Zombies: Fantasy Art, Fiction & The Movies

Gothic Dreams

by Russ Thorne, Rosie Fletcher (Foreword)

Zombies continue to morbidly fascinate, through books, film and also TV. Major current film releases such as World War Z and television series such as 'The Walking Dead' and 'In The Flesh' are evidence of the public's insatiable hunger to watch, from the comfort of their sofas, these lurching, shuffling, horrifying flesh eaters. This exciting new book wittily takes the reader through the rise of the zombie, from its vampire-like beginnings in early literature, through the birth of Romero's walking dead in Night of the Living Dead to its comical portrayal in 'zomcoms' (think Shaun of the Dead). As you read, enjoy an eye-grabbing selection of artworks portraying the modern zombie in all its post-apocalyptic doom and dread.

Genres: Nonfiction, Horror, Zombies

128 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2013

About the author

As a boy, Russ Thorne loved reading Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, playing Hero Quest and poring over issues of 'White Dwarf', admiring the cover art in the process. Later he studied English Literature and got to know Homer's heroes and a bit of Beowulf, before beginning a career as a writer and editor. Since then he's published books on tattoo art, body piercing and vampires and writes regularly for national newspapers including the Independent.

Reviews

[Erin *Proud Book Hoarder* · Rating 3 out of 5]

Incredible artwork and I loved the books layout and feel. A lot of lesser knowns - and of course well knowns - are covered, but it doesn't get too in-depth into them. It covers pretty much everything, even zombie walks, but kind of feels all over the place with the timeline of events. Recommended for zombie fans. I am curious about the artwork described from old paintings and will have to look them up since, for some reason, the book didn't include them. Maybe a rights issue?

[Leila Anani · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gothic Dreams series book on zombies covers the zombie phenomena in film, art, fiction, computer games and music.

While I applaud that this book exists and its noble intent I think it tries to cover far too much ground. The Movies section particularly annoyed me because it devotes a fair bit of time to The Evil Dead trilogy (which I consider demon not zombie) and Invasion of the Body Snatchers (which are alien parasites and again not what I'd consider zombies) yet misses out things like Dead Snow, Braindead, Dead & Buried... not to mention cult titles like Zombie Strippers, Return of the Living Dead 3 and Dellamorte, Dellamore. Tombs of the blind dead gets cited but we don't get any detail and there is so much this book does not cover its criminal.

The artwork is nice but the majority is either stills/posters from film or modern art pieces - all very well but the accompanying text describes older artworks that we then don't see such as the illustrations of Dante's Inferno and Coleridge's Rhyme of the ancient mariner, and the 1470 Dead Lovers - after reading about these I had to look up the images on the internet as they aren't shown in the book, instead we get unrelated more modern zombie pictures - which aren't even credited as they occur but all lumped together in a text list at the back.

There are no pictures whatsoever illustrating the music videos, bands/artists or computer games mentioned... Not even a still from Thriller. The text is accompanied by random modern zombie artwork.

Over all then this is a disappointment. Its fine as a teaser or brief overview of the subject, but honestly each section could be a book in its own right.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Again along with Cthulhu and Steam Punk this book is published here in the UK under the title of Gothic Dreams although I would not class zombies in all their guises and incarnations as really gothic - but I am no litary scholar so I will agree to be corrected with the right argument.

Anyway the book - like the others in the series it is split between evocative artwork and discussions about the subject matter. What is interesting here is that zombies though as popular as ever in books (if not more so) they are still a very visual subject having in my eyes their greatest hold on the cinema screen so as you can imagine a very large proportion of the book is dedicated to their influence and impact on the screen.

An interesting side entry in this book is the chapter on zombies in video games which looking back is a massive franchise - after all who can you battle in so many ways and not offend anyone?

So like the others in this series it is more to be flicked through than used as a definitive guide - that said they all have thrown up some interesting reading ideas for me and for that alone I think they are worth looking at.

[Fiona · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found this book in my nephew's bedroom so decided to read it. I'm no great critic but I thought this book was very poor. The information in it was lack lustre and could easily be found by conducting searches on Google. Also, classing films such as "The Evil Dead" and "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" as zombie movies is really pushing things a bit far. Plus, the artwork wasn't all that great in my opinion.

[Siobhan · Rating 3 out of 5]

If the truth is to be told, this book doesn’t fall into my usual reads.

The book was handed to me by a relative as a general interest kind of read, as something she thought I might enjoy. It was interesting, I will say that, but I cannot see myself going out of my way to read it again and again or to read that many more books like it.

It was simply something different to pick up and read.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent history of zombies in literature, film, music, art and games. The author presents a fun narrative that flows quickly. Goes all the way back to pre Romero zombies, which is interesting. The author mentions some titles I've never heard of, which was great because it means more zombie books and movies to explore. It's not an extensive compendium of zombies, so there's a lot missing, and a lot kind of brushed over because of the limited amount of space the author had. Maybe not worth a purchase, but if you can get it free from a library as I did, worth checking out, if for nothing else,the cool artwork spread over every page.

[Zoey Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating read. I got to learn about the history of the zombie genre and about other art forms and Movies that I'd never heard of before. Definitely a must read for any zombie fan. Plus, the artwork throughout the book is stunning.
The complaint I have is that when I finished it, I wanted more.
4 out of 5 stars!

Edit: second time around and I still adore the artwork!

[Sebastian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jam packed with tons of interesting zombie facts and history of how the zombie icon became the big hit it is today! I have a few more books added to my reading list now :)

[Endangered · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gobbled this up to join the coffee table book rotation. While it left much to be desired for myself, any zombie fanatic will probably enjoy it. I was most excited about the art, but it left me disappointed as it's loaded with boring movie stills and some halfheartedly produced images. Don't get me wrong, some of the art was phenomenal! Just don't get your hopes up based on the cover art.

There is some cool information and I enjoy that they went back a bit before G.R. It's almost like they made a top 10 list and could only come up with 8.. so they occasionally stray away from the traditional zombie getting into monster territory. Page art often feels irrelevant to the text as well.

Good for those who are true zombie lovers, want something to flip through for the coffee table, or anybody interested in the history of zombies in film. Unfortunately for me, I expected more substance and this felt like reading a rushed online article.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is another in the Gothic Dreams series from Flame Tree and its a rather curious book. At its heard is a rather tongue in cheek guide to Zombies - their source their place in horror literature and use in story telling. At times it can be a rather glib read - at times too serious and others rather flippant I do wonder who the target audience was for this book but in general it was great fun.

The book itself is filled with artwork too - I think to be honest it is more art than text which is no surprising considering what can really be written about the reanimated dead. However there are some great nods to some of the most famous and iconic of films - just do not expect anything new or sensational - it is really a book (not doubt written by a fan) for fans.

That said the art is very good and certainly worthy of a more focused book on the topic - a great starting point just I think this is more a labour of love than anything else

[Lyndsay-ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book that talks zombies and their presence in various forms of media from art to video games. Was an interesting read as they covered a lot of history of zombies. Apparently the presence of the undead has been showing up in art far into the past and is not just a modern day entity.

I liked how it covers so much including the Haitian zombies, and the many different medias available to people. A good book to read to learn more about zombies and their presence in the world today.

[Roselle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Any zombie fan would appreciate. :)

[Hilde Helseth · Rating 3 out of 5]

'2 books related to the same topic, genre, or theme: Book #2'