out May 13th, 2011.

Featured at WonderCon as an exclusive, this promo hits the web Friday the 13th as a teaser to the forthcoming web series this fall — a post-apocalyptic story about a group of survivors who must deal with the aftermath of a stranger’s sudden appearance.

There is, however, one very good reason to suspect that this show will be about Zombies, and not in a particularly positive way: the promo has.. a promo of its own.

About the makeup process for ‘Zombie #1′:

As you can see, ‘Zombie #1′, named ‘Frank’ apparently at the last minute, is not a character for the show, properly speaking, or even the promo: he’s a prop. Frank ‘was his name’; now he is ‘Zombie #1′, whose story looks to be told only through makeup depicting violent struggle and gore.

That is not encouraging, to say the least.

A longer synopsis floating around gives no further detail on the Zombie angle:

Synopsis: Set approximately 20 years in the future, we follow a group of survivors in the mountains of Northern California after an apocalypse wipes out nearly 75% of the worlds population. There was no natural disaster. There was no war. Abandoned buildings and homes are peacefully still standing. In fact, there were no real signs of immediate danger. How did the world fall to shambles, leaving nothing more than stories of what may have happened? The answers lie within a stranger that stumbles upon this small community of survivors with nothing more than an empty gun and a bloody wooden knife, fighting his way across the country looking for the answers.

And the solution.

To find out what caused the world to end, and what anomalies now inhabit mother earth, our survivors along with this new stranger, must venture out into what may be the end of their lives…

Just a hunch? Zombies are one of the ‘anomalies’. Which really hurts, by the way!

Zombies are *not* an anomaly. Zombies are people too. We have pamphlets to that effect, in fact.

‘Help! I’m Alive…’ is fundraising on Kickstarter at the moment, and is some distance from their goal, which may mean that we’ll never find out precisely how this apocalypse is the Zombies’ fault. I’m not sure how to feel about that. How do I properly condemn Anti-Zombie prejudice without being able to screen it?

The ZRC will work to keep you updated on any further developments, regardless.

Category: Zombie Media | No Comments »
Tags: Youtube Mischief

Posted By John Sears on May 13, 2011

The ZRC was very disturbed to see the recent anti-democratic behavior and preemptive police abuse directed at peaceful protesters merely DRESSED like the Differently Animated, so we are very glad to see that the Undead and Undead-allied of the United Kingdom aren’t about to take that travesty lying down (in graves or otherwise):

UNDEAD UPRISING: Lurch for Zombie Rights!
Share · Public Event

Time Saturday, May 28 · 7:00pm – 10:00pm

Location Soho Square

Created By Amy Peedie Cutler, Chris Knight, Deborah Scordo

More Info When there’s no more room in Hell, the dead will go to Soho Square!

Zombies, rise together to demand the right to suppurate, bleed and shuffle freely anywhere on the face of the earth! You may have heard of the ridiculous arrests which took place on the day of the Royal Wedding, including five people arrested for being dressed as zombies and drinking tea in Starbucks. If you find it alarming that the peaceful alternative events and celebrations planned on the day of the wedding were suppressed by arrests the night before and on the day, and the participants put away in police cells for pre-crime (such as ‘potential breach of the peace’ and ‘planning street theatre’), please join us in some naughty necromancy starting in Soho Square!

Come and defend your right to be revolting! The Government of the Dead, Midnight Movies, Club Hell and others are gravely displeased at these cryptic arrests and this mis-carrion of justice. Hur, hur. So stumble, lurch or crawl your way to Soho on Saturday the 28th May to join in. More details on the event to follow, or contact governmentofthedead@gmail.com.

Rrrrrriiiiiggggghhhhttttssssssssss…

We heartily and completely support this peaceful action taken to reaffirm basic human rights in the UK, rights applicable to both the Living and the Undead alike.

Good show, UK Zombies. Good show.

Category: ZRC News | No Comments »
Tags: Social Justice

Posted By John Sears on May 13, 2011

The ZRC has had to contend with more than its fair share of web videos bashing Zombies. From music videos to the odious web-series ‘Bite Me’, to the alleged comedians from Mega64 and their take on Zombies, which was a scourge both upon the Earth and upon our comments section here at the ZRC blog, the net has no shortage of Anti-Zombie video.

Tragically.

Thus it is with no great surprise but some sadness in our hearts that the ZRC has to bring you news of yet another high-profile miniseries of misery coming at you via the internet’s lengthy series of tubes:

New DailyMotion comedy/horror Web Series set after the inevitable ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE

“The Dead Must Die” is a new comedy/horror web series set after the inevitable ‘Zombie Apocalypse’. It will be launching today, the 6th of May at 12am EST as an Official DailyMotion web series.

There are 7 zombie fueled episodes, which will be appearing once a week for the next 7 weeks.

It follows two video game geeks, Steve (Stephen Russell) and other Steve (Jonny Helm) as they navigate through the wild terrain of their long awaited (and often discussed) zombie apocalypse.

Unfortunately, neither of them is really prepared for the reality of the situation…

Through blizzards, anti-zombie hate mobs, sand-eating, creepy nameless ninja chicks, crossbows, and moms, our heroes shall venture forth into this new world, where there is only one thing they can be certain of: that the dead must die!

