A Zombie here... A Zombie there... Zombies are frigin' everywhere.

Hello Chums,

I thought I'd talk a little bit about zombies. What? Why zombies? What is the big deal with zombies these days? It is a craze. The genre seems more popular than ever. But why?

I've never been a big fan of horror. Sure, I used to read every new Stephen King novel when it came out, but that was almost 15 years ago. I've watch a few Horror movies over the years, but the genre isn't my favorite. Zombies have never been all that interesting to me. They've always been pretty low on my monster scale.

However that feeling has started to change. It probably started when I watched 28 Days Later on HBO a few years ago. This movie surprised me by being Very Good. The victims were infected with something called "The Rage." A very nasty zombie type disease. Good Stuff!

Earlier this year, I read my copy of Richard Matheson's "I Am Legend." It is quite a bit different than the Charlton Heston movie "The Omega Man." It's a much darker story and Neville's situation seems more hopeless. Okay, so the monsters are technically vampires, but the way they move around and they're lack of usual vampire abilities remind me of zombies. I hope that the "I Am Legend" movie coming out later this year closely follows the book. With Will Smith in it though, it's already off to a bad start.

I keep hearing the term "Marvel Zombie". This refers to rabid Marvel fans (fan boys), who are crazy about Marvel comics. Does this mean they are brain dead automatons programmed to buy Marvel Comics? Maybe, but isn't it more likely that a DC (Didio Controlled) comics fan would continue to pick up their crap no-matter how bad it is? DC zombies anyone?

My next encounter with zombies was the book "Marvel Zombies" by Kirkman,Phillips and Suydam. I kept hearing how good it was, so I had to see for myself. It's a nice (graphic) little tale that features some of the top Marvel characters zombified. Hey, I liked it! After reading it, I tracked down the Marvel Zombies Dead Days one shot and the 3 issue Black Panther story arc. All very good. Zombie fever rising.

This all leads up to the comic book that made zombies popular. The Walking Dead. This book has done more to fuel the zombie craze than any other. I didn't buy this book when it first debuted. However, I have smelled the rotting flesh. I picked up the first trade while at a con in Kansas City. I devoured it like a zombie with a fresh piece of meat on a Saturday night. Tasty! The next day at the con I had Tony Moore (the artist) sign it. Who's it written by? Robert Kirkman. He knows a thing or two about zombies. I have now read trades 2-6 (in one day). Good stuff indeed. Zombie fever set to high.

Now for a zombie story or two. I was playing the board game Risk at Scott's house a while back. Fellow con attender Wayne and some other guys were there. Wayne was talking about all the zombie movies he had seen and there various story lines. One of the guys says that if zombies are so slow, they would never be able catch anyone to eat their brain. Wayne says that would be true, but the problem is the regular people tend to dance around and go na-na -na-na to the zombies. Then they trip, fall down and the zombies pounce on them. The funny thing was Wayne doing his own dance, the mocking thing and trip while trying to explain it.

My other zombie story involves my son Z.D. (Snake) Nelson. Years ago, I used to play the Play Station survival horror game Resident Evil 2. The problem is young Z.D. (not yet Snake) was in Kindergarten and he would watch me play all the time. It never seemed to bother him at all. Well that was until the teacher had her class draw what scared them. It didn't take long to get the call from school with the teacher asking: "Why is Zachary scared of zombies?" That was pretty much the end of my Resident Evil days.

Final Thought: MUST EAT BRAINS!!!

D.L.