Monday, August 29, 2011

Editorial: NecroScope Celebrates 13 Months Online!

Thirteen months! Over 200 posts! It's been a busy unlife for the staff at NecroScope since we started blogging from the crypt, and the popularity of zombies in literature, film, TV, gaming, and pop culture in general shows absolutely no sign of waning anytime soon!

Your friendly NecroKeeper would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has supported us over this past 'year'; our staff and guest contributors, those who sent us notifications and material for review, and especially our slowly-growing horde of loyal Shamblers, who dutifully devour every new offering - either here on on our FaceBook page - and offer feedback and encouragement. Keep it coming, zomfans - you're the reason we keep running this freakshow, and - with the next year looking to be an even more massive one for zombie culture - we look forward to giving you more of what you've come to expect from NecroScope.

Review: Dead Men Walking

Tales of Zombies and the Living Dead (Fantasy and Horror Classics)

Various, 2011, Read Books

Dead Men Walking is one in a trilogy of zombie-themed anthologies from Read Books focusing exclusively upon more traditional zombies, particularly those of the Vodou or 'dead seeking vengeance' variety. Overall, this volume is a pretty decent showcase of zombie fiction, comprising such well-known classics as W. B. Seabrook's 'Dead Men Working in the Cane Fields' and G. W. Hutter's 'Salt Is Not For Slaves', along with lesser-known offerings such as 'The Hollow Man' by Thomas Burke and 'White Zombie' by Vivian Meik.

That said, Dead Men Walking may be more for the literary collector than the serious zombophile, even those whose tastes run more to the traditional, as not all of the pieces in this anthology have aged well since original publication during the early Twentieth Century. It's also worth noting that this volume is pretty pricey (AU$25) for such a slim publication (a mere 130-odd pages, comprising nine stories), and that the other two existing volumes in this series each include more than half of the stories already printed in Dead Men Walking. Odd, that.

Nonetheless, a sufficiently decent publication to warrant reading, although maybe one to pressure your local library for.