Every month we tell you about the latest zombie offerings from Diamond, which are all available at your local comic book store. So, here are the zombie-related selections from Diamond Previews Volume XVIII #7 July 2008, to ship in September 2008:

Dead Ahead #1 (of 3) (Image, $3.99) p.136

The Walking Dead #55 (Image, $2.99) p.153

Jesus Hates Zombies (Featuring Lincoln Hates Werewolves) In: Yea, Though I Walk… Volume 1 (of 4) GN (Alterna Comics, $7.95) p.190

How To Draw (And Fight) Zombies Supersize TP (Antarctic Press, $19.95) p.195

Marlow: Soul of Darkness #1 (Arcana Studios, $4.95) p.200

Asylum of Horrors #1 (Asylum Press, $4.95) p.07

Warren Ellis’ Black Gas TP (Avatar, $19.99) p.214 OFFERED AGAIN

Escape of the Living Dead: Resurrected TP (Avatar, $29.95) p.214 OFFERED AGAIN

Night of the Living Dead Annual #1 Wizard World Philly Edition (Avatar, $5.99) p.214

The Dead #1 (Berserker,$3.95) p.216

Zombie Tales #6 (Boom!, $3.99) p.224 - 2 covers available

Jazan Wild’s Funhouse of Horrors #1: The House of Horrors (Carnival Comics, $2.99) p.229

Hack/ Slash #16 (Devil’s Due, $3.50) p.238 - Featuring H.P. Lovecraft’s Re-Animator

The Man With No Name #1 Wizard World Philly Arthur Suydam Cover (Dynamite, $50.00) p.258

Army of Darkness #14 (Dynamite, $3.50) p. 258 - 2 covers available

Army of Darkness Movie Adaptation TP (Dynamite, $14.99) p.259 - Back in print! OFFERED AGAIN

Army of Darkness Volume 1: Ashes to Ashes TP (Dynamite, $14.99) p.259 OFFERED AGAIN

Army of Darkness Volume 2: Shop ‘Til You Drop TP (Dynamite, $14.99) p.259 OFFERED AGAIN

Army of Darkness Volume 3: vs. Re-Animator TP (Dynamite, $14.99) p.259 OFFERED AGAIN

Army of Darkness Volume 4: Old School TP (Dynamite, $14.99) p.259 OFFERED AGAIN

Army of Darkness Volume 5: vs. The Monsters TP (Dynamite, $19.99) p.259 OFFERED AGAIN

Darkman vs. Army of Darkness TP (Dynamite, $14.99) p.259 - Previews exclusive cover also available

Raise the Dead HC (Dynamite, $19.99) p.259 OFFERED AGAIN

The Revenant GN (Desperado, $14.99) p.260

Deadworld: Dead Killer TP (Desperado, $14.99) p.260 OFFERED AGAIN

28 Days Later: The Aftermath GN (Fox Atomic, $17.95) p.286 OFFERED AGAIN

Epilogue #1 (IDW, $3.99) p.300

Zombie Proof: Triple Undead Pack (Moonstone, $7.99) p.312 - contains three comics

Kolchak Tales: The Night Stalker of the Living Dead #1 (of 3) (Moonstone, $3.99) p.312

ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction #2 (of 6) (Red 5, $3.25) p.325

The Chronicles of Dr. Herbert West #1 (of 6) (Zenescope, $ 2.99) p.368

The Living Corpse #6 (Zenescope, $2.99) p.370

Soulless SC by Christopher Golden ($9.95) p.387

Pete Von Shelly: The Zombie Pin-Up Book HC ($24.99) p.390

Zombie Movies Ultimate Guide SC by Glenn Kay ($22.95) p.392

Dead Ahead T-Shirt (Graphitti Designs, M-XL $17.95/ XXL $20.95) p.415

Night of the Living Dead: Graveyard Zombie T-Shirt (FearWerx, M-XL $21.99) p.418 - Glows in the dark

Night of the Living Dead: Warhol Zombie Girl T-Shirt (FearWerx, M-XL $21.99) p.418

