Zombies are everywhere, and not in the "we have to run for our lives" way. Zombies have invaded American culture. They are in every facet of our daily lives: books, television shows, movies, toys, video games, etc. It was only a matter of time before hordes of the undead invaded our comic books. Seems like you can't walk down the aisle of your local comic book shop with seeing a zombie on the cover or a zombie fighting something or a zombie hugging a tree (hippie zombies). Has this gimmick gotten out of control? 100% without a doubt yes.

Zombies aren't a new thing. They've been around a lot longer than you think. The term goes back to Hatian Voodoo culture round the early 1800s, so that makes the idea of the dead coming back to life in zombie or "zombi" for over 200 years old. The term comes from Africa as well. Zombi, back then, was more about magic. While these days, zombies are explained scientifically, usually the body is taken over by a virus or disease instead of a Voodoo priest using magic to bring the body back to life.

However, current zombies that we all know and used to love started with the classic George Romero film Night of the Living Dead back in 1968. He redefined what a zombie is and since then, America has gone zombie crazy, especially in the past decade, and we've seen a lot of that just within the medium of comic books. Is this gimmick overused or am I just blowing it out of proportion?

Believe it or not, the first appearance of a zombie in a comic book was toward the end of the golden age of comics. Back in 1949, a character called Bombie the Zombie appeared in an issue of Four Color by Dell books. It was a Donald Duck comic. That's right, the first appearance of a zombie character was in a Disney book. Bombie the Zombie was a zombified member of the Voodoo Tribe of Africa. He has super-human strength, but he was slow and not too bright. He only appeared in 14 issues, but Bombie paved the way for decades of flesh eating madness.

During the 70s and 80s, there were a slew of zombie films, but the concept really didn't blow up until 2002 and 2004. In 2002, 28 Days Later was released, and even though the creatures in the film weren't true zombies, it helped re-imagine the zombie-genre by popularizing "fast zombies." In 2004, the remake of Dawn of the Dead was released and this film implemented the "fast zombie" that fans had seen two years prior. From there, the zombie genre blew up and it seemed like you couldn't go a week without seeing at least one straight to DVD zombie flick.

Soon enough, we started seeing this genre blow up in the world of comics books. You couldn't turn your head without seeing something zombie on the shelf. What started this trend in comics off? Well, like most trends, it starts with the best, and the best in this case is The Walking Dead. The book originally written by Robert Kirkman and drawn by Tony Moore was and still is a huge success. What happened after that? Well, we got a slew of terrible zombie-related comics and the only one that really stands out, above the vast majority, is the first two volumes of Marvel Zombies. You know why that book worked so well though? Because it was written by Robert Kirkman.

Aside from that, there really isn't a zombie book that is worth the time or money of any comic book reader, except 28 Days Later, which technically isn't a zombie comic. There was this time, which you can still see on your local shelf, where every comic was "Zombies vs." Examples: Zombies vs Robots, Zombies vs Cheerleaders, Sorority Girls vs Zombies, Ninjas vs Zombies, and there are a few others. Overkill much? It seems like zombies have beef with almost everyone and everything.

These series could be amazing, but the problem is that many casual zombie fans will be turned off to it because the market is over-saturated with it. How will they know what to pick up, especially when the majority of the product isn't good. It's just companies trying to cash in on a "hot ticket item." Sure, the hardcore fans are going to buy everything, but the average consumer is going to feel overwhelmed and walk away.

What makes this gimmick so overused, aside from companies cashing in on a hot trend? Well, there's not much you can do with zombies. All these guys really do is roam around and look for things to eat. Walking Dead works so well because it's more about human survival than zombies. Marvel Zombies worked so well because it was zombies with super-powers. 28 Days Later worked so well because it was based off a hit film. At this point, almost anything you can do with the little buggers has been done, and while it may be cool to see them strolling around in packs, there's not much more anyone can bring to the table when it comes to comic books.

Why not take the element back to its roots? We're talking before the Night of the Living Dead films. Why hasn't anyone tried to do a zombie book about the voodoo origins of the monster? I'm sure something like that exists in the past, but how about a contemporary spin on it? Last year, DC tried their hand at the world of zombies (aside from 2004 book by George Romero, Toe Tags), and they created a summer event out of it.

Blackest Night may have seemed a bit of the same-old, same-old at first, but it had some new elements to the gimmick. Sure, it was, in a sense, a lot like Marvel Zombies where super-heroes and villains become zombies, but the nice twist was that there was an ultimate force driving the zombies. This is what a lot of fans are hoping to see, a new twist on an old classic. It takes away from the redundancy that zombies in comic books have become. It felt like being at home with a rearranged living room: comforting and homey yet new.

