Stonewall Jackson got me into this whole thing in the first place. I wouldn’t be writing about the Civil War—wouldn’t be studying it, reading about it, interpreting it, giving tours about it, […]
Chris Mackowski
The Marvel Zombies: A super infection (sort of)
Since I’m reading comic books because of Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead (as if I really need an excuse to read comic books), I’ve decided to turn my attention to a different […]
The Walking Dead, part three: The Rise of the Governor
How does a bad guy become a bad guy? And how does an author make him a good guy while it’s happening? That’s the task Robert Kirkman and Jay Bonansinga set for […]
The Walking Dead, part two: Comics, Creators, and Compelling Storytelling
It’s a common theme I’ve noticed running through a lot of zombie apoca-lit: Other people, not zombies, represent the real danger. That’s certainly true in The Walking Dead—in the comics and in […]
The Walking Dead, part one: Season One
Spring break, 2011. I’m in Ashtabula, Ohio, visiting my mother, and The Walking Dead are everywhere. Or so it seems. American Movie Classics, AMC, is about to release season one of The […]
Romero's Dawn novelization: A fanboy's masterclass in low-brow writing
As the godfather of the modern zombie, it’s hard to understate the impact George Romero has had on the genre. He’s been cranking out zombie movies since 1968’s Night of the Living […]
Wondering with Mark Twain
I wonder what Twain is thinking as he stands there atop the granite steppes of the pedestal. Surely he’d chuckle if he could see himself that way, raised up like that, though […]
If this is the Zombie Apocalypse, why am I rolling my eyes?
One of the things that made World War Z so successful is that presents itself as a collection of oral histories about the zombie apocalypse. Author Max Brooks did an outstanding job […]
An oral history of the Zombie Apocalypse
Daniel Drezner’s Theories of International Politics and Zombies predicted that a zombie outbreak, as devastating as it would be, probably would not mean total annihilation for the human race. “The public benefits […]
International community: Zombie apocalypse not likely
Daniel Drezner’s visit to Graceland a few years back taught him something important about writing about zombies. Fellow tourists seemed to fall into two contingents: The first contingent was thoroughly, utterly sincere […]
Progressive Culture | Scholars & Rogues 