Horror

The Zombie Times: February 2013 edition (newsletter review).

Contrary to some people’s expectations the world did not end in December 2012. As far as the guys at ‘The Zombie Times’ are concerned, though, that just gives us a few more months to prepare for the inevitable zombie apocalypse. In this first issue of the new year, they’ve pulled together another summary of all the latest films, books and other paraphernalia that every true zombie fan needs.

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My personal highlight for this month is the interview with horror author Darren Shan. He first came to prominence over a decade ago when he wrote a series of vampire novels for children, starting with ‘Cirque du Freak’. These were highly successful and have since been recreated as graphic novels. The first three also formed the basis for the 2009 film ‘The Vampire’s Assistant’. Shan has since written other horror series for children and for adults. ‘The Zombie Times’ interview is about a new twelve-part series of young adult zombie novels he is bringing out with the series title of ‘Zom-B’. Beyond the obvious attraction of such a title, the letter ‘B’ refers to the lead character in the series, troubled British teenager B Smith. B has a violent racist drunk for a father and is part of a gang of local troublemakers. However, when an ordinary school day is shattered by an invasion of zombies, B has to decide whether to kill or be killed. The first three ‘Zom-B’ novels are already out and the rest are going to be released at three month intervals. They sound like they’re going to be great fun.

The second article that caught my fancy was Jim Kent’s review of the new ‘Zombi-U’ game for the Wii-U. Jim makes a persuasive case for ‘Zombi-U’ as a proper survival horror game, rather than a first person shooter with a few undead thrown in for no reason. I was particularly impressed by his closing comment: ‘It will show you how long you will actually survive in a real zombie apocalypse, which won’t be very long at all.’ If you’re a zombie fan and a gamer, this sounds like a must-have.

I also enjoyed the mini-review of ‘Dan O’Bannon’s Guide To Screenplay Structure’ by the late and much-lamented genre screenwriter who also co-wrote ‘The Return Of The Living Dead’, ‘Alien’, ‘Total Recall’, ‘Dark Star’ and many others. The book, co-authored by Matt R. Lohr, discusses all the key issues of screenwriting and analyses a dozen scripts, too. If you’ve ever fancied yourself as the next George Romero, this looks like a book you ought to read.

There’s lots more where that came from, including a free-to-play browser-based MMORPG called ‘Zombie Pandemic’, new dates for a British city tour of the live action zombie chase game ‘Asylum: 2.8 Hours Later’ and a review of the DVD and Blu-ray release of ‘Resident Evil: Retribution’. As usual, you can win copies of almost everything featured in ‘The Zombie Times’ by entering their on-line competitions.

If you’re wondering how to satisfy your cravings for zombie-related fun, the February issue of ‘The Zombie Times’ will keep you up-to-date and entertained at the same time. Unless the zombies get you first!

Patrick Mahon

(pub: Terror4fun, 26 page e-newsletter. Price: free!)
check out: http://www.Terror4fun.com

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