Seattle’s Undead Convention to Leave Seattle?

Popular ZomBcon Convention Fights to Save the Convention and keep Seattle; Zombie Capital of the World.

[Tuesday, January 3, 2012 - Seattle] ZomBcon International, champion of undead culture, is facing the harsh reality of its own untimely apocalypse; with a goal of fundraising $125,000 by the end of January to keep the ZomBCon convention alive and in Seattle for future years.

Seattle is known as the birthplace for many emerging trends, from grunge music, the world’s best coffee and today’s software giants. Always ready to celebrate emerging voices, it is seen as one of the nation’s largest popular culture meccas for the past twenty years.

In 2010, ZomBcon joined the already impressive ranks of Seattle’s premiere pop culture conventions that already included Emerald City Comic Con, Sakuracon and Pax Prime.

ZomBcon International, the world’s first and largest Zombie Culture convention, wrapped up its second year this past October with over 5,000 people attending the three days event.

It gained worldwide popularity in 2010 with the popular “Evil Dead Wedding” with cult movie star, Bruce Campbell officially ordained to wed a northwest couple with the entire movie cast in attendance. Complete with movie inspired vows with an entire wedding party dressed as Zombies at Seattle’s own pop culture destination, the EMP Museum.

Ryan Reiter, Founder of ZomBcon, discusses the severity of ZomBCon’s fight for survival. “It’s been a bittersweet year for us. The convention has been a huge success publicly with an overwhelming support by the media and fans worldwide, in such a short span. We’d loved to continue this fan infection for 2012, but are simply out of bullets and gas to fund it ourselves and keep the horde of debt away.”

Receiving less than 10% of their operating budget from corporate sponsorships has left the organization at the mercy of ticket sales to support the Con itself. In its first two years, ZomBcon has gained worldwide notoriety from sources as wide-ranging as the New York Times, Fangoria, Playboy and most recently,  MSNBC, attributing to the success of ZomBCon’s world record breaking zombie walks and the convention’s estimated worth of 10 million in today’s economy.

Reiter acknowledges that an event of this size and vision takes a much larger budget to continually support itself in its early days, but with the rise in this year’s attendance, he remains optimistic for the future of the brand.

On top of operating costs, ZomBCon organizers were hit especially hard this year with an unexpected third party hijacking in the weeks prior to the Con. Reiter accredits this attack as the biggest contributor to ZomBcon’s shaky finacial future, claiming over $90,000 worth of brand damage in lost ticket sales, promotion, potential sponsorships and legal fees to combat false accusations.

On September 27th, ZomBCon International was sent a letter making false accusations that Mr. Reiter was not the sole creator, claiming original creation and ownership of the brand’s intellectual property with plans to produce their own 2012 convention.

Mr. Reiter discovered that a former contractual employee had registered a nearly identical “copycat” company name with the State of Washington in August of 2011, then submitted their own claim to trademark of the brand, despite being designed in-house and fully documented. Their malicious behavior threatened to shut down the company website, event ticketing page, and social media initiatives. Even worse, it created doubt among attendees, sponsors, and ZomBCon’s strong reputation among the convention circuit.

The result was the pre-emptive shutting down of the ZomBCon Facebook page. The company’s biggest promotional tool, the fan page surged to over 7,000 fans just three weeks prior to the Con. Despite providing proper company documents to Facebook, the page was never returned, causing ZomBCon to lose its largest social media and ticketing portal.

Reiter has and continues to own the registered ZOMBCON LLC and ZOMBCON INTERNATIONAL LLC since March of 2010 and is the sole owner of the IPs predating the third party claim.  Reiter has since contested the trademark and plans to pursue the third party for damages and tortorious interference.

Reiter shares a bit on the matter by saying “It’s an absolutely bizarre and deeply disappointing situation, one that is much bigger than myself and effects an entire community of fans who know, support and love this convention experience.”

So what does the future hold for ZomBcon International? Reiter says that  2012 plans are on hold until it can secure the proper investment to produce the convention, with a February 15th deadline. He also hopes that shedding light publicly on the issue will help to identify new partnerships, both in Seattle and beyond, that will keep the con alive. But in the end, he leaves it up to the fans and the communtiy to help spread the word to save this experience.

Reiter claims that there has been talks about moving the convention to a new city, expressing interest in San Francisco or Las Vegas. With investor support, and due to their close proximity to Seattle and Hollywood, they could provide the larger marketplace needed to keep ZomBCon supported and affordable for those involved, while decreasing operational costs. But keeping the Con in his hometown of Seattle has always been Reiter’s foremost goal.

To support the ZomBcon Fundraiser, please go to the below IndieGoGo link and keep the con alive and in Seattle. Donations range from $10 – $50,000 and there are incentives and perks for all donation levels.

To support the convention, please share and visit the fundraising link: http://www.indiegogo.com/Support-ZomBcon-International

I wanted to personally speak publicly about a very concerning matter that my team has been dealing with for the past four weeks by an “unnamed” entity that is claiming the ZOMBCON brand and company is their property, both intellectually and by company formation. I would like to finally speak publicly and set the record straight once and for all, as this “unnamed” person is threatening the livelihood and future of ZomBcon International.

It has come to our attention that there is some question about the state of the convention and it’s management or ownership.  As many of you know, our Facebook Community fan page was removed as of today, amidsts the stellar reviews and great success this past weekend.

Due to inaccurate and undocumented claims by a third party who will remained unnamed at this present time, there has been much confusion about this matter and I apologize, we were notified at the same time as you were.

