News Bites

Max Brooks Panel at Comic Con 2008

Comic Con day 2 started out much earlier. Norm and I made the drive back home and were pretty exhausted from the traffic drama of Day one. We were on the road by 8am and it was smooth sailing all the way to Downtown San Diego, taking the usual hour and a half or so. I thought I’d try parking closer but realized very quickly that parking was already full and quite a bit more expensive the closer to the Convention Center. We parked by the Santa Fe Train Station and took a bike taxi to the Convention Center. We made our way to the first panel of the day, consequently the first panel of the show for us, which was the Spotlight on Max Brooks panel.Max Brooks is the writer of the Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z and the son of legendary comedic actor and director, Mel Brooks. Max is attributed to having breathed new life into the zombie genre.  The panel was packed, but we had no problems getting in and finding a seat. The panel was quite interesting. Max spoke about the upcoming graphic novel, The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks, which we got a special sneak peak issue, and will be available October 2008 (although the Random House site and Amazon.com state January 9, 2009 – which I’m more inclined to go with right now).

Max also spoke about how he came about writing the Zombie Survival Guide, which was never intended to be published. He started writing the Zombie Survival Guide in the late 90′s when our country was at peace, the economy was booming, and the biggest political scandal was a “BJ”. But when had a looming threat and that was Y2K. The idea that on the eve of December 31, 1999, all of the computers all across the planet would reset to 1900 and cause a techno-apocalypse. He mentioned how several friends and colleagues had “Y2K plans” of going to the countryside, where they had stockpiled goods and cash. These were not crazy people, these were highly intelligent and successful people. I remember my dad telling me about a guy he worked with who had done the same. He had closed all his bank accounts and had a cabin up North that he was going to spend the New Years at…that had a stockpile of food and supplies. I laughed when he told me the story, as did my dad. This was also around the time when survival guides were being published left and right. Remember all the “Worst Case Scenario” guides and all the spinoffs? Brooks was working as a screenwriter in the Valley and would work on the Zombie Survival Guide on his own time and then shove it into a drawer only to pull out when he had some time or inspiration. A few years later, he showed the manuscript and the guy said that he could get it published.

In 2003, the Zombie Survival Guide was published. Brooks realized that he would have to promote the book and started holding self-defense classes. He soon realized that 10% of the people that would attend his lectures were intellectuals, 80% were zombie nerds, and the other 10% were READY! He was being asked real questions by the attendees and he soon realized that he had to provide them with real answers. All of the information in the ZSG is based on true facts. He researched guns and other weaponry, science, history, and of course, tried and true survival practices. With the success of the Zombie Survival Guide, he realized that he had one more zombie book in him and he knew that it was not a novel. He toyed with the question: what are other places doing? If we are suffering a major zombie outbreak in the States, how is Russia dealing with it? Or China, Africa, and Europe. In 2007, the docu-novel, World War Z was born. This was one of the most riveting reads in a long time for me. I remember pre-ordering it and when it arrived on my doorstep, I tore open the box and started reading it. I didn’t want to blow through it in a few days so I took my time, limiting my reading to a section or two each sitting. It was agonizing, because I wanted more, but I knew if I went through it too fast that that feeling would still be there. So I took two weeks to read it and is still one of my favorite books. One of the greatest things about World War Z is that every event in the books has already happened at some place or time. The books is based on real events that have been modified to fit zombies. World War Z is set to become a film in 2010, possibly by Paramount Pictures. Max Brooks is not writing the screenplay however J. Michael Straczynski, whose writing credits include Clint Eastwood’s film, Changeling, Babylon 5, which he also created, The Real Ghostbusters, Jake and the Fatman, Murder, She Wrote, She-Ra: Princess of Power, and He-Man and the Masters of the Universe is working it. According to Max Brooks, who has read a draft of the screenplay, it’s awesome. He decided not to be apart of it especially since he did not want to shoulder the responsibility if it sucked.

The rest of the panel was Q & A. The most interesting question was why he chose slow zombies over the “new and improved” super fast zombies. His response was simply fear versus adrenaline. Because you have a lot more time to be afraid with the slow zombies.

After the panel was an autograph session and we rushed over to the Autograph Pavilion to wait in line. Long story short, it appeared that his publicist did not inform him of a signing after his panel and they had to hunt him down on the exhibit floor.

We were worried that after all the waiting, we would not get to see him but since Max Brooks is the coolest guy in the world, he stuck around and signed autographs for all the fans, like me, that waited. ^.^ Thanks Max!

I got a few things signed that will be given away on Zombie Watch Network during our launch week, 8.8.08.

Note: Recorded Attacks will be released January 2009.  We have a few signed copies of the Comic Con 08 Exclusive First Look comic to give away.  Stay tuned for details!

Tags: comic con 08, max brooks, world war z, zombie survival guide