Traditional zombies have been a part of the mainstream media since 1968, and it's not going anywhere, but maybe what the public needs is a bit of a break from the redundant story lines of zombies invading a town or zombies battling some other gimmicky person. Currently, Walking Dead is going strong, and in no way should it stop; however, all these other books just seem to be taking up shelf space and nothing more. Is it time for a change? Yes. What do you guys think? Are zombies a bit over done or are they still books you want to read? What is your favorite zombie-related book? What is your least favorite?

Aren't gimmicks meant to be overused?

Deadpool or I am a legend awesome least IDK

Deadpool or I am a legend awesome least IDK

Any gimmick no matter how overused can be turned into a great movie or book.  Zombies were overused way before The Walking Dead but Kirkman used them and used them right turning a gimmick into a best-selling book series

Zombies are timeless!

Zombies have been all the rave since Zack Synder's Dawn of the Dead remake. Personally, I've been hook since I first saw Day of the Dead (original) and a wee Quisling. It's the same as Vamps or Werewolves. Different monsters appeal to different people for different reasons. :P Zombies will always be loved no matter how much they're used. BTW how come you didn't mention Simon Garth?

I heart zombies. 
 
Philosophically I want to lean toward the traditional slow zombie. Easy to beat one on one but they usually win on sheer numbers. 
 
The fast zombie is kewl cause even one is terrifying, but it turns the zombie into something more akin to a vampire or a werewolf  - it sort of de-zomifies them. 
 
Having said that, I thought the Crazies was brilliant, again not a "true" zombie movie, but zombies with cars and guns rocked. The added element of the government hunting the heroes also was brilliant. 
 
Basically the Zombie scratches some psychological itch for modern society. What we are really underlining is the fact that if electricity or gasoline were to disappear suddenly there would be throngs of bloodthirsty cannibals roaming the streets. They wouldn't be anything exotic, they would be your neighbors. One day they are mouth breathing in Wal Mart, the next they are fighting to the death for canned goods. If society broke down, over 99% of people in densely populated areas would have to die before the survivors could live off the land.

If done really well zombies can be awesome >_>

Aren't zombies easy to use and abuse because its a group that everyone can focus their fears, hatreds and want of destruction , a stand-in for the tried and trued out Nazi villians (at least in shooter games). And to a degree, media has romanticized werewolves and vampires, while ghosts don't give a protagonist much to hit unless you're friends with the sorcerer supreme down the block, and a lot of the other monsters come across as too fantastic or mythical. Zombies are us, at our worst, and there's no redemption for that state. When the reader makes a emotion connection of family, instant conflict and attachment. Plus, its a disaster scenario, not too afar from natural disasters, and a lot of people like a good disaster - doom on a grand scale.

The catch is making it good, good enough to override the feelings of oversaturation. The movies rarely break with cliche, but in the funny books, it should be fresh lending to endearing, but I guess with parent companies breathing down a writer's neck, it often easy to be cliche. Authors have to pick their pens selectively if they don't want to fall prey to consumer apathy and brain rot.

It's overused. Zombies have appeared in almost every franchise in entertainment

zombies. overused but still cool. fail of the dead was good, but stupid. only one issue was published.

Better zombies than MFin' vampires.

My only and first favorite zombie epic is BLACKEST NIGHT because it was a green lantern related  story which is saying green lantern is my favorite super hero.  The whole concept was perfect and just awesome for me so kinda my perfect super hero zombie apocalyptic tale. Plus Nekron being my zombie related villain so  this will be the only thing I like about zombies. The black lanterns are too cool there are not your average zombies. Another big reason is because Blackest Night is what re invented and started a new mythology and legacy for Green lantern. I really don't dislike any other zombie stuff just tired of it and never will be a big fan of this genre same thing goes with vampires, wizards, slashers or what have you and I am currently getting some army of darkness danger girl comic series that has zombies but only because I am starting to become a fan of danger girl not ash or the zombies. Yes this genre needs a break and vampires too. 

"Okay. Me think I seen that one before." =P

                Zombies are timeless!
           

Kind of funny Inferiorego wrote this article about zombies when he himself once looked like this...

Just sayin'.....

Huh, maybe this entire zombie fad is what some people meant when they think of doomsday prophecies.

i'd rather have zombies than vampires, at least with zombie stories, or GOOD zombie stories the main plot has little to do with the undead, but rather the living, the people, how they survive in a world gone to hell, their relationships, with vampires it's just more or less...vampires

Plus, I'd rather deal with rotting flesh and "BRAINSSSS" than techno music, euro-trash wardrobes and pouting emo crap.  Zombies are rock, vampires are bubblegum pop.