The Walking Dead: Ick Torso Statuette (CS Moore, $30.00) p.450

Xombie: Dirge Vinyl Figure (Devil’s Due POP, $40.00) p.467

Xombie: Dirge Variant Vinyl Figure (Devil’s Due POP, $75.00) p.467

Resident Evil Beanie ($11.99) p.511

Resident Evil: Zombrella Dog-Tags ($7.99) p.511

All Flesh Must Be Eaten D20 RPG Core Rulebook (Eden Studios, $30.00) p.519 OFFERED AGAIN

All Flesh Must Be Eaten D20 RPG Zombie Master Screen (Eden Studios, $16.00) p.519 OFFERED AGAIN

Zombie Fluxx Display (Looney Labs, $16.00) p.522

Dark Reign RPG (Palladium Books, $15.95) p.524

Zombies!!! Bag O’ Glowing Babes (Twilight Creations, $9.99) p.528

Zombies!!! 4: The End (2nd Edition) (Twilight Creations, $24.99) p.528

Midnight Syndicate: The Dead Matter CD (Twilight Creations, $15.99) p.528

And from the Marvel Previews supplement:

Nothing this month zombie related…

For more info, check out Diamond’s website. And, for more info on each publisher, check out their websites:Alterna Comics, Antarctic Press, Arcana Studios, Asylum Press, Avatar, Berserker, Boom!, Carnival Comics, CS Moore, Devil’s Due, Devil’s Due POP, Dynamite, Desperado, Eden Studios, FearWerx, Fox Atomic, Graphitti designs, IDW, Image, Looney Labs, Moonstone, Palladium Books, Red 5, Twilight Creations, and Zenescope.

The ZRC has no control over changes to release dates, titles or cancellation of items.

The Zombie Diaries is shot in First-Person view from three different groups of people that cross paths in small ways. All three document a zombie outbreak set in rural England. The first group is a news team going to interview a farmer in a small rural village. Soon after hearing of an outbreak in the city, they lose contact via phone with anyone. When night falls, panic sets in as they begin seeing the dead walking about.  The second group is seen scavenging a small town for supplies and trying to find a place where they can hole up or possibly other people join up with. The third group is living on a farm and routinely defending it from zombies coming in through the fields and trying to search and destroy all zombies in the surrounding area. All three groups find that it’s not just the living dead that threaten their livelihood, but the ignorance, stupidity and insanity of the living too.

While the first-person view gimmick may be getting played out, The Zombie Diaries uses this simple tool as a plausible was to make a low budget movie look like a million bucks. In fact, The Zombie Diaries did such a good job with it that I didn’t even notice that this could even possibly be a low-budget endeavor until it was over.

There’s not a whole lot to the story in The Zombie Diaries, but there’s enough action, suspense and zombies to keep you riveted to the screen. The pacing is decent and the acting very good and natural. There weren’t any times when I stopped to question the reality of the movie.

The special effects make-up in The Zombie Diaries was great. The camera crew worked well with the special effects crew in that the camera didn’t linger on the special effects long enough for you to question there reality.  The zombies exhibited a wide range of decay and several different stages of infection. All of them looked really cool and definitely added to my enjoyment of the film.

What The Zombie Diaries lacked in story, it definitely made up for in action, suspense, special effects and zombies. I enjoyed watching it the first time, I enjoyed it even more watching it the second time. Any zombie fan should enjoy The Zombie Diaries as much as I did.

It took a while to find a service to host a video this large, but finally, here it is! 45 minutes of the original cast and crew of Night of the Living Dead talking about their experience.

Teddy Scares! - They’re undead teddy bears. Erin bought two of them. We’ll have a full post about these things soon!

George Romero! - ‘Nuff said.

Our very own Jef - Hanging out with the stars of NOTLD. (Bill Hinzman shown)

Decomposing Heads - Perfect for your mantle.

Elvira and Svengoolie - Two Horror Show legends on stage together

Zombie Beauty Pageant - What’s not to like?

Nate - With Texas Chainsaw Massacre celebs Caroline Williams and Marilyn Burns

We had a great time and can’t wait until the next convention!