The truth of the matter, amidst this unforeseen speed bump, nothing has changed in regards to the actual performance of this year’s convention, which was our biggest year yet with rave reviews.  Nor do we plan to make any further announcements to allude to this claim. It’s simply not true and we are currently working with our lawyers to rectify this third party claim.

As the president and founder of ZomBcon International, LLC and the RED WHITE AND DEAD Zombie walk, I feel the importance to bring attention to this communication between our audience and fan base, which has always been the key to our success in the past events.

This event was built by fans, for fans and nothing is more important to us then to provide an amazing experience for all parties involved. Our goal is to provide you accurate information and update you as the situation develops and look forward to keeping this great convention in Seattle for 2012.

It’s unfortunate and disappointing that a third party can make claims that have no factual documentation, nor been proven in a court of law that can jeopordize and threaten the very livelihood of this great convention, it’s community and those who have supported us in the past, present and future.

At the current time, our Facebook page has been removed until further notice and suggest that you check back at our official ZomBcon website for any updates and developments regarding this matter. This also includes any new and our announcements for 2012′s convention.

For the time being, please go to XOMBCON INTERNATIONAL to receive the information and updates and please feel free to update your changes to get your ZomBcon on!

I am very proud and stand behind this convention, both professionally and personally which has taken many months, hundreds of countless hours of work by our staff, volunteers and sponsors to ensure a premiere event for fans, exhibitors, special guests, and partners associated.

This letter is to assure you that all is as it should be.  The management of ZomBcon International is not now, nor has it ever been, in the process of changing and remains owned by myself, sole proprietor Ryan Reiter and organized by my great staff that many of you have had the pleasure of meeting last weekend.

Even if that were the case it would not effect the state of the convention at all, so as much as we appreciate your concerns, this has no factual basis and will continue to operate under our ownership, until further notice.

ZomBcon International 2011 was a great success and encourage you all to keep the energy and spirit alive and share it with your friends and amongst your own personal networks, until this gets resolved.

I greatly apologize for any concern or direct confusion based on the abrupt removal of Facebook may have caused.  Please continue to follow and get your news at the official website at www.zombcon.com and Twitter page @ZomBcon. You can also to contact us directly by email at infect@zombcon.com for the latest information or questions to the convention.

Like anything in life, expect the unexpected and in this case, a Zombie apocalypse. We greatly appreciate your patience, support and understanding while we put this matter behind us. Please spread the word and share with our fans, who we owe this great success to and confident that it will continue.

Sincerely,

Ryan Reiter
ZomBcon International
President and Artistic Director

Join the real Horde at our new Facebook location

ZomBcon regrets to announce that Jon Bernthal will no longer be able to join us for the weekend.

Walking Dead events will still continue with Norman Reedus.

Walking Dead Pass Holders will be given an autograph voucher for another guest of their choice.

We apologize for the inconvience.  Please write to infect@zombcon.com with any questions.

$20

AUTOGRAPHS ALL DAY - APPROXIMATELY $20 – $30

CHECK THE SCHEDULE FOR PANEL TIMES

BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAINS

]]> http://www.zombcon.com/2011/10/we-are-not-sold-out-tickets-available-at-door/feed/ 0 http://www.zombcon.com/2011/10/parking-and-transportation/ http://www.zombcon.com/2011/10/parking-and-transportation/#comments Thu, 20 Oct 2011 21:35:13 +0000 zombcon http://www.zombcon.com/?p=4638 The Hilton has been good enough to discount their parking to $10 a day for all attendees and guests.

The Seattle Light Rail has it’s final stop one block from the Hilton.  Directions from Westlake Center can be found here.

If you’re headed to ZomBcon, we already know you’re our kind of guy or gal. You’re the kind of person who doesn’t have to be told to aim for the brain if a corpse tries to bite you. You can debate running versus shuffling, and see the merits of both. And you’ve probably seen a lot of our favorite movies more than once.

We are GeekChicDaily, and we love zombies. Plush zombies, little zombies, radio zombies, novelized zombies, designer vinyl zombies, comic-book zombies, you name it, we’ve snatched it into our clutches. So of course we love The Walking Dead. How much do we love it? Our Nerdist partner Chris Hardwick actually hosts the post-show Talking Dead on AMC.

Sign up for our absolutely free email newsletter, and we’ll give you more to love about The Walking Dead, as you can win season 1 of the show on DVD, and compendium one of the comics. Our newsletter isn’t entirely about zombies – we also cover the latest cool trends in toys, technology, movies, and out-there accessories – but we keep one eye on the living dead at all times, because you just never know. Did we mention we do lots of other cool giveaways as well? There’s that. Sign up by Oct 24th to win the DVD and comics, and head to Twitter and tweet “I’m going to get my Zombie on at @ZomBcon w/ @geekchicdaily http://bit.ly/p1q5qV  #RT #ZomBcon11″ for a bonus contest entry. Because fandom, like zombies, is die-hard.

Revolution is for amateurs... Disorder, chaos, anarchy... now that's fun!

