Previews and Reviews that are Z's Views
Another first issue that caught my eye while going through Previews was Crawl Space: XXXombies #1 by Rick Remender, Kieron Dwyer and Tony Moore. The idea is it’s 1977 and a low rent movie producer has brought together a cast of adult film stars for a weekend shoot in LA… just as a zombie plague hits.
George Romero’s “Diary of the Dead” has a MySpace page and has posted up some new images. You can get THERE by clicking HERE.
It is so good to know that the zombie threat to America is under control. [Thanks and a tip o’ the derby to Bill Crider.]
ComicBookResources.com has an interesting little piece on George “Night of the Living Dead” Romero. Be advised that the article does contain some words that would earn it an “R” rating if it was a movie!
Nearly four years ago issue #1 of The Walking Dead hit the stands. I bought it and really dug both the art and story. I soon discovered that I wasn’t alone. A lot of people were buying and loving it!
Before long The Walking Dead was my favorite comic. After the first six issues, artist Tony Moore left the regular art chores and Charlie Adlard took up the slack. The book remained my favorite regularly published comic.
Each month The Walking Dead was the comic that I most looked forward to reading. From time to time, I’d talk up the series so that ZONErs who’d never heard of it would have a chance to jump on board. Robert [creator of The Walking Dead] Kirkman’s interview at Newsarama.com reminded me that I hadn’t crowed about The Walking Dead in a while.
So I decided to remedy that with this post.
The Walking Dead Book 1 [Collects the first 12 issues in an affordable hardcover] A+ rating
The Walking Dead Book 2 [Collects the second 12 issues in an affordable hardcover] A+ rating
Actually my survival odds are better than I would have guessed! (Sadly the quiz is no longer available.)
Zombies are a popular genre here at the ZONE. Still, I’m not totally sold on “Fido” yet. I did enjoy “Shaun of the Dead” so maybe “Fido” will work. The jury is out. Watch the trailer and let me know your thoughts.
Most ZONErs have a love for the zombie genre. We dig all things Romero. We can’t wait for each new issue of The Walking Dead. We knew about Zack Snyder [he directed the Dawn of the Dead re-make] way before 300. If you fall into this category [emphasis on gory], then you may want to check out The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead by Max Brooks.
I say you may want to check it out because, unlike his highly recommended World War Z, the Zombie Survival Guide is just that… a survival guide. Where World War Z focused on well written stories of survival in a world of zombies, the Survival Guide is what it claims to be… a manual. There’s no doubt that it’s a cool idea. Brooks should be commended for creating a fun handbook for zombie fanatics. The guide is a well thought out and entertaining… manual.
I think that fans of the genre are going to really enjoy the ZSG, but I don’t want to mislead anyone into thinking that it’s a prequel to Brook’s highly rated World War Z or even a novel about zombies. It’s survival guide… a manual.
The Zombie Survival Guide rates a C+.
Raise the Dead is a new comic book that I think will appeal to most ZONErs. The story follows a “disparate group of seven people forced to cooperate with each other in order to survive” a zombie infestation. Yeah, not an original idea, but one that works. I know how much we all enjoy “The Walking Dead,” “Dawn of the Dead,” “Night of the Living Dead,” “World War Z,” “28 days later” –
5. Already Dead by Charlie Huston. Modern day vampire clans are at war and Joe Pitt has a missing girl to find. Huston’s next Joe Pitt novel, No Dominion, is available now.
4. Persuader by Lee Child. I’m coming to this series late in the game, but that doesn’t make me like it any less. Child has a winner with his Jack Reacher novels. In this outing, Reacher is working undercover with the FBI to catch an international gun-runner.
3. The Road by Cormac McCarthy. A father and young son journey south through a bleak post-apocalyptic world. Food is scarce and only what they can scavenge. They must make the journey to escape the brutal winter that is almost upon them. If they don’t starve odds are one of the roaming bands of cannibals will find them. Still they press on.
2. World War Z by Max Brooks. A haunting book that Chad Hunt also recommends!
1. Stealing Home / Six Bad Things / A Dangerous Man by Charlie Huston. Yeah, he’s the same Charlie Huston that wrote Already Dead. In this trilogy we meet Hank Thompson. When we first meet Hank he’s ten years out of high school and working as a bartender in New York City. Had it not been for a badly broken leg, he would have been a big league baseball player. Now he’s the nice guy who drinks too much and lacks real ambition. That is until the night two strangers yank him over the bar and beat him nearly to death. When he gets out of the hospital he gets more visitors and another beating. Soon he’s on the run from crooked cops, mobsters and hit men. If he lives maybe he’ll get a piece of the millions of dollars that they believe he has. Six Bad Things and A Dangerous Man complete Hank’s story. I loved every page and wish that it didn’t have to end.
Over at his blog, my buddy Chad, was talking up what an awesome book War World Z is.
And it is.
I read it a few months ago and regularly think about how cool it was. Chad had the great idea to get the audio version of the book. After seeing how much Chad enjoyed listening to it [and this is AFTER reading it], I may have to do the same. [It would be to fun listen to on a long road trip at night!]
Well, my post can’t just be about how cool Chad’s post was, can it? I guess it could, but I always like to bring something to the table. So HERE is a link to the official World War Z site. It has a lot of fun things to check out. For instance, I had a 34% chance of surviving the zombie war. Ok, maybe THAT wasn’t the best example I could have used for a fun thing… but you get the idea.
Ok… you guys check out the World War Z site and I’ll get to work on scooping Chad‘s next post.
I’m a big fan of double features. Since the demise of drive-ins [yeah, I know, many of you are too young to have ever been to one], we just don’t get ’em anymore.
That’s about to change next April when Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez [roll those R’s Kelsey!] team up to bring us “Planet Terror” [zombies] and “Death Proof” [muscle car serial killer – not that he kills muscle cars, mind you].
Here’s the trailer.
Just this week it was announced that Brad Pitt beat out Leonardo DiCaprio to see who could bring “World War Z“ to the silver screen. Seems kind of strange that two of the biggest stars in the world would be in a bidding war over a zombie movie. But there you go… World War Z is Max Brooks‘ follow up novel to his cult classic The Zombie Survival Guide.
It was also announced this week that Josh [”Lucky Number Slevin”] Hartnett is set to star in the movie adaptation of 30 Days of Night. I think that Harnett is an excellent choice for the lead and so does 30 Days author Steve Niles. Filming is set to begin in early August.
