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G.O.R.E. Score: Zombies!: Eclipse of the Undead

Posted by Tony Schaab on July 12, 2010 in G.O.R.E. Score Reviews
Zombies Eclipse of the Undead (2007)

Zombies Eclipse of the Undead (2007)

Original Release Date: May 16, 2007 (collected)
Number of Issues: 4 (Mini-series)
Publisher: IDW Press

I think I may have been spoiled by “The Walking Dead.”

I feel like a lot of the zombie-centric graphic novels I read these days just don’t feel like good story-telling to me, and I wonder if that is due at least partly to the fact that I have now read over 70 issues of Robert Kirkman’s amazing comic series that just seems to put all others (or at least, the others about the undead) to shame.

Upon further review, I find this to be the case only in my head: to date, I have reviewed 14 graphic novels for this site; seven of them have scored in the “top two” categories, and seven of them have scored in the “bottom two” categories. Three out of the four most recent graphic novels I have reviewed have garnered a Total Score of 4 or lower, so maybe it’s just my recent memory that I’m drawing from here.

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G.O.R.E. Score: The Serpent and the Rainbow

Posted by Tony Schaab on July 7, 2010 in G.O.R.E. Score Reviews
The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988)

The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988)

Original Release Date: February 5, 1988
Run Time: 98 minutes

Wes Craven is a horror machine.

With over 50 different films that he has either written or directed, spanning from 1972’s “Last House on the Left” (which he wrote and directed) to next year’s “Scream 4,” the man has been an amazing presence in the film industry for quite some time.

In 1988, three years after he wrote and directed the original “Nightmare on Elm Street,” Craven finally turned his scary-movie attention to zombies, but he took the unusual approach of focusing on the “less popular” version of zombies, the “traditional” and original version of the zombie, the Voodoo zombie.  His movie, “The Serpent and the Rainbow,” was “inspired by a true story,” but in reality very little of the movie was actually derived from the book of the same name, a novel written by a pseudo-scientist about his attempts to prove the Voodoo rituals surrounding zombification were based in scientific fact.

As a little bit of back story for those unfamiliar: the phrase “zombie,” or in its original forms, “zombi” or “nzambi,” were key parts of the tenets and beliefs of the Voodoo system adhered to by natives of the West African and Caribbean regions.  Followers of Voodoo believe that a dead person can be returned to life by a bokor, or magician/sorcerer.

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G.O.R.E. Score: I Sell the Dead

Posted by Tony Schaab on July 1, 2010 in G.O.R.E. Score Reviews
I Sell the Dead (2009)

I Sell the Dead (2009)

Original Release Date: January 16, 2009 (USA)
Run Time: 85 minutes

Lately horror fans have been treated to an influx of decidedly above-average smaller, or “independent,” film releases. Offerings like “Dead Snow,” “Let the Right One In,” and “Pontypool” have shown fans of the genre that, thankfully, there are filmmakers out there that are bucking the trend set by big-budget Hollywood studios that seem content to pump out the same formulaic and largely predictable scary-movie tripe (with exceptions to every rule, of course).

I’m happy to report that “I Sell the Dead” continues the trend of highly-enjoyable small-scale releases. Admirably blending comedic elements seamlessly into the very EC Comics/ Burke-and-Hare style story, the bulk of the movie is told via flashback by Arthur Blake, a professional grave-robber living in Great Britain in the 1800s, played with excellent post-“Lost” brilliance by Dominic Monaghan. Blake and his partner in crime, Willie Grimes (played with just the right amount of crazy by Larry Fessenden, who not only acts but is the producer of the film as well), have enjoyed the grave-robbing business for years, being successful enough at it to make a modest living, until they day they are caught by the authorities and charged with murder – a crime the two men claim they were framed for. With Grimes meeting the wrong end of the guillotine in the opening scene of the movie, it’s up to Blake to recount the tales of their misadventures to a priest who visits him the night before his execution.

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G.O.R.E. Score: The Mammoth Book of Zombie Comics

Posted by Tony Schaab on June 22, 2010 in G.O.R.E. Score Reviews
Mammoth Book of Zombie Comics (2008)

Mammoth Book of Zombie Comics (2008)

Original Release Date: October 28, 2008
Number of Issues: Too many to count (480 pages total)
Publisher: Running Press

There are some people out there who just looove to buy things in bulk. They believe they are saving money by doing so, and in most cases, they usually are. Many companies, it seems, are happy to oblige these folks. To wit:

  • Want groceries and household supplies in bulk? You can get your soda in packs of 24 cans, you can get your eggs in super-sized cartons of 60, and mega-stores like Costco, Sam’s Club, and Wal-Mart will sell you 10-packs of anything from deodorant to Hot Pockets (and many things in between).
  • Want clothing in bulk? You can buy a pack that has 20 pairs of socks for all your foot-warming needs. Secondhand stores like Goodwill and The Salvation Army even have some locations that have started selling clothing by the pound – that’s right, you pay for the clothes based on how much gross tonnage your buy.
  • Heck, you want collectibles and entertainment in bulk? Head over to your local comic book shop or bookstore, and odds are good that they have similarly-themed titles bundled together in sets of 3, 5, 10, or 20 at a discounted rate for your easy shopping convenience. Electronics stores like Best Buy have started selling DVDs and Blu-Rays, either individual discs or sets, that have anywhere from 4 to 50 movies contained within.