Let’s face it, when society comes crashing down and the corpses start getting up things are going to get just a little bit crazy and you’ll need the right Tools for the job. Firearms are all well and good but they have several glaring problems: 1) They need bullets and the proper kind for your weapon [i.e. all those .38's won't help you when you're toting a .44 caliber Dirty Harry special] 2) Moving parts = potential for failure especially in adverse conditions 3) Extremely noisy, noise draws attention… namely the slathering drooling kind that wants you for its next meal. Now blades on the other hand don’t make any noise at all… well okay except for maybe the thunk of a pumpkin hitting the ground when it’s head topples off its shoulders… require only to be sharpened and as Henry Rollins notes in Feast toting a machete, “This won’t run out of bullets,”
Now that said, choosing a blade requires doing a little homework. Lots of places these days are selling very flashy showy knives at overpriced shops in the mall, but do you want you bet your life on the quality of a blade you found in your local headshop? Or that replica piece from your favorite fantasy movie? Chances are they aren’t even sharpened…or intended for taking on shambling mobs of dead people for that matter, so why chance it? Put down the Ginsu knife from the kitchen drawer. What you want is the right Tool for the job, go with Zombie Tools.
As proud owner of several of their blades I can attest to their quality and craftsmanship. Each blade is made to order ensuring this. Zombie Tools is a small operation, no giant factory mass-producing the same blade over and over. Real blood, sweat and tears goes into each labor of love they hammer out of their workshop in Missoula, Montana.
I previously stated I have a bit of an affinity for sharp objects, when I met the guys from Zombie Tools last year and got a glimpse at their wares I was immediately sold. Hefting a katana I knew it was solid, there wasn’t a chance in Hell something like that would fail. I got a chance to talk with the three metallurgists of mayhem about their history and what the future holds for Zombie Tools:

How did Zombie Tools get established?

Zombie Tools was the product of a convergence of interests among a group of friends over many years. Max and Joey met about 12 years ago and discovered that they shared an interest in swords. They started a tradition of beating the shit out of each other with rapiers and shinai once a week, a black Sabbath of beer and violence known as the Drunken Jedi Pirate Circus. About 7 years ago, they decided that they were sick of buying other people’s swords and decided to try to do it themselves. They began begging, buying, borrowing and stealing tools for their backyard projects, and learning from books and internet forums.

Chris showed up about 6 years ago to photograph and write a story on the group for a local magazine. They haven’t been able to get rid of him since.

Max and his friend Wes Saint John met while hitchhiking around the West many years ago. They ended up in Missoula (where Max went to high school) and spent a lot of time together getting drunk and making horror paintings, assemblage and performance art. They were known as the Tainted Saints.

In October 2007, these people and more came together to produce a Halloween performance for a local bar. Over the course of 6 weeks, we transformed an abandoned Mexican restaurant into an Old West zombie brothel. It was somewhere in the midst of creating this show that the streams of swords and zombies began to fuse. In November, the concept began to solidify, by December we had our first blade prototypes, and in March 2008 we launched our website.

Do you have a blade your tend to favor in particular?

Asking us to choose our favorite blades is like asking a mother which of her children she loves best. But, of course, like any mother, we have our preferences.

As the lead designer on the blade, and a student of Japanese sword combat styles, Max is a big fan of the Apokatana.

The Vakra is Joey’s design baby. Two-handed, he’s a fan of the Deuce.

Chris likes the new Backwoods Bone Machete, and whenever we do test cutting it’s hard to get the Reaper out of his hands.

Zombie Tools make the perfect gift for the holidays for the special undead someone on your list

How is this gnarly etching achieved on your blades?

We get our distinctive finish by spattering the blades with a mixture of bees wax and Essence of Evil. We then coat the blades with ferric chloride acid which does not react with the wax.

What exactly do the different steels mean in laymans terms? Can you do more with certain kinds over others?

There is a huge variety of steels available, and the fundamental difference between them is the proportion of elements added to iron — among them, carbon, manganese, and chromium. Differing percentages of these elements affect the steel’s hardness, tensile strength, and ductility.

We use 5160 spring steel in our designs currently. In general terms, spring steel is an excellent compromise between hardness and durability, which is what you need for the longer types of weapons that we make and the conditions that we make them for — day after long day of killing. Other steels can be harder, which gives them a very sharp edge, but they are also brittle, and if they were used to make a sword, would be at risk of breaking under long use.

Don't fear The Reaper

How do you come up with some of your creative designs like The Reaper or The Squid?

The Reaper came straight out of Max’s personal sketchbook. Max has been drawing and painting his whole life and has been working on graphic novel ideas off and on for years. He drew a picture of a hot, lithe chick holding the Reaper. Joey saw it on his desk one day and said, “Let’s make THAT!”

The Kraken has since reclaimed her brethren back to the inky depths

The Squid came about at a local gaming convention. A group of friends that run security for the con were into Cthulhu and they wanted a unique knife that they could all carry. So we started working with a basic squid shape, and out came the Squid Ax.

I noticed ‘the kids’ are looking a bit different these days, what’s new about them?

About a year ago, we decided that our whole line needed an aesthetic overhaul. Most of the blades in our lineup we had designed almost 2 years earlier, and we’ve learned a lot since then. So we cleaned up lines, added our maker’s mark to all the blades, made our handles more ergonomic, eliminated features that were a production pain in the ass, and focused on issues of balance and cutting dynamics.

The Tooth is a new addition to the lineup of Fistful of Fuck Yeah, do you have any other new designs in the works?

The term "fighting Tooth and nail" takes on a whole new meaning wielding one of these bad boys

Always. Currently in the design stage are a cutlass that will replace the d’Capitan; a kopis, which is an ancient Greek blade that’s like an over-sized kukri; a kopesh, which is a crazy looking ancient Middle Eastern weapon with an extreme curve and something like a hook on the back of the tip; and a hand-ax that we’ll call the Traumahawk.

