Just in time for Halloween, I finished this one today. It’s pretty much a metaphor for how I feel about the zombie genre overall. I think the moment I saw the trailer for the film Warm Bodies was when I decided that the whole zombie thing had gotten out of hand (I don’t suppose it bothered anyone that the protagonist’s status as a zombie technically made his love interest a necrophiliac, but whatever). Hopefully this illustration gets across the idea of the saturation of zombies in pop culture leading to a feeling of being overwhelmed or just tired of the whole damn thing.
As a side note, and to crystallize that jaded feeling, I finally saw the movie World War Z. I resisted for a long time, because the trailer looked like an utterly disappointing departure from the book. If you read the paperback, you’ll find my artwork inside the front cover. It was the first time my artwork saw a major publication, so needless to say I have a particular attachment to Max Brooks’ source material. I thought the movie was sterile, PG-13 garbage. Absolute drivel. I didn’t expect it to be 100% faithful to the book, but a zombie movie should at least have its share of blood and gore. When the hero brains a zombie with the curved end of a crowbar, not only do we see it off-camera, but he dislodges the weapon and we see there’s not a drop of blood on it. I audibly yelled “Oh, bullshit!” to my empty apartment. I almost didn’t make it through the entire film. I didn’t care about any of these characters, least of all the protagonist (fabulous scarf, by the way). I didn't care if he made it back to his family, or if his family even survived.
Perhaps one day they’ll do justice to the book and call do-over, making it into a miniseries (the scope is just too vast for even a 3-hour movie), but for now I think I’m just over zombies.
As a side note, and to crystallize that jaded feeling, I finally saw the movie World War Z. I resisted for a long time, because the trailer looked like an utterly disappointing departure from the book. If you read the paperback, you’ll find my artwork inside the front cover. It was the first time my artwork saw a major publication, so needless to say I have a particular attachment to Max Brooks’ source material. I thought the movie was sterile, PG-13 garbage. Absolute drivel. I didn’t expect it to be 100% faithful to the book, but a zombie movie should at least have its share of blood and gore. When the hero brains a zombie with the curved end of a crowbar, not only do we see it off-camera, but he dislodges the weapon and we see there’s not a drop of blood on it. I audibly yelled “Oh, bullshit!” to my empty apartment. I almost didn’t make it through the entire film. I didn’t care about any of these characters, least of all the protagonist (fabulous scarf, by the way). I didn't care if he made it back to his family, or if his family even survived.
Perhaps one day they’ll do justice to the book and call do-over, making it into a miniseries (the scope is just too vast for even a 3-hour movie), but for now I think I’m just over zombies.
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