Waiting for Wizard World: Max Brooks author of World War Z
I love zombie movies, and way before they were the new sparkly vampires mind you. While most kids were watching He-Man I was comparing the overlying thematic elements of Day of the Dead to Dawn of the Dead. I always saw the bigger picture that the movies while seemingly being about the rise of the undead from their grave were really about the human struggle, to not only to get along with one another but to survive the ordeal as well.
After spending almost my entire life watching different interpretations on this theme, sometime after Land of the Dead was released things started to get a bit stale. It seemed as if George Romero himself had run out of ideas. Now just for the record I won’t acknowledge the possibility of fast moving zombies. Not only do I find it hard to believe that the dead are not just simply re-animated but imbued with super-human speed and strength but if these zombies existed we wouldn’t stand much of a chance now would we? I had basically given up on the genre at least in American media up until I ran across World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War.
More after the jump!
World War Z brought a level of thought to the genre that it sadly wasn’t afforded since the 80’s, and a very fresh perspective was also brought to the table as well. It’s of course the story of the dead rising from the grave and the human struggle, but on a global scale never before attempted. We are not simply chained to that small town when the incident first happened but we see across the earth how the epidemic goes from disbelief of the existence of actual zombies to a full-on world war against the undead.
The story is told years after the fact by the survivors in accounts given to a united nations agent. It’s almost a zombiefied version of This American Life, where there are many chapters telling variations on the theme of “how I survived World War Z”. The book stays away from familiar trappings of the genre and throws in quite a few new twists that had even me saying “why didn’t anyone think of that before?”. With it’s short chapters its a quick and painless read, but had even me turning on the lights before entering rooms for a while. The audio book is also of note it’s abridged but it’s actually a full-on audio drama with actors such as Mark Hamill(Luke Skywalker!) and Henry Rollins lending their voices to this epic story. There is a film version in the work but with Hollywood’s track record of books to film I was very happy to find out the project was recently put “on hold”.
Max Brooks the Author of World War Z and son of the legendary comedian Mel Brooks will be doing a “What’s your zombie plan?” Panel on Sunday from 1pm-2pm at Wizard World in Room 201A and needless to say I will be there. I did a similar panel at Balticon 43 and I am wondering what a master like Max Brooks will bring to the table.
