Zombie Readings

I'm not a big fan of comics, so I wasn't really sure what to expect from the Walking Dead comic. Without the introduction, I don't know that I would have enjoyed it at all. I've never completely understood the hype about zombies, but I think that Robert Kirkman is correct in that a huge amount of the popularity of zombie stories is that they have the potential to delve deeply into human nature and what people are capable of. I enjoyed the art style of this more than many comics I've come across, and I like that there's no explanation (yet) of what causes their condition.

I honestly didn't enjoy the second article. The topic is an interesting one, but I found the article itself pretty dull. I felt like it was mostly a collection of other people's opinions rather than unique thoughts by the author. That said, there were a couple of things I found interesting. I hadn't really thought about the fact that vampires are no longer portrayed exclusively as monsters, but there's definitely been a major change in how vampires are portrayed lately. I don't know if the change in vampires' portrayal affected the popularity of zombies as much as the author implies, but I think it reflects on the values and desires of society. We've divided the "undead" into vampires; who're now sexy, immortal, and either tortured and attempting to curb their desires, or totally without conscious; and zombies who are hideous, mindless, and terrifying in that they have a huge potential to infect anyone who comes into contact with them. While vampire fiction still contains vampires that we should fear, vampires aren't portrayed as inherently evil. The author of this articles talks about how vampires have become creatures that we dream about, whereas zombies are still the stuff of nightmares. He talks about people capitalizing on vampires, but doesn't mention the beauty industry at all in this, despite the fact that society's obsession with vampires feeds, and is fed by, society's obsession with agelessness. A fact that the beauty industry will never cease to capitalize on. I liked the parallel he drew between zombies and consumerism, how consumerism seems to slowly drown out our individuality and make us behave mindlessly. He mentions at the end of his article stories in which zombies become sympathetic characters, and questions if this is a direction in which the zombie trend will head. While I won't be surprised if more stories are written with sympathetic zombies, I doubt the more standard zombie will ever be eclipsed by its sympathetic counterpart as seems to have happened with vampires.