Interviews

Interview with Roger Ma

Interview with Roger Ma, Author of the Zombie Combat Manual

Roger Ma is a writer and the founder of the Zombie Combat Club, a civilian organization dedicated to providing accurate training and information to fight the living dead without a firearm, and survive. He is also a Team Chief for one of New York City’s Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), which assists first responders in the event of a city emergency – including zombie attack. He lives in Brooklyn. (From Amazon.com)   The Zombie Combat Manual is his first book and it is printed in much the same style as Max Brooks’s Zombie Survival Guide. That being said, it is an entirely different book with a specific focus on fighting the undead with or without weapons of all types. The book has sections on conditioning, choosing and maintaining weapons and defensive equipment, techniques for combatting the undead, how to deal with terrain and environment, there’s even a section on child protection. The drawings in the book are great and lend that ‘survival guide’ authenticity to it. There’s also the great combat reports and one on one interviews as well. It is quite in depth, well written and is a must for anyone interested in self preservation.

ZWN: Does growing up in Brooklyn make you tougher than most, especially against zombies?

RM: I think growing up in Brooklyn makes a person more street-wise than most, but against zombies, I think it’s not as great as an advantage. One thing I’ve learned writing this book is that zombie self-defense requires a very specialized skill-set.

ZWN: Tell us a little about the Zombie Combat Club that you created and do you get together on weekends and stage zombie cage matches? Is Tyler Durden a member?

RM: My objective with the Zombie Combat Club was to accomplish two things – one, to help formulate my thinking around what I wanted to feature in the Zombie Combat Manual, before I knew it would result in a published book, and two – to have a place where like-minded zombie combatants could gather, bond, and perhaps train together. I’d love to see fans starting their own training sessions based on the exercises in the book.  Unlike Tyler’s club, the first rule of the Zombie Combat Club is that you talk about it as much as humanely possible.

ZWN: In the ZCM it states Misconception #1-Zombies Can Run. Personally I loved that. It was like you were bowing to Romero and giving the finger to the “28 Days Later” zombies. Any further comment on this?

RM: That whole opening section was my way of stating the zombie universe that I’m working from. There are so many variations of the zombie nowadays i.e. running/not running, brains/no brains, that I knew I needed to set up my own zombie lore so that readers wouldn’t be confused.  I’m definitely more of a Romero/Fulci traditionalist.

ZWN: What was your inspiration for writing the ZCM?

RM: I’ve been a zombie fan since I was a kid, when my dad took me at eight years old to see Dawn of the Dead. I’ve always loved them, and always knew the first rule: shoot them in the head. The only problem is, I don’t own a gun. I began thinking of ways I could bring down a zombie using a variety of different weapons, and thinking about combat techniques that would work. Thus, the ZCM was born.

ZWN: What was the hardest part of writing the ZCM?

RM: The research was the toughest, but also the most fun part. My consultants in medical, fitness, weapons, and combat really helped. The result is that all the anatomy and techniques are based in real-world data.  In fact, if you take out “zombie” in some of the sections, the recommendations could be used in actual combat or defense.

ZWN: Do you have any actual training of a sort? Medical, Martial Arts, etc?

RM: Not only have I been a zombie fan my whole life, but I’ve also been a martial arts and weapons fanatic, so I have some experience with both. I also train currently in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, but I am definitely not an expert. This was also part of my logic – you don’t have to be a black belt or professional fighter to defeat the living dead, you just have to be trained properly.

ZWN: Where did you come up with some of the names in this book? The Kabab is priceless.

RM: Thanks, this was also a part of my martial arts background. There are lots of fun names for techniques in jiu-jitsu: Kimura, Americana, Peruvian Necktie. I used those as inspiration to come up with names for my zombie combat moves.

ZWN: The illustrations definitely have that combat manual feel. Like the SAS Survival Guide. How did the illustrations come about?

RM: I knew I wanted the illustrations to mimic those you see in combat books, like the Marine Close Quarters Combat Manual, so those were my inspiration for the drawings. YN Heller, the illustrator for the book, has been the guy I’ve worked with since I started the idea as the Zombie Combat Club. He’s a fantastic artist and captured exactly the mood of the book.

