The Zombie Rights Campaign Blog

McPherson College Libary System Hates Zombies, Loves Deus Ex Machina

I’m really stunned at some of the stuff we come across here at the ZRC.

For example, McPherson College, an allegedly liberal-arts oriented school, is actually putting out a viciously Living Supremacist comic book to promote the use of its library services:

Follow the link to enjoy our finished Zombie Guide to Miller Library! There is also a link on the main menu of the library website. Let us know what you think on our facebook page.

The print version will be available this fall, so get ready for that, as well.

Believe me, we shall indeed let them know. Bonus points: a library that doesn’t capitalize proper nouns like Facebook.

What’s the comic like? Well… you know those stilted and supposedly educational (but in reality, terminally dull) comic books that are occasionally pushed on elementary school children? The ones where an unconvincing plot, flat, dull characters and ridiculously contrived circumstances are supposed to teach history, or basic scientific principles? The ones that nobody in their right mind would ever want to read?

Well, it’s precisely like that, only with an added self-aware hipster quality that makes the bile rise up a bit faster.

The storyline, if one wants to call it that, involves two presumably undergraduate students fending off, guess what, the Zombie Apocalypse. They’re looking for a place to hide, but don’t notice the large library structure behind them until a librarian calls out to them.

Which is a great statement about your student population. ‘Fail to notice large campus facilities’ is a quality that will serve the students well while pursuing their degrees. McPherson might want to start holding classes out in the cornfields.

From there it’s, and I swear I’m not kidding, a tour of the Dewey Decimal system, the periodicals and a search in the stacks for books on fighting Zombies. When that fails, the librarian cobbles together a flamethrower.

Yes. He does. He seriously starts a massive petrochemical fire in a building dedicated to housing books, full of flammable paper. Amazingly, the sprinklers don’t come on and the fire doesn’t gut the place while all three of them scream hideously, flesh peeling off their bones, rising into the sky as ash.

Pity, it’s the ending I’d have written.

Instead, they escape to the rooftops and, again, *I am not joking*, are rescued by staff from the Science Library flying a giant book equipped with lasers.

It’s a good thing that, contrary to modern myth, Zombies aren’t all fixated on eating brains, or the fictional ones would never have gone to this school and there wouldn’t be a comic at all.

Am I expecting too much from McPherson? Well, with their illustrious reputation and the support of a sterling crop of alumni, surely they could do better than –

Notable alumni==
Jonathan Coachman – former World Wrestling Entertainment and current ESPN personality
Duane Earl Pope — convicted bank robber and murderer. Briefly on the FBI 10 Most Wanted List

Oops.

In all seriousness, am I being too unkind here? I don’t think so. I mean, here we have a school, purportedly an institution of higher learning, that turns to grotesque and clunky comic book violence against an oppressed minority population as a way to.. showcase library services?

Bashing the Differently Animated so you can create a Highlights for Drunken Co-Eds? Thanks, but no thanks.

Shame on you, McPherson College and special shame on the Miller Library and its obviously Living Supremacist staff for making Zombies and all manner of Undead feel unwelcome at your educational facility.


About The Author

The role of 'Administrator' will be played tonight by John Sears, currently serving as President of The Zombie Rights Campaign.

Comments

3 Responses to “McPherson College Libary System Hates Zombies, Loves Deus Ex Machina”

  1. I drew and co-wrote this book, and this review is nothing short of sobering. I now stand repentant for the hate-crime I have committed against the noble undead, whose struggle I clearly cannot begin to understand on a firsthand basis. In my desire to attract the interest of college freshmen (who, sadly, really DO need a librarian to yell at them before they notice the giant @#$%&!* building in the middle of campus), I became a purveyor of Living Supremacist propaganda. And then 850,000+ people downloaded that propaganda. I have become a merchant of hate.

    Sadly, while I would like to claim I shall remain eternally repentant, my bank account is a cash-demanding whore which rules my life entirely. Half-a-dozen other colleges have asked me to give them comic book guides of their own. So I think next I will perpetrate hate-crimes against martians.

    Possibly pirates.

  2. John Sears says:

    While The Zombie Rights Campaign is pleased to hear that you have reconsidered your Living Supremacist attitudes in the wake of our stinging rebuke, we can neither condone your apparent future plans to defame other groups merely because they are not our clients, nor are we here to offer absolution for the harm this comic book has already done to the discourse on Zombie Rights. As noted, a shockingly large number of people have now been exposed to the Anti-Zombie messaging you helped create, and may unfortunately be operating under the assumption that this sort of behavior is acceptable, even commonplace.

    Attracting the attention of college freshmen toward literacy and the printed word is a worthy and laudable goal, but it cannot be ethically advanced by attacking disfavored minority populations, like Zombies or Martians. Even pirates probably deserve better treatment.

    Martians, and probably even Pirates, are people too.

  3. [...] I love the whole scrappy DIY vibe of the project as Matt tells it.  They had no budget, so they had to had to be extremely resourceful and frugal.  To generate buzz and buy-in, they launched contests for students to win a chance to become characters in the comic.  And of course, they had fun with promotion, too.  Have you ever gotten away with holding a release party for an information literacy flier?  Didn’t think so!  Matt and his team built up to the release by creating teasers and posting QR codes.  And last but not least, they got the attention of School Library Journal, Library Journal, College & Research Library News, as well as Bleeding Cool, Boing Boing, and the satirical Zombie Rights Campaign. [...]

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