The Governor rises again... in paperback

The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor will be available in paperback on June 5th.

"In the Walking Dead universe, there is no greater villain than The Governor. The despot who runs the walled-off town of Woodbury, he has his own sick sense of justice: whether it’s forcing prisoners to battle zombies in an arena for the townspeople’s amusement, or chopping off the appendages of those who cross him. The Governor was voted “Villain of the Year” by Wizard magazine the year he debuted, and his story arc was the most controversial in the history of the Walking Dead comic book series. Now, for the first time, fans of The Walking Dead will discover how The Governor became the man he is, and what drove him to such extremes."

The book is also currently available in hardcover, Kindle and audio CD editions.

And the official cover is:

The Road to Woodbury, Robert Kirkman and Jay Bonsinga's follow up to The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor, gets its cover. 

The Walking Dead: The Road to Woodbury will be released on October 16, 2012 (and is available for pre-order now).

New In Print: WANTED: Dead or Undead, The Zombie West Series (Book 1)

Releasing tomorrow, Angela Scott's WANTED: Dead or Undead, The Zombie West Series (Book 1):

"Trace Monroe doesn't believe in luck.  He never has. But when a fiery-headed cowgirl saunters through the saloon doors, wielding shotguns and a know-how for killing the living dead, he believe he just may be the luckiest man alive.

Trace wants to join "Red's" posse, but she prefers to work alone - less messy that way.  In order to become her traveling companion, Trace has to agree to her terms: no names, no questions, an if he gets bit, he can't beg for mercy when she severs his brain stem.  He agrees, knowing only that Red is the sharpest shooter he's ever encountered.  The fact she's stunning hasn't escaped his attention either.

What he doesn't know, is that Red has a very good reason to be on top of her game.  She not only has the answer for how they can all outlive the plague talking over the wild, wild west, she is the answer."

WANTED: Dead or Undead, The Zombie West Series (Book 1) is available in paperback and Kindle editions.

Evolved Publishing has a free preview of a chapter from the book here.

Just announced: The Walking Dead: The Road to Woodbury

The Road to Woodbury, Robert Kirkman and Jay Bonsinga's follow up to The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor has just been announced. 

The Walking Dead: The Road to Woodbury will be released on October 16, 2012 (and is available for pre-order now).

The Nerdist Channel Comes To YouTube

Zombie Chris Hardwick explains why you need to subscribe to the Nerdist Channel for its April 2nd launch on YouTube!

Zombie Poets Take A Road Less Traveled

Poetry is no longer just for waxing philosophical about singing caged birds or roads less traveled.  Now it's also a way to bring life to the inner mind of the undead, memorialize the masses who fell to ravenous hordes and to warn the living to take a road less traveled by flesh eating zombies (because that could make all the difference).  The zombie poetry bug has hit and the infection is spreading.

And just how much notice is zombie poetry getting?  Enough to get a write-up in The New York Times with a look at several recent anthologies including Aim For The Head, Vicious Verses and Reanimated Rhymes, and Zombie Haiku.

On Friday, the NYT wrote - "Rotting flesh, a disintegrating personality, an insatiable craving for brains — this is the zombie experience, although the more daring zombie poets allow for complex emotional states like alienation and loss."

The latest collection is Write Bloody Publishing's Aim For The Head: An Anthology of Zombie Poetry, released in October 2011.  From "Fifteen Ways To Stay Alive" to "Gifts For The Dead At Christmas" and "Citizenship Test For The UUSA (United Undead States of America)", the anthology features ghoulish poems from over fifty authors.

A cross-section of some of the best contemporary poets from the stage and the page rise up and shamble their way through an anthology of post-apocalyptic zombie poetry. Funny, creepy, shocking, and even poignant, this collection challenges award winning authors like Scott Woods, Laura Yes Yes, and Khary Jackson to shake the dust off of old conventions, pull the triggers on their imaginations, and…Aim For The Head.

Okay, I don't claim to be a poet and never will but, since it's for the zombie armageddon, I'll give it a shot -

New flesh is red, zombies are blue,

All the undead just want to eat you.