After a long difficult day of cutting, chopping and slicing your way through the undead horde, what would you recommend for care and blade maintenance?

First, dip that nasty girl in some bleach to kill the biologicals. Wipe her down til she’s good and dry. Then apply any form of oily hydrocarbon that you have handy. We’d use bear fat, but you can substitute with the fat of your local fauna.

What will Zombie Tools do when the shit finally hits the fan during Z-Day?

Throw a party.

Really. The worst thing you could do in the early stages of any apocalyptic crisis is panic. If you panic, you’ll do something stupid and probably end up getting killed — not by the primary threat — but by other people as panicked and as stupid as you are.

What better way to avoid panic than to throw a party? We’d gather our troops, get drunk, play some music, fuck somebody. Do some hallucinogens to increase group cohesion, think deeply about the threats facing us, and get our priorities straight. Then wake up in the morning and calmly go about executing our early-stage plan.

Brewed or distilled?
Brewed vs distilled… we’d prefer both, but if we had to choose, it would probably be brewed. We’ve modeled our company after the ancient Egyptians, who built their pyramids with labor fueled by beer. Give us a couple thousand beers, and we’re sure we could do just about anything.

PBR, Miller High Life or Busch?

Any port in a storm. But while the beer is still cold, we’ll always take PBR.

How has Zombie Tools prepared for the apocalypse?

We’ve focused most of our energies on what we consider to be the single most important factor in post-apocalyptic survival — community. You can have your stockpiled food and weapons, your bug out bags and safe houses. We’ll trade all of that for a group of skilled, intelligent and creative people who know how to work together as a team. And that’s what we have. Within an hour of anything going down we’d have a minimum of 12 people gathered here at the ZT shop. This group has a wide variety of skills: we have mechanics, we have combat veterans, we have hunters, we have carpenters, we have people who know how to grow food and purify water, we have people who can tell a good joke or story (not to be underrated under stressful conditions), and we have metalworkers who can fabricate just about anything given enough useful junk. We’ve worked together doing difficult things and have developed a working style that allows us to make good decisions quickly. A crew like that will have no problem getting what it needs.

Who would win in a swordfight, Conan the Barbarian or Miyamoto Musashi?

Neither. One is a fictional character. And the other is dead.

Haha ok. No but seriously. Who would win in a fight between the two of them?

It would all depend on how much Conan partied the night before. If the Barbarian was having a queasy morning, Musashi would probably have no problem carving a lovely Zen landscape on C’s chiseled pecs. Otherwise, Conan would give the master some trouble.

Any swordfighters you hold in particularly high regard, real or fictional?

We’re rapier fighters, so we like some of the boys from the golden age of dueling. Take the Chevalier D’Andrieux. He was a hired blade during the days when just about any dispute was settled with a duel. He killed at least 70 opponents. He wold regularly disarm his opponent and then promise to let the dude live if he renounced Christ. When the opponent complied, he would proceed to kill him anyway, just to have the pleasure of killing the man both body and soul.

The calender you sent over looks awesome. Do you have anymore artistic projects like it lined up?
We’ve never had any problem coming up with ideas around here. We’ve probably got about 5 years worth stacked up. In the immediate future, our major project will be a TV show. We’ve started shooting the first two episodes. Our production company, Warm Springs Productions here in Missoula (they are the group behind the Travel Channel show “Making Monsters” which recently premiered to outstanding reviews), is going all out. They hired a fancy-ass helicopter to shoot some intro scenes in downtown Missoula on Sunday. (Funny side note: one of our scenes was shot a half a block away from our local “Occupy Wall Street” protest. Folks at the protest thought they were being harassed by the government.) We can’t yet announce the network, but it’s one of the big ones. Don’t know exactly when the show will air, or *if* it will air, but it will likely be in the spring. The show will be about 3 douchebags making kickass weapons and fumbling their way toward something like preparation for an apocalypse. Name of the show is to be determined, but it’s probably not going to be “Zombie Tools” as was reported in our local press. Which is too bad. We kinda like that name.

It’s short sweet and right to the point, literally! We’ll see you in less than a week fellas!

More year round awesomness from The Last Days Calendar

Now if you doubt the raw cutting power these blades have viddy on… the following clips ought to change the mind of any naysayer as they clearly speak for themselves:

Maxon vs 24 Pabst Blue Ribbon cans [NOTE: No beers were harmed during the filming of this]

Wonder what these blades can do to a skull? I’m glad you asked! Witness the power!

How much punishment can one of their blades take? Watch as they Destroy the Deuce

Happy Halloween from Zombie Tools!

Be sure to stop by the Zombie Tools booth and start your arsenal with a blade or two or six! And like them on Facebook

Save the last round for yourself

I want one of these

Humans are a brutal species by nature and always have been; from the dawn of time when two monkeys clubbed each other over the heads with rocks, to the Roman coliseums where gladiators fought to the death for the Caesars’ pleasure, to boxing wrestling and mixed martial arts. Even after mankind is nearly erased by the undead plague, the people need entertainment. Bill Hicks sums the need quite nicely in Revelations pondering about American Gladiators,

” ‘Is Gladiators too violent? And what are we doing watching it? Is it really good for us to watch? Is it too violent?’ NO! Fuck it! Give these guys chainsaws! Let them fuck each other up good. It’s not violent enough. Let these fuckin’ morons kill each other in that God Damn pit! Man… I want to see a fuckin railway spike go through their eyeballs.  They want to kill each other, I’m filming it!

