Since Romero’s film was a hit and was so often copied, there is a tendency to accept his versions of these monsters as cannon. However, even the Romero zombies were not the same in each film. And they’re different than many perceptions. In NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD the zombies run, use basic tools (sticks, rocks), and eat more than human flesh. In DAY OF THE DEAD, a zom is taught to use a phone, speak, and even shoot a pistol. In LAND OF THE DEAD, zombies express grief, use various tools/weapons and even lead an intelligent and effective revolt. In SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD, a zombie rides a horse.

But the tendency of most folks –particularly those who don’t follow the genre, is to assume that all zombies are the same, and all zombie stories are the same. Sure, there are lots of grade-b imitators, but there is also a lot of fascinating literary, scientific, philosophic and creative exploration. Max Brooks’ WORLD WAR Z is a metaphor for how global politics can result in a mishandling of a disease outbreak, leading to a global pandemic. Joe McKinney’s DEAD CITY is an indictment of governmental failures in disasters such as Hurricane Katrina. S.G. Browne’s BREATHERS is biting social commentary. The new anthology coming out next week, 21ST CENTURY DEAD, includes stories by celebrated writers like Orson Scott Card –and each story comes at the genre from a different angle.

The reason good zombe fiction exists, and will continue to exist in fresh and exciting ways, is that the zombie is seldom the focus of the story. With few exceptions, zombies are mindless and are therefore a blank canvas. Once introduced they represent a massive, shared threat that each character in the story must confront (in one way or another). People under stress tend to reveal their true nature, which is why most forms of drama are about people encountering something dire –be that the loss of a love to the loss of life. Or a zombie apocalypse. The end result is that the story is about people.

Look at it from another perspective… people jump to say that ‘vampires’ are so five minutes ago; and ‘zombies’, etc. What about love stories? Mysteries? War stories? Medical dramas? romantic comedies? ANY trope is stale if no one is writing good material, but the thing is…someone is always writing good material. When a trope goes stale it usually means that the next slice of originality merely hasn’t been discovered by the mainstream audience. It doesn’t mean that good writing on that topic or in that genre isn’t out there.

I’ve read some zombie stories that made me just cry. Sometimes I feel like it’s little children writing this stuff. But again, it’s not a problem of the zombie genre it’s a problem of the zombification of society.

Also a few quick notes:
Zombies provide an excellent tabula rasa for metaphores, social criticism etc., and are thus appealing to various authors (I’ve even seen gay zombie fiction, vegetarianism spoofs…)

Zombies have been around for nearly 100 years

p.s.

personally… i like it, the more the better… more lousy works means more art works!

The zombie genre was played out in 1985 when Romero finished his foray into the land of the dead… but then 20 years later they came back, and felt really fresh and meaty all over again. We always think nobody can ever tell a different and fresh Zombie/vampire/wizard/lawyer/whatever story, until they do, and then it feels like nothing more can be done.

WWZ was amazing, 28 days later was amazing, walking dead is great, Feed was great, and they happened a lifetime after the zombie genre was alreayd played out.

And thank god you did not mention Brian Keene in that list of authors. A lot of people credit him as part of the zombie renaissance. But his stuff is garbage that breaks the bounds of any reasonable suspension of disbelief.