History hijacked promises ample opportunity for horror writers; it's a tradition stretching back to the late 18th beginnings of Gothic literature. Apparitions, portents and omens fueled the distress of disorder of those in 'respectable' society: dukes, kings, queens, royal heirs and other privileged aristocrats. Whereas the natural order of family tradition, indeed its very history, became corrupted and subject to annihilation, the modern version of such Gothic horror impacts society on an even a wider scale.
Max Brooks, author of the seminal World War Z, invokes this sense of worldwide, historical apocalyptic doom. Instead of ghosts or demons, we encounter the familiar image of the zombie: a wretched, amoral shell. In the graphic novel collection, The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks, Brooks cleverly uses this modern Gothic icon, integrating it with the sweep of history, from ancient to medieval to modern.
Was Hadrian's Wall really meant to repel the Picts and Celts, rather than zombified tribes from beyond even those remote lands? Did Francis Drake discover an 'Isle of the Undead' instead of El Dorado? Did WW2 Japanese soldiers hone their skill at head shots by aiming at those shambling targets? Treating zombie outbreaks as pivotal points in history, from the dawn of humanity in Africa 60,000 BC to an infection spreading by a lone carrier to modern Los Angeles, makes Brook's take like a cool, nerdy secret history.
Ibraim Roberson artwork in Recorded Attacks is a rare treat, full of zombies with necrotic, putrid musculature, and doesn't suffer from lack of colour. It's gritty, gnarly and robust; just the kind of stark illustrations once championed by EC horror comics, and those cherished Creepy and Eerie issues of my misspent youth.
A whole different bag of bones, Zombies: A Hunter's Guide, is your complete introduction to zombies. It's full of alternative history, conspiracy theories, IDing different zombie types and takedown methods, anti-meatbag weapons, containment teams in the Zombie War, and other creative riffs on necrology. Nicely illustrated by Mariusz Kozik, with all sorts of interesting sidebars written by McCullough, Zombies is well worth owning. Learn about Miskatonic Univeristy, boasting 10,000 volumes on 'animate necrology'; the Vikings discovery of draugr, literally walking corpses; voodoo zombies and their place in Haitian history; and why atomic zombies pose the greatest threat. And if you have a itch to blast some necro to bits, McCullough gives a detailed map and method for clearing rooms.
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