Like many zombie enthusiasts I have a penchant for liking sharp toys, the cover to Thom Carnell’s book No Flesh Shall Be Spared caught my eye almost immediately at last years ZomBcon. There’s nothing like a giant bloody blade to catch the eye. Carnell would later sum up the novel to me as:  “Gladiator meets Dawn of the Dead as seen through the eyes of [Legendary Japanese film director] Akira Kurosawa.”

The story starts with a careless truck-stop mother accidentally smothering the son she never wanted in her sleep. Thus the Apocalypse begins, not with a bang like everyone expected, but only with the tiniest whimper. She wakes up only to find junior has awakened from his dirt nap and is chewing her to death.

From there we fast forward to a world just barely recovered from the brink. The people need entertainment and the latest bloodsport from the Undead Fight League is just the thing. The game is quite simple: kill the zombies that come out of the turnstiles, stay alive and make it look good for TV. Our man Cleese is just our man for the job, having earned a reputation for clearing out hordes of zombies nothing with a bottle of Jack and a bat during the Apocalypse.

His entry into the UFL is mentored by the older, grizzled cage-veteran Monk; whose job is to take the tough-talking wiseass and turn him into an economically viable trained killing machine before he can retire in peace. Monk teaches him all he knows, how to fight and how to utilize the weapons provided. When the cameras aren’t on Cleese finds himself drawn to the mysterious woman ninja Chikara [Japanese for strength]. Except that just because the television cameras aren’t on doesn’t mean no one is watching.

As his ratings begin to rise, he begins to notice that something’s just not quite right. Cleese decides it’s time to opt for early retirement. If he’s not careful about he plays the game it might wind up being someone he cares about trying to tear his throat out on the sandy arena floor, that is if he can live long enough not to end up one of the losers coming out of the turnstiles.

Really what’s not to like about this book? Zombies, Gladiators, Samurai philosophy, guns, knives, swords!  Even from the beginning of the story Carnell doesn’t bullshit you, this is not going to be a happy story with a happy ending, Thom Carnell takes the term bloodsport to a whole new level and assures that  No Flesh Shall Be Spared.

Last year at ZomBcon I met a lot of awesome people with a lot of similar interests aside from the zombie genre. The leather-jacketed local horror journalist, author and cinemaphile extraordinaire Thom Carnell was definitely one of these people.  Now almost a year later he and I finally go mano-a-mano and head to head in this epic tête-à-tête that goes all 13 rounds that follows:

Marshall Popham: Not to go for the proverbial throat right out of the gate but Jesus fucking Christ dude, that first chapter completely ripped my heart out (being an especially new father at the time I had a hard time reading past that point for a while, I had to go hug my daughter after that) was that anywhere as hard for you to write as a parent yourself as it was to read?

Thom Carnell: Well, initially, the story had a different beginning. It was more of a moment that showed the main character in his element: covered in blood, buried in corpses… happy. My wife thought it lacked punch and it was her in fact that suggested we come out swingin’. She was right. She usually is. Was that chapter hard to write? Well, no… not really. I knew I wanted something visceral, something that would let the reader know I what they had in their hand was not your usual zombie story. I mean, so many of them are so utterly formulaic. ‘The zombies are at the door. They’re trying to get in! What will we do?’ Usually, it’s not the zombies that are the real threat anyway. It’s always the old saw-horse of “Man’s inability to cooperate with Man” that is his undoing. In a word… “Boring.” Well, not so much boring as over-done. I wanted to do something else, something different. So, I took a look around and looked at what was popular in Pop Culture (in this case, zombies and MMA) and what was in my body of knowledge (luckily, zombies and MMA) and went from there. I have kids as well and I knew the connection parents had with them. I then remembered a scene from Stephen King’s SALEM LOT which had a child died and came back as a vampire. I recalled the way it affected me when I read it. I also remembered Andrea Bianchi’s 1981 film, BURIAL GROUND: NIGHTS OF TERROR (aka LE NOTTI DEL TERRORE) and a scene in which a child also dies and comes back attack his mother. I remembered how effective those scenes were and let my imagination go from there. After that, it wasn’t hard at all.

So during the Apocalypse Cleese went on the warpath with a bat, what do you think ol’ Cleese would say to swinging a BROOKLYN SMASHER? [Unbreakable baseball bat from Cold Steel]

[laughs] I think he’d like that a lot. However, Cleese only used the bat because it was handy. It could have easily been an axe handle, a chair leg, or anything else. The bat was just something that made for an image that screamed American to me. Hell, if pressed, he might have grabbed a severed limb and used that.

What’s the word on the sequel to No Flesh Shall Be Spared?

Sequel’s being written as we speak. It’s tentatively titled, DON’T LOOK BACK, and I’m thinking it’s going to be even more action oriented. I’ve done about 20,000 words so far and I’m having to slow myself down. The pace has been blistering. I took some time after the first one and did a ton of research: shooting guns, learning about helicopters, learning about ammo, and spending a lot of time on “improvised munitions.” It may not all get used, but the experiences I’ve had doing the research will definitely inform how things will feel. Once the sequel is done, I’ll promote that and get started on the final book in what I’m seeing as a trilogy.

Regarding zombies: What is your take on the whole Fast or Slow debate?

