The Zombie Rights Campaign Official Statement on Geek.kon Controversy
We received a comment here on the blog recently from an ‘animelover’ who seems to have trawled our archives back for months and discovered the post covering the ‘Zombie Walk Against Walker’, a prominent and highly successful bit of political activism by the Differently Animated here in Madison last spring.
For the record, as we are very fond of pointing out, the Walk was a mainstream event attended by BOTH candidates for Mayor of Madison, and the eventual winner, Paul Soglin, issued a staunch statement of support for the Zombie Community.
Well, this seems to have upset one Peter Zimmer, apparently the owner of ‘Anime Fan Zone’, a store in Milwaukee and it seems a slated fellow vendor at Geek.kon, who supports Governor Walker and his agenda with a certain boyish enthusiasm. (We do not.)
All that is well and good, and the ZRC supports strong beliefs in the field of politics or anywhere else, and would have been more than willing to discuss these questions after-hours at the convention, or even over a beer, as seems to be Wisconsin social custom for.. just about anything really.
However, Mr. Zimmer has taken to the Geek.kon Facebook wall, defaming the ZRC, accusing us of being, amongst other things, a ‘hate group’, and demanding, in essence, that either we leave or he will and demand a full refund.
First of all: we’re not leaving, Mr. Zimmer. We signed up for this event in good faith, paid our money many months in advance in good faith, and have a signed agreement to that effect with Geek.kon. We have spent a considerable sum of money aside from booth fees on the convention preparations, taken time off from work and ordered a lot of merchandise and put a lot of effort into this show. It’s important to us, as Zombie Rights Advocates, anime fans and Madisonians. We’re also holding another installment of our charity fundraiser ‘Lurch for the Cure’ at the Con, and donating some items to Geek.kon’s own charity auction. In other words, a busy, positive weekend for all concerned, up to this point at least.
If we are requested to leave by Geek.kon management, I suppose we would have little choice but to do so.. and then sue Mr. Zimmer and his organization for damages.
I am not kidding around here. This has gone *far enough*.
Hopefully nothing else will need to be said on that ugly subject.
Otherwise we are looking forward to a fun and happy weekend interacting with Zombie Fans and conducting outreach, particularly as regards ‘High School of the Dead’. We would also like to promote the viewing of the far more Zombie Friendly ‘Kore wa Zombie desu ka?/Is This a Zombie?’, which the ZRC reviewed here and heartily approved of.
About The Author
As a response from the “Geek.Kon management,” we have reviewed the manner and found no grounds to remove ZRC from our dealer room. I have spoken with Mr. Zimmer and informed him of this decision. He has also been informed that, per our cancellation policy, if he does cancel his purchased space, his company will not be refunded.
Geek.Kon is committed to being a politically neutral organization and does not endorse any political statements. At the same time, like many conventions, we do not ban our exhibitors from selling political materials, particularly those with a satirical edge.
In conclusion, we welcome the Zombie Rights Campaign to our vendor room for another year. In addition, we thank the ZRC for their contributions to our charity auction benefiting Henry Vilas Zoo and encourage everybody to check them out at our convention.
Adam Pulver
Chairman, Geek.Kon.2011
Thank you for the time and attention, and I’m sorry that you ever had to deal with this in the first place.
Looking forward to the convention! To changing minds, opening hearts, selling swag for cancer research!
Oh, and being very mean to ‘High School of the Dead’ but that goes without saying.
Wow. Just, wow. Very glad the Kon is backing you up on this, John.
Hey! This will really help my weight loss goals