Get your zombie poetry fix from the professionals here:

Max Brooks Book Signing In NYC

Dylan's Candy Bar in New York City is hosting a book signing and Q&A with World War Z and Zombie Survival Guide author Max Brooks on Saturday, October 22nd between 2 - 4 pm (at 1011 Third Avenue).

Walking Dead Book Signing Tonight

For the launch of The Walking Dead - Rise of the Governor, author Robert Kirkman will be signing books tonight in New York City along with co-author Jay Bonansinga:

Barnes & Noble (Union Square) tonight at 7pm.

The Walking Dead - Rise of the Governor is available now in hardcover, Kindle and Audio CD editions.

The Walking Dead Novel & DVD Sweepstakes

St. Martin's Press is giving you a chance to win the new Walking Dead novel along a bunch of other zombie goodness.  Enter on Facebook for your shot at taking home the following:

- a signed hardcover copy of The Walking Dead - Rise of the Governor

- The Walking Dead: Complete First Season DVD (3-Disc Special Edition)

- a signed first print edition of The Walking Dead #27

- an "I Heart Zombies" tote bag

Enter the sweepstakes on The Walking Dead Novels Facebook page.

New In Print: The Walking Dead - Rise of the Governor

Branching out from comic books and television, Robert Kirkman now takes his epic zombie franchise into the realm of literature with the release of The Walking Dead - Rise of the Governor through St. Martin's Press.  Kirkman co-wrote the book with seasoned author Jay Bonansinga.

"In the Walking Dead universe, there is no greater villain than The Governor. The despot who runs the walled-off town of Woodbury, he has his own sick sense of justice: whether it’s forcing prisoners to battle zombies in an arena for the townspeople’s amusement, or chopping off the appendages of those who cross him. The Governor was voted “Villain of the Year” byWizard magazine the year he debuted, and his story arc was the most controversial in the history of the Walking Dead comic book series. Now, for the first time, fans of The Walking Dead will discover how The Governor became the man he is, and what drove him to such extremes."

The Walking Dead - Rise of the Governor is available now in hardcover, Kindle and Audio CD editions.

New In Print: The Smoky Corridor: A Haunted Mystery

Just released in paperback today for readers ages 9-12 years old, The Smoky Corridor: A Haunted Mystery is author Chris Grabenstein's latest kid lit thriller. And yes, its got zombies!

From Random House's About This Book -

"Zack is about to start at his new school, and his dad, who went there years before, tells Zack the stories of the haunted janitor’s closet, the specter of a dead crossing guard, and the Donnelly brothers, who perished in a suspicious fire. Dad doesn’t know that Zack has already met the Donnellys’ ghosts, who have warned Zack that there is an evil zombie under the school. Zack also learns that while zombies are usually content eating corpses, if they happen to bite someone who isn’t dead, that person also becomes a zombie.

Before midterms, Zack is dealing with two zombies, while trying to protect a friend whose curiosity has put him on the zombies’ menu."

Grabenstein's bibliography includes the adult thrillers Tilt-a-Whirl, Mad House, Slay Ride and Hell for the Holidays along with other children's books. Learn more about the author on his official site.

The Smoky Corridor is available in hardcover, paperback and ebook format.

The Newsflesh Trilogy Book Trailer

Mira Grant is following up her zombie novel Feed with two news book in her Newsflesh Trilogy - the just released Deadline and the coming-next-year Blackout. 

"In 2014, two experimental viruses—a genetically engineered flu strain designed by Dr. Alexander Kellis, intended to act as a cure for the common cold, and a cancer-killing strain of Marburg, known as "Marburg Amberlee"—escaped the lab and combined to form a single airborne pathogen that swept around the world in a matter of days. It cured cancer. It stopped a thousand cold and flu viruses in their tracks.

It raised the dead.

Millions died in the chaos that followed. The summer of 2014 was dubbed "The Rising," and only the lessons learned from a thousand zombie movies allowed mankind to survive. Even then, the world was changed forever. The mainstream media fell, Internet news acquired an undeniable new legitimacy, and the CDC rose to a new level of power.

