Interview with Dr. Pus of Library Of The Living Dead!

By Wayne Simmons (author of forthcoming DROP DEAD GORGEOUS)

II’m no techno-nerd. No, sirree… In fact, I’m quite the opposite.

Couldn’t tell an HTML from a MP3. Thought Bluetooth was a new take on folk music…

(like R&B with added bite)

… In fact, I didn’t even own a mobile phone until my brother shoved one in front of my face as a xmas present, a couple of years ago.

Congratulations! You’re connected! he smirked.

Feck aff… I spat, conforming instantaneously to text-speak.

You see, it’s not that I hate technology, it’s just that I seem to not get on very well with it.

Take photocopiers, for example. Everyone else at work seems perfectly able to elegantly massage paper from them. Not me. Feckin’ thing develops some kind of machine dyslexia whenever I go near it. Can’t understand a word I batter into its stupid, numerical keypad.

(Jammed, spammed, damned if I do or jammed, spammed, damned if I GROAN!)

Anyway, I digress. You aren’t interested in my technophobia, are you? No, you love zombies. And so do I…

… So, too, does Doctor Pus.

Doctor who? you ask (and I giggle at my own lame joke).

Why, Doctor Pus, I reply… only the Greatest Technological (Undead) Mind TM in the underworld. Not only does he walk and talk (we’ve all seen and heard the walking/ talking/ running zombies – Brian Keene’s The Rising, the very lovely Julie in ROTLD 3 – Hell, even (ALL PRAISE HIM!) George A. Romero’s shambling pioneers were beginning to look less daft in Land Of The Dead) but the good doctor can sing, too… (?!)

… and all in a podcast!

(a what-cast!?)

Podcast, you caveman! Get with the zeros, mate. We’ve thrown our digital radios away. Now we’re podcasting. Recording downloadable shows to share online with the I-Pod elite. Listen when you want, as many times as you want, however you want. It’s the new feckin’ black, gaddammit.

LIBRARY OF THE LIVING DEAD is the DADDY of horror podcasting. As funny as it is enlightening, this is a show that brings the very latest in zombie-related fiction, poetry and karaoke (yeah, you heard me!) to the very doorstep of your PC. Helmed by the laugh-a-minute Doctor Pus (he of Reel Horror’s ‘Manic Minute Movie Mutilations’) this is a B-MOVIE-camp-along sideshow serving all the gossip on what’s… er… cold. Dead cold.

… But mock not, my horror-heavy friends. This is a show much revered. At barely one year old, clocking almost 40 episodes (webisodes…?!) to date and a startling average of 750 to 1000 downloads per outing, this is close to being The Next Big Thing ™ in the indie horror underworld…

I caught up with the good doctor in cyberspace, courtesy of yet another great technological achievement of recent times; that of wireless broadband.

REVENANT: Hey Doc… What got you into podcasting? Are podcasts the new ... er... black?

DOC PUS: I had no idea what a podcast was until it was announced on the Reel Horror Forum (my reel home on the net) that Mike Becker and Michael Carbone would be doing a radio type thingy called a podcast. I was enamoured from the first episode of the "Reel Horror Podcast". In one of the earliest episodes they gave out a phone # to call in "homework" on how we listeners became horror fans. The above story is what I called in. Well, pretty much any way. I was "Corona induced" when I called. I then asked if I could call in a movie review done in less than one minute. Erisa (The Producer) thought it a grand idea and I named it "Dr. Mike's Manic Minute Movie Mutilation Message". She told me that there were already two Mikes on the show and the name was longer than the review would be. Thus was born "Dr. Pus' Manic Minute Movie Mutilation". By the way, the first one was on the re-make of "The Hills Have Eyes".

Many, many "Manic Minutes" in the future I asked if I could do zombie novel reviews for the podcast and call the segment "Library of the Living Dead". Erisa told me I should have my own podcast as they had been getting e-mails and such from folks who liked my stuff. She said I already had a fan base and something like a "Library of the Living Dead" podcast, featuring zombies, should go over well. I certainly didn't realize how well though.

I do believe that podcast, both voice and video, are the new black. They are informative, funny, entertaining and sometimes so downright fucking nasty. I love them all.

REVENANT: So, why dedicate an entire podcast show to zombies... did a group of vamps bully you as a child?'

DOC PUS: It really was a group of vamps. Not vampires as Bram Stoker saw them or how Murnaw and Browning directed them nor even how Schreck and Lugosi portrayed them. These were the vampires as Richard Matheson wrote them and the Italian actors in "Last Man On Earth" portrayed them. Slow shamblers who just scared the hell out of me. I was in 6th grade when I saw "Last Man On Earth" and was hooked on horror movies from then on. The next weekend I was introduced to the original "Night of the Living Dead" on a late night movie from out of Pittsburgh. The rest as they say is history. I have always been, still am and will forever be a zombie fan.

