So the first season of The Walking Dead is over and it seems likely the show won’t return until October which, according to EW’s calendar experts, is still around ten months away. But don’t panic! EW has compiled a list of undead-oriented entertainment activities to help pass the time with a little help from Walking Dead executive producers Robert Kirkman and Gale Anne Hurd and one of our zombie cover stars, Charles Casey.
Read the Walking Dead comic
While the Walking Dead TV show may have stumbled to a temporary halt, the original comic book just keeps on shambling. Issue No. 80 is out this month — and apparently features “big changes in the series’ status quo” — and the 13th collected volume, Too Far Gone, was published a couple of weeks back. You can also buy another book that showcases the first 50 Walking Dead covers with added sketch material and commentary. Moreover, reading the Walking Dead comic will not spoil your enjoyment of season two of the TV show. Says who? Says Walking Dead comic creator Robert Kirkman, that’s who. “I think everyone should run out and read the comic book series in its entirety to see what could possibly be coming in the television show,” insists the writer.
True, there’s always the tiny possibility he may be a touch biased in this matter. Those who would rather read a 100 percent spoiler-free, Kirkman-penned undead tale should check out his enjoyably nuts Marvel Zombies, in which alternative universe versions of Captain America, Spider-Man, and the Hulk, to name but a few, are transformed into flesh-hungry ghouls.
Watch these zombie movies
Here at EW Towers we could spend all day debating which are the best zombie films (and we often do, usually on Tuesdays). So instead we asked Walking Dead zombie, EW cover star and self-confessed undead movie nut Charles Casey to give us his top five.
2. Night of the Living Dead (1968)
4. Return of the Living Dead (1985)
Read these zombie books
There has been no shortage of readable undead tomes published over the past couple of years from Max Brooks’ World War Z to Seth Grahame-Smith’s Pride and Prejudice and Zombies to Bob Fingerman’s Pariah to Harrison Geillor’s parodical The Zombies of Lake Woebegotten to Roger Ma’s highly useful Zombie Combat Manual. (Well, it will be highly useful if there ever is an actual zombie apocalypse.) Alternatively, you could go old-school and grab a copy of Richard Matheson’s classic fable I Am Legend. Yes, it’s technically more about vampires than zombies, but it inspired Night of the Living Dead and remains an utterly terrifying tale more than half a century after it was first published.
Watch 2010′s other awesome zombie TV show
As my late grandmother used to say, you wait years for a zombie TV show to come along and then two arrive at once. Actually, Nana never said any such thing and would doubtless have been utterly appalled by the gore-drenched, British-made, Stephen King-approved, Dead Set. But that’s no reason why you shouldn’t enjoy this terrific reality TV-lampooning zombie show which premiered on IFC channel just days before The Walking Dead and is now available on iTunes and VOD.
Wait for the Walking Dead DVD
Okay, so this suggestion isn’t much more helpful than saying “Wait for Walking Dead season two,” given that the first season DVD won’t hit stores until March 8, 2011. But according to Gale Anne Hurd, it’ll be worth the wait. “It’s going to have a lot of incredible extras, I can assure you,” says the Walking Dead executive producer. “Constantine Nasr, who has done the behind the scenes EPKs on most of Frank’s films, was with us from pre-production all the way through post-production. There has been a lot of behind the scenes materials posted on the AMC site, but there’s at least twice as much more that will be included in the DVD.”
Watch this…
Well, it made us laugh.
Obviously this isn’t a comprehensive list. What zombie-related activity would you recommend to someone suffering from Walking Dead cold turkey?
More about The Walking Dead:
‘Walking Dead’ writer Robert Kirkman talks about Sunday’s finale: Spoilery bonus extras
‘Walking Dead’ writer Robert Kirkman talks about last night’s explosive finale
‘The Walking Dead’ finale recap: Zombie life sucks. Deal with it
‘Walking Dead’ exclusive: Exec producer Gale Anne Hurd denies Frank Darabont fired writers
‘The Walking Dead’: Let’s meet our zombie cover stars!