Set twenty years after the Rising, the Newsflesh trilogy follows a team of bloggers, led by Georgia and Shaun Mason, as they search for the brutal truths behind the infection. Danger, deceit, and betrayal lurk around every corner, as does the hardest question of them all:

When will you rise?" - MiraGrant.com

 

Feed and Deadline are available now and Blackout will be released in June 2012.

Does World War Z Have Its Cinematographer?

According to Bleeding Cool, it does. World War Z has a Director of Photography who is already hard at work with pre-production.

Marc Forster‘s film of World War Z appears to be on the absolute tip of the cusp of the verge of crossing the line and entering production. Right as we speak, the film’s cinematographer is busy prepping at one of London’s big film studios.

The DP in question is Robert Richardson, who recently wrapped Martin Scorsese’s Hugo Cabret down at Shepperton. This time he will be working out of another one of our big production bases, over at Elstree. Amongst Richardson’s other credits are Kill Bill, Natural Born Killers and Eight Men Out. He’s commonly referred to as a “stylist” and I can certainly see why.

How did they break this story?  Well, it was as simple as checking Richardson's CV.  His reps at The Skouras Agency already have it listed in his credits.

Looks like we really will get to see World War Z on the big screen.

FREE: The Extinction Parade: An Original Zombie Story By Max Brooks

Max Brooks, the bestselling author of World War Z and The Zombie Survival Guide, has just released a new short story via The Daily Beast site - The Extinction Parade. This time around, Brooks takes a look at the zombie apocalypse as seen through the eyes of vampires.

I have heard it said that the more memories one acquires, the less room the mind has for conscious thought. I cannot speak for others, but at my age, after the remembrance of so many lifetimes crammed into my ancient skull, I do suffer from occasional lapses of 'preoccupation'. It was one of those lapses, lost the recent past, and unconsciously licking my lips, that I descended from my omniscient perch, rounded the church's corner and practically collided with one of them. It was a man, or had been one recently. The right side of his body was still smooth and supple. The left side had been badly charred. Dark, viscous fluid oozed from numerous, steaming wounds.

Read the full story on The Daily Beast.

Find Max Brooks other available titles in the ZOM-B Shop.

A Zombie Chasers Newscast

Smiley Virus... good name for a zombie.

Warning: Undead Ahead! The Zombie Chasers Saga Continues

The children's book series, The Zombie Chasers, is set to continue with the release of its second book, Undead Ahead, on March 29, 2011.

Originally launched in June 2010 by Alloy Entertainment and Harper, The Zombie Chasers is written by John Kloepfer and illustrated by Steve Wolfhard.  

The series follows the adventures of Zack, Johnston and Madison as they fight the good fight against friends and family that have succumbed to the zombie apocalypse.

TheZombieChasers.com intros the team:

Zack Arbutus Clarke: His house is a wreck, his sister's a zombie, and he's stolen his mom's Volvo. He's totally going to be grounded if he survives this zombie outbreak! Zack isn't the biggest kid on the block, but when the stakes are raised and there are lives on the line . . . let's just say, he steps up big in the clutch!

Johnston Rice (a. k. a. Rice): Zack's BFF, Rice is the Zombie Chaser's official know-it-all undead expert and wannabe scientist. He's practically memorized The Zombie Survival Guide, and he knows what's going on . . . most of the time.

Madison Miller: Zack's now zombified sister Zoe's BFF, Madison is a hotsy-totsy vegan queen; she's a cold-blooded mean girl with a heart of gold and a belly full of VitalVeganPowerPunch—and she seriously can't believe that her best friend became a zombie and left her alone with these dweebs (a.k.a. Zack and Rice)!

The Zombie Chasers website has a lot of fun to offer kids who wish to explore the series with options to meet the characters, download free chapters, play games (anyone up for some Whac-A-Zombie?), train to be a Zombie Chaser and even win a chance to be zombified by illustrator Wolfhard. Visit TheZombieChasers.com to join the fight.

Fans of the series can download the first chapter of Undead Ahead right here.  And if you want to find out what it's all about, you can download the first three chapters of The Zombie Chasers right here.

The The Zombie Chasers #1 is available to buy now and The Zombie Chasers #2: Undead Ahead is available for pre-order.