The same “bulk” principle applies to “The Mammoth Book of Zombie Comics.” For the practical cover price of $17.95, the buyer can nab themselves a whopping 480 pages of undead-centric comic book goodness. Make no mistake about it, folks: this tome is what scholarly folk might call “a big-ass book.”

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G.O.R.E. Score: Paul is Undead: The British Zombie Invasion

Posted by Tony Schaab on June 15, 2010 in G.O.R.E. Score Reviews
Paul is Undead (2010)

Paul is Undead (2010)

Original Release Date: June 22, 2010
Publisher: Gallery Books

Before I begin this review, I think it’s important for me to tell everyone that, while I like the Beatles, I wouldn’t consider myself a “fan” by any stretch of the imagination.

When it comes to music, a “fan” is someone who owns albums of the artist in question, and has probably seen the artist live in concert if they ever had the chance; someone who knows intimate details of where the artist has been and the things that artist has been through; someone who listens to the artist’s music even after it might not be considered “cool” or “popular” music anymore.

A “fan” is NOT someone who doesn’t own an album by the artist in question, or someone who doesn’t know anything about the actual person or people who are actually making the music. A “fan” is NOT someone who simply hears an artist’s songs on the radio and thinks they sound nice. That is simply someone who likes a song or a few songs from the artist, someone who has a passing fancy to the artist as a listener of music, and nothing more.

So, as I mentioned, I like the Beatles, but I’m not a “fan.” I don’t own any of their albums, and (prior to reading the book being reviewed here) I didn’t have a lot of in-depth background knowledge about the group or its members, other than what the “average” person might know. (As a side note, I am most definitely a “fan” of the rock band Journey, owning almost all of their albums and having seen them live as recently as last Summer; on many days I feel that I could easily go raging “zombie” on all the misguided people who think they are “fans” of Journey simply because they know the words to the chorus of “Don’t Stop Believin’.” But I digress.)

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G.O.R.E. Score: Marvel Zombies Return

Posted by Tony Schaab on June 13, 2010 in G.O.R.E. Score Reviews
Marvel Zombies Return (2010)

Marvel Zombies Return (2010)

Original Release Date: January 1, 2010 (collected)
Number of Issues: 5
Publisher: Marvel Entertainment

“Marvel Zombies Return” finally gives us a sense of closure for the story concerning the “original” Marvel Zombies. Marvel was also wise to bring in some experienced “zombie veteran” writers to each have their hand at writing an issue of this series:

  • the second issue, with a story revolving around Iron Man, was written by David Wellington, author of the “Monster” trilogy of books
  • the third issue, with a story revolving around Wolverine, was written by “Patient Zero” and “Zombie CSU” author Jonathan Maberry
  • the fourth issue, with a story revolving around The Hulk, was written by Seth Grahame-Smith, best known to fans as the “co-author” of “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies”

Fred Van Lente, the writer for the “MZ3” and “MZ4” mini-series, provided the bookend first and fifth issues.

When we last saw these zombies at the end of “MZ2,” they were surprised by a small group of survivors and teleported off of their original home world of Earth, which they had decimated. The teleportation device used to surprise them had been reconstructed from its original form and the reader was never given an idea of who programmed it or where it was set to send the zombies.

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G.O.R.E. Score: Marvel Zombies 4

Posted by Tony Schaab on June 12, 2010 in G.O.R.E. Score Reviews
Marvel Zombies 4 (2009)

Marvel Zombies 4 (2009)

Original Release Date: November 1, 2009 (collected)
Number of Issues: 4
Publisher: Marvel Entertainment

“Marvel Zombies 4” continues the downward shame spiral of Marvel pumping out another low-quality mini-series simply in an attempt to cash in on the popularity of both their previous “MZ’ series and the recent increase in public enjoyment of zombies in general.

The storyline for this series reads like two people were sitting in a room trying to trump each other by making each thing they said more fantastical than the last. I just spent 20 minutes trying many different ways to write a concise synopsis of the plot of this mini-series, and I have utterly failed to do so – the story is so convoluted and twisted that I, quite frankly, feel that it’s impossible to sum it up in a sentence or two. So I’m going to tell you the entire story in one long, run-on paragraph that I hope makes sense, since this is pretty much how the story is conveyed to the reader in the 4 issues of this series.

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