‘The Walking Dead’: This week’s EW cover story goes behind the scenes on TV’s best new show
‘Night of the Living Dead’: How a 42-year-old zombie movie refuses to die
Play Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare.
It gives you plenty of time to take down human zombies, cougar zombies, and bear zombies. You might even bump into Sasquatch and the Chupacabras!
I created it almsot completely in Javascript. I say almsot because I used some PHP to initially grab the URLs for the images. The object that I created with PHP is, however, hardcoded into the javascript now. I’ve had one person express interest in seeing the code opensourced, so I may do just that.
Day of the Dead as number one zombie film? Wow, what a true zombie aficionado. That movie is awful.
The Walking Dead is not that great of a show; I don’t get why EW has bent over backwards worshipping it. Definitely not for true zombie lovers, maybe more for bad drama lovers. Does anyone else agree? I feel like the show was just awful and VERY disappointing and don’t understand all the love it’s getting – especially from zombie fans (though I guess even a little bit of zombie is better than none at all). The cast is the most unexciting cast I have seen in such a high profile TV show. Especially the actors who portray Rick and Lori. Horrible. (I do like Daryl and Andrea and even Dale and Merle, at least they have some dimension).
Stephen King is right this time – Dead Set IS amazing and actual zombie fans will love it! Watch it! Just my opinion.
Play the video games Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2.
Watch the BBC show Survivors! It’s like the end of the world cum the Walking Dead without the zombies and just man’s darker nature to contend with.
How on earth can the original Dawn of the Dead be left out of that top 5? It p****s all over 28 Weeks Later and Return of the Living Dead.
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I’d like to recommend DEAD CITY by Joe McKinney: a terrific zombie novel I just finished that reminded me of WALKING DEAD, except being a book it is much more detailed and intense. The story follows a Houston cop as the entire city turns zombie – featuring several incredible mob scenes of hundreds of the undead (think the Atlanta tank sequence but more grandiose). The tone is serious-minded horror and has a sequel titled APOCALYPSE OF THE DEAD. It really rocks from the 1st chapter and just builds from there!
This is a really good book and so is McKinney’s second zombie novel Apocalypse of the Dead. It doesn’t have quite as much action as Dead City, but all in all still a good book. I also like the As the World Dies trilogy by Rhiannon Frater. It also takes place in Texas, and has a lot of action as well as character development.
I thought Casey’s list was pretty solid. Did anyone stop to think that he might not have mentioned Dawn of the Dead because every die-hard zombie fan not only knows about that movie but has probably seen it over 100 times? I might not agree with 28 Weeks Later, but god forbid a man posts his opinion and it not be popular with the masses. I love zombie flicks just as much as the next, but I think the zombie fan boys need to go back in your parents basement, drink a few Mountain Dew Code Reds, watch City of the Living Dead for the 12th time and chill out.
Sheesh. I felt like I had to jump in on this and defend leaving Dawn off. I left Dawn off for two reasons. I already had 2 Romero’s on the list and I really can’t stand the pie fight scene. Other than that I love Dawn as much as every other zombie fanatic. I own the four disc ultimate edition and watch it at least once yearly. As a zombie, I chose Day of the Dead almost solely based on Sherman Howard’s performance as Bub. It’s the single greatest zombie portrayal ever put on film IMO. As for 28 Weeks, I wanted something recent on my list and it’s my favorite of the new crop. I love it when the US Army is up to no good in a zombie apocalypse situation (another reason I love Day of the Dead.)I know I’m in the minority who prefer it to 28 Days. Sue me. Return of the Living Dead is just a pure fun guilty pleasure. Here’s several more that are worth your time as well: Anything involving the undead directed by Romero, Fulci or Argento. Fido, They Came Back, Dead Snow, Dead Alive, Night of the Comet, Re-Animator, Shaun of the Dead, Colin, Dead Set, The Horde, Undead, Hide and Creep, Pontypool, Shockwaves, Return of the Living Dead 2, Tokyo Zombie, Erotic Nights of the Living Dead, Night of the Living Dead (1990) and Cemetery Man. That should be enough to tide you over to season two!
