Read Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Zombies Online
Authors: Matt Mogk
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Zombies
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What you don’t know can eat you
EVERYTHING YOU EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT ZOMBIES
All zombie research is theoretical. We can never know exactly what the coming pandemic will look like until the teeming undead horde is finally at our doorsteps. Once the dead rise, the days of study and conjecture are over. Gone will be reasoned debate and hard scientific study. Gone will be global lines of communication and easy access to information. Gone will be the support structures that allow us to easily engage in serious scientific, social, and historic investigation.
When the dead rise, it’s run-and-scream time.
* * *
“Matt Mogk is a walking catalog of important modern developments in zombie research, and his book is an essential resource in the coming zombie apocalypse.”
—Michael Harris, PhD, professor of neuroscience, University of Alaska, Fairbanks
“Pulling together key knowledge strands untapped by previous works of zombie scholarship, Matt Mogk is staking out essential new territory at the nexus of history, science, popular culture, and reality.”
—Brendan Riley, PhD, assistant professor of cultural studies, Columbia College Chicago
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Copyright © 2011 by Matt Mogk
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, address Gallery Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.
First Gallery Books trade paperback edition September 2011
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Designed by Akasha Archer
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mogk, Matt.
Everything you ever wanted to know about zombies / Matt Mogk.
p. cm.
1. Zombies. I. Title.
GR581.M65 2011
398.21—dc23
2011025020
ISBN 978-1-4516-4157-8
ISBN 978-1-4516-4158-5 (ebook)
To Bigman and PosMa
Chapter 1: Definition of a Zombie
Chapter 6: Beer-Goggle Zombies
Chapter 9: Zombie Hunting Technique
Chapter 10: Defensive Reflex in Zombies
Chapter 11: Zombie Eating Habits
Chapter 12: How Long Have We Got?
Chapter 15: Zombielike Creatures
Chapter 17: Protective Shelter
Chapter 21: Your Own Worst Enemy
Chapter 23: Building Your Team
Chapter 25: Travel and Communication
Chapter 26: What Are Our Chances?
Chapter 29: Why Are Zombies So Popular?
Chapter 31: Zombies on the Small Screen
Chapter 32: Zombie Video Games
Chapter 36: Zombie Organizations
Chapter 37: The Wrong and Ridiculous
First and foremost, thanks to all the members of Zombie Research Society from around the world for sharing my passion for zombie science, survival, and pop culture. Without you, this project would never have gotten off the ground. In particular, special acknowledgement goes to Lisa Bolton and Mikey Taylor for helping keep ZRS headed in the right direction. And to John Farrell, Lisa Bane, Zoe Mora, Marcus Mooers, and the other dedicated local chapter leaders, both in the United States and abroad.
To the ZRS Advisory Board past and present, including Daniel Drezner, Scott Kenemore, Bradley Voytek, Timothy Verstynen, Brendan Riley, Mike Harris, and Peter Cummings, thank you for your commitment to the mission of cultivating zombie scholarship and respect in the arts and sciences. Additional recognition goes to Steven Schlozman for your enthusiasm and encouragement, and to George Romero for creating the monster that has become my obsession.
A special thank-you goes to Max Brooks for your important contributions to this book, your broad support, and your friendship.
I greatly appreciate the dozens of scholars, authors and artists who agreed to participate in this project, such as Robert Kirkman, William Stout, Paul Wernick, Rhett Reese, Matt Schantzen, Scott Bowen, Leif Becker, Josh Taylor, Lucas Culshaw, and Samuel Stebbins. Thanks to Frank Weimann for getting the process going, to Chris Easley for your thoughtful draft review, and to Jennifer Heddle for guiding it to a successful end.
And finally a debt of gratitude is owed to my friends and family for letting me endlessly go on about zombies, especially The Troll, who gets the brunt of it on a daily basis. Thanks to T for sounding the alarm and Majaraj for putting out fires at the finish line. To Grimm, Danger, and Annie, thanks for keeping me on my toes even though sometimes my toes get tired. Thanks to Don and Dianne for the American food. Thanks to my parents for pretty much everything.
But most of all thanks to Seamus for hanging in until I got things figured out.
by Max Brooks
If you don’t know anything about zombies but you’d like to learn, this is the book for you. That’s how Matt explained his new project to me. Everyone knows that zombies are popular, but what exactly
are
zombies? Are they the voodoo slaves that obey arcane wizards in Haiti? Are they the flesh-eating hordes that star in so many apocalyptic movies? Are they the singing, campy, well-choreographed cadavers of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”? The answer to each of those questions is yes.
The zombie subgenre has recently achieved pandemic status, with a horde of books, movies, TV shows, comics, video games, and yes, even apps invading every corner of our daily lives. For many years, there has been a strict line dividing dedicated fans who study every frame of
Dawn of the Dead
like it’s the Zapruder film, and the rest of the world, who scratch their heads in wonder. That line between fans and “civilians” seemed uncrossable—until now.