Yes, the first episode is already available, and the ZRC has taken the difficult task of screening it upon ourselves.. the result is not pretty.

Well, ok, the video certainly is, and the writing, acting and editing are miles above ‘Bite Me’. There are some very nice effects achieved with lighting and acting, a couple of noteworthy sight-gags, and the two Steves provide a Clerks-like atmosphere of casual interaction among, let’s face it, exasperating jerks.

That is, until they get a chance to implement their already well-developed Anti-Zombie prejudices in the ‘inevitable’ Zombie Apocalypse.

It’s not spoiling much to say that there’s very little Apocalypse in this first episode, and not even any Anti-Zombie violence (yet). The series tips its hand however, both with the title and a snappy little bite of hate-song over the end credits proclaiming, once again, that interaction between the Living and the Undead is a zero-sum game and that the ‘Dead’ must perish to make room for the Living.

*groan*

The ZRC is going to hold off on a formal review until at least one more episode is up for analysis, but it’s not looking good, let me tell you.

The first episode of ‘The Dead Must Die’, meanwhile, is embedded below, or you can visit them (and hopefully complain) at their site located here.

The Dead Must Die: Episode 1 – A tale of 2 Steves by thedeadmustdie

Category: Zombie Media | 2 Comments »
Tags: Youtube Mischief

Posted By John Sears on May 13, 2011

Given the title I was hesitant to see this video but it actually comes across as pretty Zombie Tolerant. Despite the title, it isn’t about killing Zombies at all; nor is the song itself, so far as I can tell from a couple of listens, about Zombies either. But the video for said song is set at… a Zombie Walk. With the artist in question wandering amongst the crowd, and pleasant, often mildly humorous or whimsical scenes from a Zombie gathering cut in with the performance.

It’s not bad at all.

I give you Andrew Jackson’s ‘Enough Blood to Keep ‘Em Coming’:

Category: Zombie Media | No Comments »
Tags: Music, Youtube Mischief

Posted By John Sears on May 13, 2011

White-Collar Zombies just can’t catch a break these days.

First we had W.O.R.M., later incorporated into ‘III Slices of Life’, which was an unfortunately ground-breaking piece of cinema dealing, harshly and unjustly, with the topic of Zombie integration into a white-collar workforce. Previous Anti-Zombie films had largely dealt with ‘Zombies’ attacking prominent symbols of working class and blue-collar America: farms, malls, the military, the police and so forth. Think about it: the vast majority of the ‘classic’ Anti-Zombie films of the post-’Night of the Living Dead’ era concern these middle and working class icons being ‘menaced’ by the Differently Animated. Was this clever marketing or did it derive from the background of independent horror filmmakers? The ZRC has no answer to that question.

In recent years however, White-Collar Zombies have been more and more prominent. ‘III Slices of Life’ brought the outbreak to the cubicle farm of a tech firm, while ‘Diary of the Dead’ covered affluent film students and faculty. ‘Alice Jacobs is Dead’ concerned a celebrated researcher and academic who had created a ‘cure’ for Zombiism. Jonathan Coulton had a big hit with his Anti-Zombie song dealing with office relationships, ‘Re: Your Brains’

Is this the new wave? Is Anti-Zombie media being marketed at a somewhat more well-heeled viewership?

If so, ‘Bloodlust Zombies’, with its tale apparently concerning bioweapons developing defense contractors, is cynically arriving on the scene just in time:

Like typical 9-to-5 cubicle dwellers, the workers at Zlantoff Industries are just counting down the minutes and seconds to the end of the day. And just like any office, mishaps are bound to happen: spilt coffee, jammed fax machines … mutant viral outbreaks.

When a chemical spill in the lab on an otherwise uneventful weekday puts the office on emergency lockdown, the staff unwittingly becomes the first test subjects for an experimental, biological weapon — and if the mutant virus doesn’t spur cannibalistic murder, the passive aggressive office banter will.

Office-satirizing Zombies crossed with unethical technology development? Man, this *is* reminiscent of ‘III Slices of Life’.

Only, apparently with a lot more sex. One more for the picketing list most likely.

The movie apparently comes out in July 2011, and you can see its trailer embedded below:

Category: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tags: Movies, Youtube Mischief

Posted By John Sears on May 13, 2011

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).

Category: Zombie Media | 1 Comment »
Tags: Books, ZRC Reviews

Posted By John Sears on May 12, 2011

I think I mentioned here on the blog that we have a fairly sizeable and very secluded backyard here at the ZRC Compound, and it’s populated with a number of wild animals. Lots of squirrels, many kinds of birds, and even some rabbits.

(An adult rabbit in our yard)

The other day we saw three adult rabbits in the backyard for example.

Well, it appears they’ve been multiplying, as rabbits are wont to do (insert Bugs Bunny joke here) and so for no particular reason and in a shameless example of exploiting cute things for attention on the internet, here is the newest animal edition to the ZRC neighborhood, a baby rabbit:

(distance shot – it’s really, really small)

There’s also video; if you can only watch one, I suggest the third:

As always, the full set of pictures of our local wildlife is here, and the ZRC’s Youtube channel with all our videos is here.

Category: ZRC News | 1 Comment »
Tags: Youtube Mischief