Horrible zombie movie list. While the original Night of the Living Dead started it all, I prefer the 1990 version. Tom Savini did a good job. And Return of the Living Dead series was more of a comedy. And you can’t leave the original Dawn of the Dead out of there. My list is Night of the Living Dead(1990), Dawn of the Dead(1979), 28 Weeks Later, Zombieland and Day of the Dead(Although it’s tough to put that on there) I know 28 Weeks Later is infected and not zombies but it comes so close.
I haven’t seen the 1979 ‘Zombie’ but other than replacing 28 weeks later with 28 days later I thought the list was money. JA is dead wrong (pun intended) and has disappointed me yet again. I think we can all agree that JA’s mother should revoke his computer privileges.
I left Dawn off the list for two reasons: I already had two Romero’s on the list and I hate the pie fight scene. Other than that,I love it as much as every other zombie fanatic. I own the four disc ultimate edition and watch it at least once yearly. I chose Day of the Dead because I love when the Army is up to no good in the apocalypse (also why I prefer 28 Weeks to 28 Days) and Sherman Howard’s Bub performance is the single greatest zombie portrayal on film IMO. Since they only let me have five picks here’s plenty others worth your time to keep you busy until season two comes out: Anything involving the undead directed by Romero, Fulci or Argento, Fido, They Came Back, Colin, The Horde, Erotic Nights of the Living Dead, Tokyo Zombie, Shaun of the Dead, Dead Set, Cemetery Man, Night of the Living Dead (1990), Dawn of the Dead (2004), Attack Girls Swom Team VS the Undead, I Sell The Dead, Dead Alive, Living Dead of Manchester, Undead, Hide and Creep, Return of the Living Dead 2, Pontypool, Re-Animator, Dead Snow, Shockwaves, and MST3k’s version of Zombie NIghtmare. I’m sure I’m forgetting some other choice picks but that’s enough to keep you busy for a while!
Other zombie films worth your time and money. Anything directed by Romero, Argento and Fulci is a given. Shaun of the Dead, Night of the Creeps, Fido, Cemetery Man, Tokyo Zombie, both Dawn of the Deads, Night of the Living Dead (1990), Colin, Dead Set, Night of the Comet, The Horde, Attack Girls Swim Team vs the Undead, Erotic Nights of the Living Dead, I Sell the Dead, Re-Animator, Planet Terror, Brain Dead, They Came Back, Pontypool, Undead, Hide and Creep, Living Dead of Manchester, Dead Snow, Shockwaves, Return of the Living Dead 2, and Flesh Eater.
Also, if you’re looking to read some zombie books I would recommend Brian Keene’s The Rising, City of the Dead and Dead Sea. If you prefer your books with pictures go with his graphic novel The Last Zombie or Raise the Dead. That should keep you busy until season one comes out on DVD at least.
Return of the Ted is bloody good!!!! Gore, sex (oh well) & teddy bears – what more do I need to enjoy my weekend!!!
When I read that this morning, I racheed the quote by the government advisor (Professor Neil Ferguson), and scrolled back to double-check the article wasn’t posted on April 1st.Btw, if you ever suspect a friend of being a zombie (the covert, nimble, intelligent kind touched upon in the article), just hand them an iPhone. Touch capacitive screens don’t respond to the fingers of the undead, so it seems the Jesus phone does have a useful function after all.(Also hi! I hope my using Technorati to find bloggers I haven’t heard of in half-a-decade ago doesn’t come across as a bit creepy. <_<)
Oh, sorry “Dawn of the Ted”, of course!
Still wowed by the book World War Z. I love the original 1968 version, and Shaun of the Dead. Just saw Zombieland; it’s growing on me. And I’m a fan of the video game Zombies vs. Plants. It’s cute and funny!