ZWN: How did you know/learn some of the things that you wrote in the ZCM. As an example: Taking a coconut, encasing it in 2 layers of duct tape, placing it in a double layer of plastic bags. Then if you can shatter the hard coating of the coconut you then have a good approximation of the strength and accuracy required to deliver a crushing blow. How would you know that…..and why?

RM: That goes back to the research I conducted. My sister-in-law is an orthopedist, a doctor specializing in bones and the skeletal system, which you can imagine helped tremendously.  There is some artistic license in there, but it’s pretty authentic.

ZWN: What’s with the word ‘Zuke’?

RM: Again, the martial arts influence. In Japanese, the “Uke” is your training partner, the person with whom you practice your technique.You can see how I came up with my variation.

ZWN: Okay, here’s a scenario for you:

It’s 11pm, you’re in a convenience store (7-11) buying a pack of smokes (or a candy bar…damn that sweet tooth!) and your car is in the shop, so you walked the 2 blocks to get there. All of a sudden the bums loitering out front become zombies and start eating people. What do you do? What do you defend yourself with?

RM: If I’m only two blocks from home, I would probably book it the hell out of there and get my family on the road. If I absolutely had to get into it with the ghouls, I would check behind the register.  It’s a 7-11, they’ve got to have a weapon under the counter.

ZWN: Any plans for a book tour or any lectures planned?

RM: Depending on how things go, I’m hoping to do more book signings and lectures. The launch signing I did in Brooklyn was great with more than 100 people, and only a few of them were my relatives.

ZWN: Have you played any zombie games and if so, what’s your favorite?

RM: I’m a big Left 4 Dead fan. I haven’t had time to play L4D 2 much because of the book, but I spent many hours watching that plane crash in L4D 1.You can find me on the servers playing as ZombieCombatClub.com

ZWN: Who’s your favorite author?

RM: I don’t have favorite authors as much as I do favorite books, but as far as horror goes, I’ve enjoyed the work of HP Lovecraft and Stephen King very much.

ZWN: I know it’s still early, but what’s next for Roger Ma?

RM: You’re right, it’s still early. Who knows!

ZWN: Is there any last bit of advice you’d like to give the people out there?

RM: Keep training, stay vigilant. Remember: anyone can train to be an effective zombie fighter.

ZWN: Time for the standard ZWN questions.

ZWN: Do you have a favorite zombie book or movie?

RM: My favorite zombie movie is Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, 1978

ZWN: Do you have a zombie survival plan and if so, would you care to share?

RM: All I can say is that it involves a backpack, a mountain bike, a tomahawk, and a map of upstate New York.

ZWN: In dealing with zombies, what would be your weapon of choice?

RM: I’m a fan of blunt trauma instruments at medium range, so I would prefer a medieval mace as my go-to melee weapon.

ZWN: Do you think zombies are overdone, or is there still room for growth there?

RM: There’s definitely room – just when someone says “zombies are yesterday’s news” something like Zombieland kills at the box office.

ZWN: Who (or what) do you think is the best zombie hunter? They could be alive or dead.

RM: Here’s where I’m going to get technical – I don’t believe there is a best zombie hunter. To hunt, you have to be at the higher end of the food chain, above your prey. In the case of a zombie outbreak, I don’t believe we’re the hunters. But to answer your question in a general sense, one of the best historical zombie combatants in my opinion is the medieval knight, because he trained with a variety of edged and blunt trauma weapons at various ranges like the lance, sword, mace, and war hammer. The armor helps too, but can be cumbersome.

ZWN: If you were a zombie, who would you eat first?

RM: Hmmmm, tough question, but I would probably say one of my brothers. Not because I want to eat them, mind you, but because I know they would take my ass out before I had a chance to chomp down, and thus end the misery.

ZWN: Brains, yummy or gross?

RM: Yummy, if made from Jello. Otherwise, gross

ZWN: Thanks for your time Roger, we’re already testing out some of the combat simulations and techniques-Whack-a-mole being our favorite.

Check out the Zombie Combat Club (ZCC) at: http://zombiecombatclub.com/

or you can find them on Facebook. The Zombie Combat Manual (ZCM) can be found at any major bookstore or online: http://www.amazon.com/Zombie-Combat-Manual-Fighting-Living/dp/0425232549/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1272664379&sr=1-1

Tags: combat manual, roger ma, zombie combat, zombie manual