Zombies have been a metaphor from the very beginning - in a sense, that is something that hasn't been played out.  Marvel Zombies brings us something new - zombies who are not mindless, but are still enslaved.  This is one step scarier than old fashion zombies - those things were "undead", and it is fairly easy to assume that their existence is not some quiet torture for the soul; but the absence of one.   MZ gave us "smart zombies" - but more than that, it gave us zombies who were themselves except for having a really tough addiction! 
 
Blackest Night... well, Squadron Supreme has always been a parody on DC, and Marvel Zombies Supreme did it again - In MZS, they were clones of the dead - not the originals.  How they had all the memories/etc?  Ask DC - it's their dead scifi puppy.   Heck, Marvel made it main-continuity, killed some guys, and brought back someone from the dead who had been dead for a while... LOL!  
 
Now, yes, there is a bunch of people who are trying to take advantage of the zombie craze - but this is nothing new - there were a bunch of people in the 90s trying to take advantage of super hero comics, but super heroes are still here to stay. 
 
Would it be nice if more zombie comics weren't crap?  Sure. 
 
But would I turn down a well written ongoing Marvel Zombies book?  No. (MZ1-4, R were all good IMO.) 
 
Would I turn down a DC ongoing book about dead zombie clones that eat people's hearts (ugh), and can regenerate CELL style?  Yup.

Zombies aren't going anywhere! It's the fad that will go away, but the true fans will stay with it.
There's no need for a great plot anymore, we just want to see someone bad ass surviving in a zombie world, nothing more. If we wanted more we would watch Casablanca or Citizen Kane.

If not zombies, then vampires, if not vampires then werewolves, if not werewolves then demons, etc, etc. Everything has their ebb and flow (like torn denim jeans). The zombie craze will fade and then come back many more times, like any other monster phase. All ya can do is ride it out and hope some good things come out of it.
 
Me? I'm waiting for demons and possessions to make it's big boom again. It almost happened with Exorcist: The Beginning, but people weren't ready and we got the watered down version (Exorcist: Dominion). There've been some since, but not like the craze that followed the first Exorcist.

Honestly, the zombie trend is probably not going anywhere anytime soon.  That said, I don't have a favorite, I've got favorites.  Blackest Night and Marvel Zombies.  I've yet to get into the Walking Dead, but I plan to sometime soon.  The thing with zombies, like people are saying, is the psychological draw.  Not only what would happen to society once the people running our infrastructure were zombified, but the fact that people have to learn to not only kill, but kill their former friends and family.  That's a hard thing to do, and even harder to imagine.  It's why most people wouldn't survive a zombie apocalypse, because they still have a lingering hope that their loved ones are still in there somewhere.  So while it's played out a bit much, if done well, it's a great concept to build off of.

Good Lord Donald Duck comics are influential.

Zombieland. 
 
That is my participation in this.

 Marvel Zombies brings us something new - zombies who are not mindless, but are still enslaved.

@labarith said:

 Marvel Zombies brings us something new - zombies who are not mindless, but are still enslaved.

Technically this isn't true although I love the first couple Marvel Zombie series. The idea of zombies working this way was definitely popularized in Return of the Living Dead and its subsequent sequels. (possibly created but to be honest although reasonably well-versed in zombie movies I don't know for sure this was the first instance). In that series the dead can talk and reason but experience intense pain from being dead and feeding on the brains of humans offer them a brief respite from the pain. It was never explored but from the movies it would make sense that should a zombie have access to a steady supply of brains they could possibly almost live a normal life. 
 
Zombies in comics are definitely becoming overplayed, especially the ones that focus on the survivors just killing the zombies. As was stated many times before, The Walking Dead does an amazing job of focusing on the human interactions, zombies are not the focus of the story and that's what keeps it from falling victim to the same thing that plagues other zombie stories. 
 
Looking bad I think the only other zombie comic other than The Walking Dead or Marvel Zombies I liked was Warren Ellis's Blackgas and even then mostly just for the insane level of violence. Plus it's short.

Zombies, vampires, and lycans are all cliche now because of such over-saturation as you talk about.  I definitely see zombies now as being a cliche plot device in comics now when they seem to be so ubiquitous.  That's why I think Blackest Night was good because it reintroduced a a traditional common denominator to the zombie tradition...how individuals became zombies.  Maybe if more works start to look at the supernatural causes rather than the biological ones for why zombies came about, there would be a reintroduction to their popularity.  One way or another though, zombies are a gimmick through and through no doubt.

@The Stegman said:

i'd rather have zombies than vampires, at least with zombie stories, or GOOD zombie stories the main plot has little to do with the undead, but rather the living, the people, how they survive in a world gone to hell, their relationships, with vampires it's just more or less...vampires

Word. The thing I liked about 28 Days Later was realizing the greatest threat to the survivors were other survivors.

