Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Zombies by Matt Mogk; Gallery Books; 2011; 290 pgs; $14.00 US

The back cover splash line is “The Most Comprehensive Zombie Handbook Ever Published!” It might just be. Matt Mogk has compiled a delightful pop culture reference to the kind of zombies you see in movies nowadays. The important distinction which the author makes abundantly clear in the front part of the book is between “voodoo zombies,” as in Wade Davis’s book Serpent and the Rainbow, and “modern zombies,” as in George Romero’s movie The Night of the Living Dead. This book is about the modern zombie, defined as having three characteristics. To wit, a zombie 1. is a reanimated corpse, 2. is relentlessly aggressive, and 3. is biologically infected and infectious. In fact, we should just calls these zombies Romero zombies because the modern zombie canon has evolved from the early Romero film. Interestingly, working back from Romero’s stated influence, Mogk tells us that zombies come from vampires because the filmmaker states his preponderant influence for his film was Richard Matheson’s last man novel, I Am Legend. It is not that vampires evolved into zombies. Rather, the method of vampire creation in I Am Legend is viral infection rather than supernatural transformation, and that innovation in lore is what Romero used to upgrade the low-key zombies that preceded his film into the terrifying flesh eaters he created. An excellent point. And the book takes off from there.

Don’t think that Mogk’s new zombie book is eggheaded navel gazing. It is not. The focus is on popular culture appearances of zombies which approach the innumerable. The book is divided into four sections: Zombie Basics, Zombie Science, Zombie Survival, and Popular Culture. The writing is thoughtful and conversational. Mogk makes logical arguments and presents a large amount of information in a highly entertaining way. There is a lot of zombie here, but what are you going to do, right? It’s a book about zombies. Even with all the info on the web, all the documentaries, and all the other available books, Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Zombies is the most concise and somehow the most comprehensive source for the casual zombie fan and the zombie enthusiast. Recommended for horror fans far and wide.

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Jan 18, 2012

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