I kind of adhere to the idea that Zack Snyder talked about in the Special Features of the DAWN OF THE DEAD DVD. In that, he describes 3 stages of zombism. #1) “The Emergency Room Zombie” That is… people who have just died. They bear the injuries that killed them and they possess all of the attributes that they had in life. Now, I’ll factor in the inevitable adrenaline dump to explain the whole “fast” zombie thing. What I won’t buy is a zombie doing something that it could not have done when it was alive. #2) This is the dead after say three to five days or so. Rigor Mortis has already come and gone (it usually appears eight to twenty hours after death and lasts for ten to seventy hours but can remain for several days) and decomposition has started. Shit’s goin’ south. The can move, just not very well. #3) This is a body that is less mobile and a lot more decomposed, a whole lot less coordinated. Think… The Bicycle Zombie in THE WALKING DEAD. Ok, so, that said… I also adhere to the Romeroian idea that “Every dead body that is not exterminated becomes one of them. It gets up and kills! The people it kills get up and kill!” I think it has more of a sense of randomness… which, to me, is scarier than just a suped-up case of flu. The idea that zombification is an infection is an interesting one, but one that is more about our fear of infection and of contamination. While that scenario is a lot more likely… someone getting sick and dying and coming back is far more possible than something affecting the bodies of the dead and bringing them back… there just a part of me that thinks the Romero Model is more frightening. Either way… we still end up with hordes of the undead roaming the streets. People bickering about how it all started is, at that point, kind of beside the point.

Suppose a fictional battle between a Roman gladiator and a samurai under the house of Tokugawa, who wins and why?

This sounds like an unused DEADLIEST WARRIOR episode. [laughs]

Hence my very careful phrasing for the Deadliest Warrior fans keeping score at home, myself included! [laughs]

Well, samurai have the better weapons (the Katana, Yumi, Kanabo, and Naginata), the better mindset (the willingness to die), and speed. Gladiators have a more diverse arsenal (although they hail from an age when the weapons were made from weaker metals and were therefore more likely to bend or break) with the Sica, Sling, Trident and Net, Cestus, and Scissor and are physically bigger fighters. So, it really comes down to size vs. weaponry. So, given the speed, training, and advanced technology of the samurai, I’m going with Tokugawa. Now that said, if you watch DEADLIEST WARRIOR, you’d know that the Samurai lost to the Spartan, so… one never knows.

Weapon of choice: Blade, bat or firearm?

Well, as I said when I was asked about my weapon of choice at the first ZomBCon… My initial weapon of choice would be… a good pair of running shoes. The best way to win a swordfight is to never draw your sword, right? That said… I think it all depends on your battleground. Urban? Suburban? Rural? Forest? What’s your playing field like? But as far as weaponry… and assuming I had anything at my disposal. Long range… I’m saying the .50 caliber M82A1 SASR (Special Applications Scoped Rifle or Semi-Automatic Sniper Rifle) sniper rifle. It packs a helluva punch and the round can be delivered from a long way off. Medium range… the Colt AR-15 or the Heckler & Koch HK416 both use the standard 5.56 NATO round. Short range… the AA12 Fully Automatic Shotgun (it can deliver an astounding 300 rounds a minute – full auto, 12 gauge) wins the blue ribbon. Handgun… I’ll take a suppressed Heckler & Koch HK45 or a Berretta 92F.  Closer than that… Give me either a 31” tachi, a 29” katana, or… if we’re being exotic… a Turkish Kilij.

Are you Prepared for Z-Day?

Let’s just say this… I’m probably better prepared than your average citizen. I mean, I’ve spent my life around the dead (I attended mortuary college and worked as an embalmer for years). I know a thing or two about weapons and fighting. And… I’ve spent a LOT of time thinking the whole scenario over. But to be honest – and while it may sound silly – one thing I learned from played LEFT 4 DEAD is… that even a meticulously laid plan can go to shit real fast from the slightest deviation or bit of bad timing. So, you never know…

Round 2 continues on in the next article, read on to see who will emerge victorious in Part II

Go check out Thom’s website: Zombies Exist!

Marshall Popham: You’ve mentioned before being a big fan of the chanbara genre, particularly Kurosawa (of which I’m particularly fond myself), do you have a favorite out of the genre? I remember you mentioning having seen every Zatoichi movie.

Thom Carnell: Hmmm… well, that’s a hard one. I mean I do have personal favorites, but – believe it or not – there are even sub-genres to that sub-genre. I mean, there’s the action-oriented films like the Zatoichi films or the Lone Wolf & Cub films. Then, there are the more drama-oriented films like the Yoji Yamada trilogy (THE TWILIGHT SAMURAI, THE HIDDEN BLADE, and LOVE AND HONOR) which I just love. I’m actually doing a thirteen part primer on chanbara films on Season 2 of the pod cast I co-host, The Night Crew (http:// www.thenightcrew.org) and we just did a comparison between the Japanese chanbara film and American western. I love the genre because it’s morality is so clearly defined. That… and the swordplay is awesome. As far as favorites… The Yamada Trilogy, The SLEEPY EYES OF DEATH series, DORA HEITA, HARAKIRI, KILL!, The Hanzo The Razor series, THREE OUTLAW SAMURAI, NINJA HUNT… Man, the list just goes on and on.

You write for DreadCentral as well as Fangoria and I see you posting reviews of movies everyday, how many movies would you say you’ve seen in your line of work?

I do indeed post reviews of everything I watch on my Facebook page . Honestly though, I do what I do not to be who I am… but because of who I am. Does that sound douchey?

No, you are who are you and not who you’re not.