The zombie craze is ok in my book because it gave us the anime High School of The Dead. Also AMC's the Walking Dead series wouldn't have happened without the zombie craze that Kirkman helped perpetuate. Still waiting on either a World War Z comic and/or movie. And probably the most important thing, ZOMBIES DON'T GET ALL GLITTERY IN SUNLIGHT!!! All in all zombies make fore better whatever than all the other super-natural/extraterrestrial/X-filey stuff. Bring on the horde of the undead I say, this fad will never go away because like a zombie when you think you've got them all... More just pop up. 
 
Oh and screw you guys Cheerleaders vs. Zombies was great, especially when they brought in Hack and Slash!!!(Bring on the hate)

zombies have a place.  probably always will.
 
however that place is NOT in a superhero comic.  Marvel Zombies was idiotic.

I'm a zombie junkie and can't seem to get enough of them... if the stories are well done, I do have standards. Anyway, what makes zombies so horrifying is what they represent: they represent psychological and physical torture. They cause a death of who we are, we have to adapt and survive in a world where civilized society and government have also died. The rules are gone, and there's no one to enforce them, we have to survive not only a relentless army of the undead but also unrestrained human nature. Electricity, grocery stores, medical care, all of it is gone, we have to go back to the old ways by harvesting the lands, but we have to try to do that while zombies and other people trying to take what you have so that they can survive or just get what they want. Stress, fear, and tensions will be high, and it will be hard forming functional groups. And worse still, aside from all the horrors one must face in a zombie apocalypse, there's still the most significant one: these zombies aren't just random faces, not all the time. Many of them are your own friends and family. Being devoured alive is already a deep human fear, but being devoured alive by your own friends and family whom you trust and love, even if they are empty shells, would be traumatizing. Alot of people also aren't going to be able to kill their own friends and family, and they'll also have a hard time allowing others to kill their friends and family. And they'll have to realize that if they become infected that they will not only face their own mortality but also become haunted by the realization that they'll eventually attack their surviving friends and family. 
 
A zombie apocalypse has to be the most cruel, barbaric, inhumane, and terrifying things ever conceived. And I think that's why it's so popular.

I watched Burial Ground when I was five years old and have been hooked on zombies ever since. I own maybe 150 zombie movies and two dozen zombie games. The only comic I have read with zombies in it that I really liked was and still is The Walking Dead. Most of the others I've come across are just done poorly. Haven't yet read Blackest Night but hated Marvel Zombies. The main problem I see with this kind of over-saturation is when people just throw them in to make a buck it brings down the whole genre. 

Zombies are my favorite monsters :) The real horror of zombies is the psychological bashing of having your friends and families get eaten then reanimated into something so horribly grotesque. 

the next overused comic book gimmick should be femme fetals.

'm a zombie junkie and can't seem to get enough of them... if the stories are well done, I do have standards. Anyway, what makes zombies so horrifying is what they represent: they represent psychological and physical torture. They cause a death of who we are, we have to adapt and survive in a world where civilized society and government have also died. The rules are gone, and there's no one to enforce them, we have to survive not only the undead but unrestrained human nature. Electricity, grocery stores, medical care, all of it is gone, we have to go back to the old ways by harvesting the lands, but we have to try to do that while hiding from zombies and other people trying to take what you have so that they can survive or just get what they want. Stress, fear, and tensions will be high, and it will be hard forming functional groups. And worse still, aside from all the horrors one must face in a zombie apocalypse, there's still the most significant one: these zombies aren't just random faces, not all the time. Many of them are your own friends and family. Being devoured alive is already a deep human fear, but being devoured alive by your own friends and family whom you trust and love, even if they are empty shells, would be traumatizing. Alot of people also aren't going to be able to kill their own friends and family, and they'll also have a hard time allowing others to kill their friends and family. And they'll have to realize that if they become infected that they will not only face their own mortality but also become haunted by the realization that they'll eventually attack their surviving friends and family.  
 
A zombie apocalypse has to be the most cruel, barbaric, inhumane, and terrifying things ever conceived. And I think that's why it's so popular.

When is it gonna stop? 
 Probably when someone finds that guy that makes zombie-mods for every game out there and dags him out into the sunlight.  
 
But all the 'living dead' hype needs to die down and come again in 20-30 years.

I love Zombies and will always read,watch. and play anything Zombie related...I say bring it on we need more Zombie anything and Less Reality anything.

Too much zombies. It's the "Crossovers of the 90s" of the 2010s now!

 In 2002, 28 Days Later was released, and even though the creatures in the film weren't true zombies,