The progression from movies like "NotLD" and "Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things" made me hungry for more. When "Dawn of the Dead" came to one of our three local theaters I saw it four times. FOUR. No comic books that month, no extra candy or popcorn at the theater, no chocolate popsicles from the local Mom & Pop store ... all of my money that week went to purchase 3 tickets for "Dawn of the Dead". (I know I said 4, I snuck in one time.)

When the opportunity to do my own podcast came along it was a no brainer (bummer for the zombies, great for me) to do an all zombie podcast.

REVENANT: So, who's the man behind the surgery door?

DOC PUS: He's a dentist with a small practice in a very small town in West Virginia. No toothless West Virginia jokes here please. I make a good set of dentures too.

He's a husband to his most lovely and gentle wife of over 21 years. He's the father of two beautiful teenaged daughters (18 & 17) who thank god look like their mother. Each of them blames me for their butts though.

He collects "Last Man On Earth", "I Am Legend" (Uh, the book, not the piece of shit new movie) and Vincent Price memorbilia. (My lord could I go on about my collecting)

He collects comic books, Misfits stuff, Beatles stuff, Three Stooges stuff, Wizard of Oz stuff, Batman stuff and of course Zombie stuff.

I live on top of 40 acres of wooded mountain top in West Virginia. It is the most beautiful place on earth. I would never, ever move to any other part of the world.

REVENANT: Karaokee and zombies – discuss.

DOC PUS: My early podcasts were always begun by a good friend of mine called Joe (yes, his real name). He is oh so very clever and the intros he's done are the stuff of legend. As it was he has a young family and duty to his family (as well as a new baby) gave him no more time for doing the intros. They are sadly missed by myself as well as all of my listeners. I had to come up with something else.

My youngest daughter had one of those big ass Casio keyboards she was aces on. So was I. But when I started playing some of the "songs" the Casio already had preloaded I got this idea of recording my own lyrics to them. I have my own recording studio I built in the finished basement of our new (well 11 year old) house. I spent hours with that Casio, a notebook and the recording equiptment. Of course the lyrics had to fit the podcast, and with it being "Library of the Living Dead" they just had to be zombie lyrics.

These just flowed. I've written over a hundred songs in the past. Punk, new wave, metal, ballads ... just about any type of music. Lyrics have always been my strong point.

When I ran out of preloaded songs on the Casio I discovered Karaoke songs on Napster. This was even easier to record. And there you have how zombies and karaoke came together for "Library of the Living Dead".

REVENANT: Some might say that the LOTLD podcasts are a little on the long side. How did you go from the ‘manic minute’ reviews to almost 3-hour sessions with LOTLD?

DOC PUS: When I first started putting out the podcasts they were very short. About 30-40 minutes tops. But just like with my collecting habit I started to find cool ass stuff that I thought everyone, well at least my listeners, would want to hear. I started to add "Putrified Poetry" that the Good Librarians sent in. Started reading chapters, with permission of course, from Steve North's post-apocalyptic novel "Beneath The Mask". Greg Solis gave me permission to begin reading his wonderful zombie novel "Rise and Walk". The Black Empty started his "Letters From The Dead" on Zombiefans.com and this just seemed a really good fit for the podcast.

Before I knew it the damn things were heading towards the 3 hour mark. So, I asked my listeners if I was going overboard, were they getting tired of giving up that much of their lives to listen to the podcast. I recieved over 40 responces and every one of them stated to just keep doing what I was doing. No one complained about the length and some actually requested I go for the 4 hour mark.

I was told by a great friend who does a podcast that I should cut the podcasts up and deliver three a week. She stated it would give me more downloads and thus move me up in the rankings for all podcasts. I kindly and with much respect for her declined.

I'm not in podcasting to be popular. I don't want to be "popular". All through my life I've been in the "fringe" groups. The unpopular people. THOSE are MY people. So I guess I do it for them somewhat.

The real reason I do "Library of the Living Dead" is for me. That may sound cliche, but it's the truth. I lost my Dad on October 15, 2006 to cancer. He was and will continue to be "my hero". His death just about destroyed me. I was in a downward spiral of severe depression by the middle of 2007 and with the encouragement and support of my wife Tam, I put my energies into the podcast. It was carthatic.

My Dad always appreciated my "creative talents". By using those talents I'm remembering him. The podcast is dedicated to Tam and my Dad. Without the support and her actually making me go down to my studio to "play", I don't think I'd have made it. I know that sounds sappy, but it's the God's honest truth.

REVENANT: Finally, what's in store for LOTLD in the future?

DOC PUS: I am always looking for short zombie stories to read on the podcast. ALWAYS. And I do so love the "Putrified Poetry" segment. Any one who wants their zombie prose or poetry presented on "Library of the Living Dead" only need contact me. If the author would rather read their own stories or poems, that's even better. They can send them in MP3 format to my e-mail ... dr_pus@hotmail.com.

Future stuff for "Library of the Living Dead" .... hmmmmm .... actually just more of the same. Folks seem to like the format as it is. But I'm always open to suggestions. I also appreciate any comments. Positive or negative. I'm an easy guy to get along with.

LIBRARY OF THE LIVING DEAD can be downloaded for free from PODOMATIC