I mean, I watched the amount of films I watch even before I started writing for genre outlets and I watch an average of 2-3 movies a day and I’ve done so for the last forty-five years. Film was such a huge part of my growing up and I just naturally became interested in it. Then, I found books and that opened a whole other world for me. At my core, I just love the Art of Storytelling. It’s the closest thing on earth I’ve found to Magic. But to answer your question, let’s put it this way… On Netflix, I’ve rated almost 7,000 movies and that’s not counting ones I’ve seen, but either haven’t seen listed or aren’t in in their archives.

I understand doing it for the love of film. What are your top 10 movies that you would Ludovico Technique one of these average movie-goers in an attempt to make them appreciate film a bit more?

Well… this gets dicey. I mean, there are the films I think everyone should see. Then, there are the films I myself enjoy (which sometimes are necessarily classically “great”). And then, there are the films that people need to see to be able to hold their own in a discussion of Film. I’ll give you a list of the films I gave when I filled out my staff questionnaire for The Night Crew. Favorite films: NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, WHITE CHRISTMAS, THE FALL, Hirokazu Koreeda’s AFTERLIFE, ENTER THE DRAGON, FIGHT CLUB, BLADE RUNNER, CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER, THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE, the entire ZATOICHI series, the LONE WOLF AND CUB series, KWAIDAN, the SLEEPY EYES OF DEATH series, SPRING, SUMMER, FALL, WINTER… AND SPRING, THE RED VIOLIN, OUT OF THE PAST, INSIDE, MARTYRS, GALLIPOLI, WHEN THE LAST SWORD IS DRAWN, Yoji Yamada’s SAMURAI Trilogy, WATER, THE LAST SAMURAI, 800 BULLETS , THRONE OF BLOOD, DEPARTURES, TOKYO GODFATHERS, SCHULTZE GETS THE BLUES, RED CLIFF (International version), DORM, PLAYTIME, Yang Zhang’s SHOWER, OSS117: CAIRO, NEST OF SPIES, the anime MUSHI-SHI, THE FOUNTAIN, BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA, THE MAN FROM NOWHERE, THE OTHERS, THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY, MURDER BY DEATH, AMELIE, HARAKIRI, THE DESCENT… I’m sure I’ve left a ton out, but that’s as good a place as any to get started.

What got you into horror?

One of my first movie-going experiences was going to a drive-in with my mom back in the early ‘60s. We were a family who were getting by on a single parent’s income. There wasn’t a lot of money, you know? So, my mom had heard about this new comedy and she loaded me and my two sisters into the ‘56 Buick and we went to the El Rancho Drive-In in San Jose, CA. It was an old school place and I saw some great flicks there. Anyway, it wasn’t until we paid to get in and got settled that the movie began. The comedy she’d taken us to… HUSH, HUSH SWEET CHARLOTTE.. which is by no means a comedy. She told us kids to lay down and go to sleep, but I sat and watched the film through the seats and was entranced. From there, I saw what I could. It wasn’t until 1971 when Bob Wilkins came on KTVU 2 in Oakland with a show called CREATURE FEATURES that I was fully hooked. That show became like my religion. Years later, I interviewed Bob and told him how important he was to me growing up. I think he thought I was just being nice, but… I wasn’t. From there, I leapt in with both feet. I used to wait with baited breath for the TV GUIDE to come in the mail and I’d grab it and a highlighter and sit and mark off all the movies I wanted to see. And every day, I’d set my alarm for fifteen minutes before the movie started just so I could get up and watch it. I used to go to school with little sleep, but it didn’t matter because I would tell my friends all about the film I’d seen the night before. Luckily, my mom kind of understood and allowed me to get away with it.

Obviously you’re WELL versed in the horror genre, but what scares Thom Carnell? Or rather, what sort of thing makes a horror enthusiast such as yourself’s skin crawl? (i.e. the director of Saw II came up with the syringe pit because needles terrify him)

Well, first off, one wishes the thing that scared Darren Lynn Bousman would have been the fear of making a crappy movie… maybe SAW II would have been better. But, I digress… Other than the big things (something happening to my family, being infirmed and unable to care for myself, etc), there’s not a lot. I mean, I worked in funeral service for ten years off and on and I saw as many ways as there is to die. I’m not too concerned by the thought of walking in a graveyard at night (it’s really rather pleasant). I’ve encountered violence. Spiders don’t bug me. Snakes… Some might say that I have an issue with zombies since I’ve spent more than a few years studying them. Honestly, if I had to pick one thing that frightens me… it’d be people. I love people one-on-one… it’s just I get a little uncomfortable when I encounter them in large numbers. I start getting mental images of being run up a windmill by villagers with pitchforks and torches. In my opinion, four or five people is a dinner party… any more than that and that’s a mob… and THAT’S scary.

How do you feel about the amount of remakes? Do you feel any have made any marked improvement over their original?

Well, not all remakes are bad. There are just as many out there that rock. I think people give remakes too hard a time. If you want to get infuriated about something movie related, get pissed of at people who won’t watch a film in black & white. Get irritated at the person who won’t watch a film with subtitles… or that is letterboxed. If you want to see some truly great films, you need watch films from all over the world. On The Night Crew pod cast, we are always going on about “context.” The gist of it is… to fully understand why a film like NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD is a good film, you need to have seen OUT OF THE PAST or KEY LARGO or… who Jacques Tourneur is. Hell, you need to know a thing or two about fuckin’ musicals or who Vincente Minelli is. Y’know? So a lot of the blame on the lame output of Hollywood I lay right at the feet of the average moviegoer who doesn’t take the time to know what it is he or she is looking at. Because, let’s face it, going to a cinema now is a nightmare. People texting during the film… talking… bringing children to wholly inappropriate films. It’s hard to imagine that some of these people know how to behave. Then, to top it all off, theater owners don’t do a thing about it. Thankfully, there are people in the world like Tim League at The Alamo Drafthouse who will have someone who does that shit escorted from the building in no uncertain terms. But remakes… shit, they’re the least of my worries.

