 |
||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Interview with Zombie CSU author Jonathan Maberry
By Geoff Bough
We'd be lieing through our rotten teeth if we said we haven't asked ourselves
what we would do if the dead rose to feed on the living. Some people have
zombie contingency plans, the idea has been the subject of various books...albeit
light-hearted and comedic in nature but thorough nonetheless.
One author is taking a much more serious approach to the subject matter. Author Jonathan Maberry is set to release his book 'Zombie CSU: The Forensics of the Living Dead', due to release in August. The book is an in-depth look at how certain city, state and federal agencies would respond in the event of a zombie outbreak. Featuring interviews with police officers, forensic analysts, military veterans, celebrities and zombie experts. We got the chance to talk with Jonathan about his book and we are very much looking forward to the release, check it out...
Rev: You have written quite a number of prestigious
works already, can you tell us what attracts you to the world of dark
fiction, horror etc?
Maberry: I’ve always been fascinated by what my grandmother called ‘the Larger World’. As a kid I used to grill her for every bit of info she knew about the folklore of Europe. She was born on the border of France and Germany but was descended from an old Scottish family, so she had exposure to a lot of rural folktales. That started the process for me, so I knew about the legends and myths of things like vampires, werewolves and so on before I even saw my first horror film.
Of course, by the time I was ten I’d seen everything Universal and
Hammer had put out, including the stuff I wasn’t supposed to see.
In October of 1968, I sat alone in the balcony of the Midway Theater in
Philadelphia and watched Night of the Living Dead, that left some teeth
marks on my soul.
Another big step was meeting Richard Matheson when I was 14, back in
the early 1970s. He gave me a signed copy of I AM LEGEND for my birthday
and sat me down for a long conversation about storytelling, and about
the connection between intellect and imagination. Later that same year
Ray Bradbury gave me a copy of SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES for Christmas.
I’ve read both books dozens of times since. Not only were the books
important for my understanding of darker subject matter, but I was so
incredibly fortunate to have had two giants of the literary field take
time out to discuss the nature of storytelling with me.
Rev: Your upcoming book Zombie CSU sounds incredibly
interesting, can you tell us more about the book and how the idea came
about? It's very interesting to me that you combine the undead with forensic
science, a uniquely original concept.
Maberry: I’ve always had a fascination with science and investigation. And I’ve done some extensive work for law enforcement as a consultant. I was the Expert Witness for the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office for murder cases involving martial arts; and I co-founded COP-Safe, a company that provided arrest and control workshops for all levels of law enforcement (from street cops to SWAT). Plus I grew up reading all of those Ed McBain 87th Precinct police procedurals.
As a teenager I used to analyze monster movies and try to
figure out how I would have handled things if I happened to be in the
same circumstances; and it always made me a little nuts when movie (or
book) characters did something really stupid. It also bothered me that
police, medical science and the military crumble too easily in these flicks.
They go down without a fight and I just don’t buy it.
So I cooked up the idea of applying logic to the problem
of monsters. My favorite monsters are zombies. I began to speculate on
how police, forensic experts, scientists, doctors and the military would
react, research and respond to a crisis of the kind shown in George Romero’s
zombie flicks. The book grew out of that.
Rev: Can you tell us how you researched for this book? How long was that process?
Maberry: : I started off
my making lists of questions that would necessarily be asked by real-world
experts. I created a zombie crime scene and worked it through, using my
own understanding of forensics, and then worked outward from there. At
each stage I recognized that more and more professionals would be brought
into the picture, starting with 9-1-1 operators and going up the line
through the first responders, detectives, evidence collectors, forensic
experts, and so on.
Then I started contacting real world experts in each of these areas. I
used some of my contacts in law enforcement to get the ball rolling. From
COP-safe I know a lot of chiefs of police and some SWAT officers, so I
began grilling them and they in turn helped me make contact with experts
in other fields, particularly forensics.
