After much hard work this past four months to find the proper financial support to pull the trigger on a 2012 convention to keep this great community undead, we must cancel plans for this year.

Over the past four months, our team’s goal was to identify industry sponsors and partners to secure enough funding to help us support the massive undertaking that had a enough dollars to budget to produce an international convention possible.

At this point in the year, we would have to sign contracts for our venues, hotel and most importantly, our media guests. Much of this event has been a great deal of hard work by our staff and volunteers with most of them not getting paid at all for this wonderful labor of love.

To this day, ZomBcon has failed to reach a profit, despite a great deal of success publicly this past two years with some of the biggest media guests to being rec0gnized by some of the world’s most prestigious media outlets to gracing the cover of Playboy.

At this point and time, our only means of potential revenue generated by ticket sales, it simply too risky for our producers to go forward with and keep this show going forward. Thus far, we have secured no sponsors and no private investors to offset our budgetary costs.

Our interest has and continues to be able to bring you a world class event to Seattle and make this an experience to cherish and enjoy for all ages. Given our set back last year, with lower ticket sales and a disappointing threat by a third party and former employee with no factual basis that eventually destroyed our Facebook page of over 8,000 fans severely damaging our promotional efforts three weeks out from the convention last October, we simply don’t have the support to commit to another year.

Our goal is to find the strength to return to the circuit in 2014 and as we have said before keep it in Seattle. Updates on fundraising events opportunities throughout the year and keep you updated on our Social Media fan pages on Twitter and Facebook.

We greatly appreciate all of the countless support from all of the wonderful people, exhibitors, media and wish that the news was otherwise, but there is just no easy way back for us to make this event happen in 2012.

Sincerely,

The ZomBcon Staff

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!