Nil Gejman - Zombies: More Recent Dead

A little over four years ago, I started compiling Zombies: The Recent Dead. Published in October 2010, I hoped it was a zombie anthology that not only included outstanding stories, but could serve as an entertaining guide (of sorts) and historical documentation to zombie fiction written in the first decade of what had already turned into the Zombie Century.

I was very fortunate to be able to republish an updated version of David J. Schows introduction and afterword from his collection Zombie Jam (Subterranean Press, 2003). Schow wrote of the impact of George A. Romeros films on him personally as well as the rest of us culturally. He also explained how the modern archetype of the living dead is derived from cinematic rather than literary roots.

I added two other short introductory essays. The first, Preshamble, dealt with the earlier traditional zombie mythos (and its one-time popularity). The other, Deaditorial Note, briefly covered the rise of the living dead in twenty-first century popular culture, including its literature, and the themes most often explored. (You can find them online here: paulaguran.com/zombies-the-recent-dead-intro).

At the time, I wondered if the demand for all things zombie had peaked, if Zombies: The Recent Dead was a last chance at doing an anthology of great fiction about the living dead.

I shouldnt have worried.

The Walking Dead premiered on 31 October 2010 on AMC.

The series popularity either kept the living dead alive or proved they were even more embedded in our pop cultural brains than ever.

By 2013, The Walking Dead averaged 5.6 million viewers per episode: the highest audience ratings in the United States for any television show, broadcast or cable. It was also the most popular TV show with advertiser-preferred viewers between the ages of eighteen and forty-nine. Its fifth season will air this fall.

The summer of 2013 brought the movie World War Z: big budget ($190 million for production), big star (Brad Pitt), biggest hordes of zombies ever seen, and at this writing, more than $540 million worldwide gross. Biggest z-movie ever and Brad Pitts biggest grosser.

The Max Brooks novel the film was loosely based onBrooks freely admitted the only thing his novel and the movie had in common is the titlehad been one of two books that truly set off twenty-first century zombiemania: The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead (2003), a parody of a survival guide, and World War Z (2006), a serious novel documenting a worldwide zombie pandemic. Both by Brooks, these books brought zombies out of the horror genre and into the mainstream.

How far into the mainstream?

The Walking Dead is not the only hit television series about the living dead. BBC Threes mini-series In the Flesh began airing in the UK on 17 March 2013 with three hour-long episodes. (It won the BAFTA Award as best mini-series of 2014 and its leading actor, Luke Newberry, was also honored in his category.) A second season of six hour-long episodes began on 4 May 2014 in the UK and on 10 May 2014 in the U.S. (carried by BBC America). Rather than focusing on humans making violently sure the living dead are dead dead, In The Flesh offers a more compassionate view emphasizing the difficulties of living as one of the dead.

Eight episodes of a French series, The Returned (Les Revenants), based on the 2004 film They Came Back (also titled, in French, Les Revenants) aired in 2012 on Canal+. It became the pay-TV broadcasters most popular original series ever and won an International Emmy for Best Drama Series. A second season followed. It was aired in the UK in 2013. In the U.S., Sundance Channel aired the first season of Les Revenants as The Returned. Now, A&E has fast-tracked a ten-episode version, also titled The Returned, to air fall 2014. Like In the Flesh, the undead are humanized in the series while investigating the effect on the living when those from the not-always-resolved past abruptly show up.

The dead return to life in the French series, but it is closer to ABCs 2013 unrelated series Resurrection (based on the novel The Returned by Jason Mott) than typical zombie fare. In Resurrection, the dead mysteriously appear, look and act as they did while among the living, and have no apparent memory of their deaths or what has passed since then. Perhaps these arent zombies? Dont be so sure. By the end of Resurrections first season earlier this year, the undead were at least becoming a major problem that was going to have to be dealt with by the living. ABC has renewed Resurrection for a second season.

The BBC has commissioned a zombie reality game show, I Survived a Zombie Apocalypse. BBC Threeset to go online-only in late 2015will air the show. The premise: eight contestants are trapped in a shopping mall surrounded by the (supposedly) walking dead. Contestants must use urban survival tactics and their wits to avoid being bitten by the zombies. Dark humor seems to be intrinsic to the show as a network news release promises that once bitten, contestants will leave the show in grisly style. An executive producer is quoted as saying, Its nice to finally have a game show where if you get a challenge wrong, you get your arms ripped off and your brains eaten out.

As for The Walking Dead, AMC has announced an as-yet untitled companion series. Originally (in late 2013) slated to launch in 2015, the network has not offered any details lately on when it will premiere.

Syfy recently announced a thirteen-episode series, Z Nation, which will follow the struggle for humans to survive post-zombie apocalypse. It will premiere fall 2014.

World War Z? Paramount has announced a sequel with Pitt starring, Juan Antonio Bayona directing, and Steven Knight as screenwriter. No date is set, but release in 2016 is expected.

Picture books for children featuring zombies (usually light-heartedly) had proliferated by the time ParaNorman, a 2012 zombie movie for kids, received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film. So had chapter books for older children and young adult novels. All continue to do so.

In the colorful kids game Plants vs. Zombies, according to the description, a mob of fun-loving zombies is about to invade your home, and your only defense is an arsenal of 49 zombie-zapping plants . . . Each zombie has its own special skills, so be careful how you use your limited supply of greens and seeds . . . as you battle the fun-dead . . . Theres a large line of toys to matchincluding plush toys for infantsand a comic book series.

Or, you can try the more generic Glow in the Dark Flesh Eating Zombies Play Set. (Nine three-inch-tall vinyl glow-in-the-dark flesh-eating zombies. Turn off the light to see their eerie glow!) Nerf makes a Zombie Crossfire Bow Toy, and, instead of little plastic army figures, you can now buy a bag of zombies (neon green) and zombie hunters (bright blue, includes Swat/Hazmat units).

When it comes to the undead devouring our kids, I could go on . . .

Oh, hold on to your decaying flesh, I wont.

There are also plenty of zombie comic books, graphic novels, and (yes) manga intended for those a bit older. According to Diamond Comic Distributors, the top-selling comic book of 2013 (not surprisingly) was The Walking Dead No. 115 and Walking Dead volumes accounted for five of the Top Ten graphic novels. But the TV-related franchise isnt the only comic series, published (or, in some cases, were published until recently.) Along with various graphic versions of z-movies old and new and some novels, there are series like