In Night Of The Creeps, an alien experiment crash lands on earth in 1959. A couple head to the site of the crash. One of them is brutally murdered by an ax-wielding maniac, the other is attacked by a mysterious alien life-form. In 1986 a pair of nerdy college boys lament there lack of love and plot to join the Beta frat to impress a girl. They are charged with the task of stealing a corpse form a local lab and leaving it on a rival frat’s doorstep. During the course of carrying out their prank they unfreeze the cryogenically frozen man from the afore mentioned couple letting him loose, and the alien life form inside him, upon the town. Together with a curmudgeon of a detective they must stop figure out and stop the alien life-forms from infecting the whole town and turning them all into zombies.

Night Of The Creeps has everything you’d expect from an 80’s movie set on a college campus: white elitist jocks, their beautiful, virtuous dates that don’t yet know that they would be better off with nerds and charming nerds that lust after beautiful women that date elitist jocks. Aside from that, it’s also a suspenseful horror film.

The zombie is Night Of The Creeps look pretty cool. They have whitened eyes and prosthetic face pieces to give them that evil sunken eye look. Some of the special effects work leaves something to be desired, but it’s all pretty on par for 1986.

Night Of The Creeps is pretty enjoyable as an eighties college romp and as a zombie movie. It has a certain amount of comedy to it which balances out with the horror aspect and makes a fairly well rounded film. It’s no Gone With The Wind or even Night Of The Living Dead, but a good watch with a bucket of popcorn or a six-pack and friends.

Where do we draw the line on what is and what is not a zombie movie? We just can’t decide on our own, so every Monday we’ll post a new movie to be debated by, you, our readers and ask the question: Zombie Movie Or Not? Every Sunday we’ll post our findings and possibly strike that movie off our Zombie Movie List. The week should give you enough time to rent the movie if need be or you desire.

What every reader must keep in mind is that there are two basic types of zombie that every zombie movie based off of - the Voodoo Zombie and the Romero Zombie. The Voodoo Zombie, while not always raised by Voodoo necessarily, is basically a person, either undead or entranced, that is controlled by a person or entity for the purpose of completing tasks, often killing. Romero Zombies are basically mindless, flesh-eating undead whose bite will turn victims into zombies. Now, not all movies adhere to all of these rules, but if the basics are there, you got a zombie movie.

This weeks debate is over Mesiah Of Evil (1973) Directed by William Huyck

IS: They’re a flesh hungry horde of white-faced zombies. This screams zombie movie.

IS NOT: They’re not necessarily dead, undead or zombies. Maybe in the sense of being a mob of drones, but there’s never anything said in the movie about them being zombies or undead or anything. They’re just a mob of white-faced jerks.

Now it’s up to you, reader. What do you think? Messiah Of Evil: Zombie Movie Or Not?

The debate for Friday The 13th VI: Jason Lives, Zombie Movie Or Not?, received 11 comments and 11 non-repeating votes. With 0 votes for and 11 votes against being a Zombie Movie, as far as this site is concerned, Friday The 13th VI: Jason Lives is NOT a Zombie Movie.

Stay tuned for next week’s debate: Messiah Of Evil, Zombie Movie Or Not?

We were all looking forward to getting our mitts on some of the new Night of the Living Dead Mego style toys at last weekend’s Flashback Weekend, but unfortunately they were not available. Scott from FearWerx wrote us to say:

Greetings!

Scott from FEARWERX dropping by with an update about the MEGO Night of the Living Dead figures.
A small setback with the manufacturers in China have pushed the release date for these toys back to October.
So the bad news is that eager fans will have to wait.
The good news is that they’ll be here in time for Halloween!
And thank you for the Zombie Reporting Center for giving these toys a write-up.
Keep up the good work!

I’m glad to hear they will still be available, though I am more than a little bummed I wasn’t able to get the “Graveyard Zombie” figure signed by Bill Hinzman!

Poise, beauty, and BRAAAAAIIIIINS - these girls had it all. Flashback Weekend’s annual Zombie Pinup Contest was a fun event that showed that beauty really is only skin deep (rotting, stinking skin that is). You can view our photos of the event here.

It was a parade of fear yesterday as Chicago horror legend Svengoolie hosted the Flashback Weekend Costume Contest. Our very own Jef Porkins did a stunning job with his own makeup but sadly it was a man in a monkey suit (Planet of the Apes, specifically) that won Best in Show. You check out all our pics from the contest here.