Wednesday, August 10, 2011

BOOK REVIEW: Zombie High Yearbook

Title: ZOMBIE HIGH YEARBOOK '64


Author: Jeff Busch

Publisher: Sterling Publishing

RRP: $16.99

ISBN: 9781402784712

Release Date: 2011



Description:



Printed in blood-spattered black and white, this tribute to high school yearbooks of old is hilarious in its attention to period detail even as it celebrates the 1960s “afterlifestyle.” The civil rights upheavals of the early '60s saw the dawn of a new, all-inclusive attitude for the nation's youth, whether living or life-challenged. Jeff Busch captures this dynamic moment in an all-American zombie high school, when a generation of young revenants looked forward to a brighter tomorrow, filled with college, career, and family. And brains-lots and lots of brains….

About the Author

JEFF BUSCH is an award-winning book, movie, and video game illustrator who spends an unwholesome amount of his free time thinking about the ways of the undead. He and his family live just outside CHICAGO.

Review:

Zombie High is a quirky play on High School yearbooks, with a horrific twist.

Artist Jeff Busch has copy-set the book in a haunting black-and-white, and having seen my father’s high school yearbooks from the same era, I can attest that Zombie High Yearbook ‘64 looks exactly like the real thing. Busch has devoted sections of the yearbook to every aspect of zombie high school in the 60s, from “Clubs and Organizations”, to “Student Personalities”, even a macabre “Athletics” section, each staggered with loads of candid zombie photos.

 Many pages, like “Social Events: Enchantment under the Earth” or “Support Staff: Disposal Detail” are spattered with clever, hand-written zombie captions.


Although I really enjoyed Busch’s book, I was still left with a couple of questions that would have made a good book a classic. First, considering the subject matter, why did he choose to set the book in black-and-white rather than glorious, gruesome colour? Second, if you insist on setting your zombie yearbook in the mid-60s, why not 1968, the year Night of the Living Dead was released?

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