As the scope of the research grew so did my group of experts. I contacted
experts in every field that touched on my ‘crime scene’, and
that included forensic odontologists (bite mark experts), forensic entomologists
(bug experts), and more. I experts in genetic hibernative science, epidemiology,
prion diseases, you name it. One of my experts, Dr. Peter Lukacs, is a
neurologist and a zombie fan, so I had him work out exactly which parts
of the zombie brain you’d have to shoot to stop one.
I even interviewed Dr. Wade Davis, the ethnobotanist who wrote THE SERPENT
AND THE RAINBOW. He called me from Canada and we had a great long chat
about the differences between Haitian Zombies and the flesh-eating ghouls
of zombie pop culture.
The coolest part was that almost everything that a Romero-style zombie
can do is explainable by actual science. It’s not probable, mind
you, but when you see the info in the book it should nicely creep you
out.
The research was extensive and the whole process took about a year. I
wrote the book in bits and pieces as the info came in. It was a lot of
work, but man…it was a blast.
Rev: From my understanding, the book contains
interviews from various government and city agencies and how those factions
would respond in the event of an actual outbreak, did you ever over-step
your bounds in your research? Any shadiness to report or was everyone
pretty cool with what you're doing?
Maberry: No, everyone was straight up with me. I had one or two people decline to be named in the book, but there was nothing shady. In fact it was just the opposite: everyone was remarkably frank and open, all the way up to California’s PR director of Homeland Security.
What amused me is that so many of these experts had already
given some thought to this, long before I contacted them. Kinda freaky,
in a fun way.
The biggest boost to the book was that I had total access to info. For
example, the Philadelphia Crime Lab, which is now state of the art and
world class, opened the doors for me and I spent an entire day in there,
talking to department heads, lab techs, evidence experts…you name
it. They even invited me to do ride-alongs to crime scenes.
To tell you the truth…having spent so much time investigating this
stuff, I think that if the dead rose, we’d actually have a shot
at containing it. The logic and justification for that is explained in
detail in my book.
However there are a lot of different zombie scenarios, and some are total no-win catastrophes. On the other hand, the no-win scenarios are also the least likely to occur in terms of medical science.
Rev: Also included in the book are interviews
and reports from celebrities and what they would do in the event of a
zombie outbreak, was there anyone in particular that was the most enthusiastic
about the project?
Maberry: Oh, man…everyone
was. A lot of the actors from the zombie flicks were so generous with
their time and comments. I had a great chat with Tony Todd, who starred
in the overlooked and under-respected 1990 remake of Night of the
Living Dead. And Pat Tallman, too, who played Barbara in that flick.
I spoke with Bruce Bohne and Michael Kelly, who played ‘Andy’
and ‘CJ’ in the Dawn of the Dead remake…and
tons of others. Everyone was open to helping with the project, especially
when they saw the approach I was taking: a scientific and logical examination
of the ‘what if’ of a zombie rising.
The authors were just as generous with their time and insights. Max Brooks
(World War Z and Zombie Survival Guide), Brian Keene (The
Rising), David Wellington (Monster Island and its sequels),
Robert Kirkman (Marvel Zombies and The Walking Dead)…and
just about everyone else. Ramsey Campbell, John Skipp…you name it.
One real standout, though, was Joe McKinney, author of Dead City.
He’s also a Homicide Detective down in San Antonio and he provided
a lot of great technical information for police procedure. Joe has really
thought this stuff through and he’s sharp as a razor. If you haven’t
read his book, go get a copy. It’s one continuous action scene.
He doesn’t let up.
Rev: Given that you could be considered an
expert on the subject, what's your big plan in the event of an infection?
Do you think authority would crumble into chaos or would we have some
organized strength to fight?