What’s your opinion on the latest craze of ‘torture porn’ movies like Human Centipede: Full Sequence, A Serbian Film or the Hostel movies? Are these directors just trying to get a reaction from a ‘been-there-done-that-seen-that” sort of crowd by pushing the envelope off the cliff?

Man, how much space to you have for this answer? [laughs]

Take as much as you need!

What’s my opinion? I have no problem with violence (even extreme violence) IF it serves to move the story forward. Sadly, most “torture porn” films fail to do that. The violence tends to be more… masturbatory than anything else. I think the violence in A SERBIAN FILM was a necessary part of that particular film. If you were to take it out of that flick, the structure would definitely fall apart. It would make no sense. The HOSTEL series… there I think the violence was necessary, but it also lingered unnecessarily. There came a point where the audience “got it,” they knew what was happening and the director let the camera run. After a while, it’s no longer furthering anything (not story, not theme, etc). It’s just sort of “wallowing” in its own excess. I’m not a particular fan of the HOSTEL films, but Eli Roth at least tried to do something that was new (even if he did get caught up in his own mythos). Plus… any series that casts both Takashi Miike and Edwige Fenech… ain’t half bad. Now, HUMAN CENTIPEDE… Look, I HATED HUMAN CENTIPEDE, but not because of the violence or whatnot. I think it had a solid story idea. The problem there was in its execution. The film was simply poorly made. Now, this all said, I grew up in an era (the 70s and 80s) when “splatter” was in its heyday. Back then, Special Makeup FX guys like Savini and Bottin were like rock stars. In fact, I used to go to see films because of who the FX guy was. But as a result of that era, we all learned that “gore” was only effective if the audience felt something about the characters. Look at FRIDAY THE 13TH. Those kids were dicks and by the time Jason’s mom starts offing them, the audience is cheering for those fuckers to die. Now, juxtapose that with the single, simple death in SCHULTZE GETS THE BLUES or the violence in THE MAN FROM NOWHERE. Completely different things. In the former… you don’t give a shit about the characters and want them to die horribly. In the latter, you COMPLETELY care and, when the deaths come, you’re either deeply saddened (as in SCHULTZE) or completely exhilarated (as MAN FROM NOWHERE). Then… you look at something like Fred Vogel’s AUGUST UNDERGROUND films and you see them for what they are… exploitative masturbatory crap. There is no subtext there, no meaning. It’s just death for death’s sake, meant to titillate. It’s bullshit and it’s just bad filmmaking.

Do you have a favorite interview with you’ve conducted with someone or a most memorable moment?

Favorite interview… Well, I always enjoy speaking to Clive Barker. He always leaves me with something to think about and is super inspiring. Both him and Neil Gaiman make you want to be a better writer. Diamanda Galas was amazing. I was so scared to talk to her, but she was great. I recently chatted with Kate Beckinsale for the new Underworld movie and she was nice… smelled amazing. There’s been so many over the years. I’ve been doing interviews since 1994. There have been literally hundreds of people I‘ve sat with and each one is kind of special in their own right, y’know? Frank Miller. Salma Hayek. Robert Rodriquez. Alex Ross. Luckily, Zed Presents… is putting the best of those out in eBook form in association with Crossroad Press called THE CARPE NOCTEM INTERVIEWS… Once we click through the ones I did for CARPE NOCTEM Magazine, we’ll start doing THE FREELANCE YEARS… which covers everything after that. Ok, so… The memorable ones? I had an interview with Andrew Vachss go bad once. It was just after the Columbine incident and I think he thought I was asking questions that were designed to get some clichéd soundbite from him. I wasn’t, but… The talk started to go sideways and it became impossible to put it back on track. My wife arranged for me to talk to Gino Vannelli for my birthday one year. That was pretty terrific because I’ve been a fan since I was younger. I really enjoyed talking with Spanish director Nacho Cerda about his film, AFTERMATH because we got into a lot of deep shit about death and dying. These says, I really dig interviews where I myself learn something and it’s not just that same ol’ same ol’. It’s the main thing I love about doing The Night Crew podcast. My co-host, Sean Smithson, and I do interviews with people that are WAY out of the box. It makes it fun for Sean and I… and it makes it fun for the guests because they get to actually have a conversation rather than just answer the same questions they’ve been answering for years. But like I said… there’s been so many people over the years and I usually have a great time talking with them.

Who would you like most to interview?

As far as who I’d most like to talk to… I’ve managed to click off most of the names I’ve had on my Interview Bucket List… with one exception: Stephen King. I was supposed to interview him years ago, but just before we were scheduled to talk, he was hit by that car and that ended that. Maybe some day…

And with that final blow, Carnell wins by knockout. Be sure to see him hosting several panels over the course of the weekend at ZomBcon! Not only that but if you happen to miss out… why you would though is absolutely beyond me… Thom will be having a signing at Village Books in Fairhaven from 4-7pm on Saturday October 29th. Buy No Flesh Shall Be Spared on his website Zombies Exist and keep your eyes peeled for the sequels!