Zombies! An Illustrated History of the Undead (Book Review) St. Martin’s Griffin
I was first introduced to Jovanka Vuckovic through her 7 year (’03-’09) run as Editor-in-Chief of arguably the best horror publication in existence, Rue Morgue magazine based out of Toronto, Ontario. Before that she had a stint as a make-up FX artist (where she won a Gemini Award for Best Visual Effects) and recently, since her retirement from Rue Morgue, threw her hat in the ring as a filmmaker with her short entitled The Captured Bird, to be executive produced by Guillermo del Toro of Pan’s Labyrinth fame. Her desire to push the horror industry along kicking and screaming into a more artistic realm has made her one of the leaders of the new school of horror. And to say that she is an inspiration to females in a male dominated arena is an understatement.
Now she has taken the superb writing skills that she honed in the pages of Rue Morgue and put together what I can only call the definitive undead resource book called ZOMBIES! An Illustrated History of the Undead. The book covers everything from the genesis of the word “zombie” in Haiti, through cinema and into the multimedia walking dead. The chapters which deal with zombie cinema in the ’70s and ’80s are particularly interesting to me as Vuckovic delves into the Italian splatter-iffic take in the genre, covering Amando de Ossorio’s Blind Dead series and Fulci’s classic zombie flicks. She also goes into the ’90s with one of my favorite trilogies, The Return of the Living Dead, Re-Animator and much, much more. Jovanka took her expansive knowledge of the subject and no doubt hours of thorough research and crafted a fun, entertaining and very informative breakdown of one of horror’s most-loved boogeymen (and boogeywomen).
I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention that this book is rife with wonderful images of the lovable, rotting bastards. From the gorgeously illustrated cover by Charlie Adlard and Cliff Rathburn, the pages are filled with posters, lobby cards, flyers, photos and movie stills from some of your favorite movies in glorious full color and high quality black and white. To give you an idea of how seriously badass this book is, the forward was written by no other than Mr. Zombie himself, George A. Romero. As I close out this review, I’m holding this book in my hands marveling at the quality of the artwork, layout and even the hefty stock of the paper. The publisher, St. Martin’s Griffin, really gave Jovanka Vuckovic’s knowledge and vision of this book the royal treatment. I loved every bit of it and I’ll bet you will too.