Maberry: Well, you have to take a look at the model. In Night all of the dead rose, even those who had been embalmed and buried. That’s a couple of billion corpses right there, and we’d be toast. But I think Romero realized that, from a storytelling point of view, that’s such a complete no-win situation that there’s no real chance to go anywhere with it. In all his other films the zombie infection is spread only through a bite, which means it’s a disease pathogen. Diseases of that kind won’t fly under the radar like HIV. People would have to notice and react, and that would kick into play the massive disaster control infrastructure. And, no, I’m not talking about FEMA. I’m talking about disaster control starting at the level of local law enforcement in the affected area and the overlapping support that exists.
We might lose the first couple of rounds, but we have communications,
superior weaponry, training, and a post-9/11 zero tolerance attitude.
Yeah, we’d fight back and win.
Which brings me to a couple of other points. In the movies the cops crumble
and the military falls. They never adequately explain how. I talked with
SWAT experts and experienced military veterans who made it very clear
how we’d respond. Remember, this isn’t an enemy that hides,
runs away, plants landmines, uses intelligence networks, or carries weapons.
They will advance toward superior firepower. One Army helicopter with
a mini-gun is going to be able to make quite a dent, and that can hover
above the reach of the zombies and just keep firing.
I go in depth into the issue of stopping power, bullet impact effects,
etc in the book –or rather, I let my experts expound on those subjects.
They’re….eloquent.
Rev: How do you feel about zombies being in the spotlight at the moment? Are they just the couture creature for right now or will they be around for a while?
Maberry:
Zombies are the flavor of the month, sure….but they won’t
go away. Like most monster paradigms they’ll fade and return, fade
and return…but I think we’ll always have fresh takes on the
zombie story.
Rev: Why do you think people are so enamored with the undead? Do you think that zombie fans understand the socio-political implications of the genre or is it just the splat that people are attracted to?
Maberry: I have a running
sidebar in ZOMBIE CSU on that very topic. I ask dozens of experts “Why
Zombies?” and there are some terrific answers.
From my own perspective, I figured out why they scared me so much when
I was ten and watching Night of the Living Dead alone in a ‘closed
to the public’ section of a big old movie theater. With vampires
you can reason and stall them; daylight will save you, and you have crosses
and garlic. Werewolves are only a threat three days out of the year. The
mummy was a joke (in my neighborhood we’d have chased him with lighter
fluid and matches). But zombies…an entire enemy of creatures that
won’t back down, won’t retreat, never tire, and never stop.
An army of hungry corpses that used to be people you knew. That’s
scary!
Rev: In the event of an outbreak, which zombie
celebrity or figure would you fear the most?
Maberry: Zombie
Dick Cheney. Now that’s a scary concept.
Rev: Zombie CSU is being published by Citadel
Press later this year, when can we expect to have our grubby hands on
the book?
Maberry: The book drops
on August 26. Now here’s the weird part… it’ll be in
the occult/New Age section of most bookstores. Not my decision (it’s
a publisher choice that I just can’t quite get in line with). So
if you don’t see it on the display table…ask for it.
It’s already available for pre-order on Amazon.
Rev: Will you be doing a book tour for Zombie
CSU? Any signings or events that you will be at this Summer?
Maberry: Yeah…I’ll be all over the place. Dragon*Con, HorrorFind, MonsterMania, the zombie con in Pittsburgh…plus a whole lot of bookstores. But the signing schedule hasn’t been finalized yet. There will be updates on my website (www.jonathanmaberry.com), the book’s website (www.zombiecsu.com), and on MySpace.
Rev: Where can we go for more info. on Zombie CSU?
Maberry:
I’m building a pretty extensive website for the book at www.zombiecsu.com,
which will have art, interviews with experts and celebs, excerpts, and
other stuff, plus some material that didn’t make it to the final
cut of the book because of space limitations but which is very cool material.
Rev: Wow, I am really looking forward to this book! Keep your eyes peeled for more news as well as contests for signed copies of the book later this year, right here at Revenant Magazine!
*zombified portrait of Jonathan Maberry done by artist Robert Papp, used with permission