Here at Yellow Menace we’ve been pretty vocal over the years about our shared passion for all things zombie. Indeed, whenever I get together with Mazinga at Gen Con one of the things we do is grab a table and set up a game of Zombies!!!, the fantastic tabletop zombie apocalypse game by Twilight Creations. Co-incidentally, Twilight Creations is headquartered right across the river from us in Northern Kentucky, so we also make a point of stopping by the TC booth to say howdy and nab whatever Zombies!!! expansions they put out.

Anyway. to make a long story short, I was enthused today to read that Zombies!!! is due out on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network next year. Zombies!!! is very much the horror equivalent of Go - easy to learn, hard to master…and the constant back-and-forth struggle to save yourself and simultaneously screw the other players should make for some amazing online gameplay.

Hats off to Todd and the rest of the crew at Twilight Creations  - we can’t wait to get our hands on the finished product!

This is in no way related to Asian Pop Culture, but we do have quite a few ties to Kentucky - Mazinga and AnaKhouri both have roots in the Bluegrass State (actually, I do as well, but they’re a generation or two removed), and our HQ is just across the river from Kentucky. Plus, when I read something this inane, it practically begs for intarwebs intervention.

A Lexington, KY high-school student was recently arrested and charged with felony terrorist threats based on a short-story his grandparents found tucked in his bedroom. Apparently, the story involved a high school overrun by zombies. Yes, zombies.

Winchester police say William Poole, 18, was taken into custody Tuesday morning. Investigators say they discovered materials at Poole’s home that outline possible acts of violence aimed at students, teachers, and police.

Poole told LEX 18 that the whole incident is a big misunderstanding. He claims that what his grandparents found in his journal and turned into police was a short story he wrote for English class.

“My story is based on fiction,” said Poole, who faces a second-degree felony terrorist threatening charge. “It’s a fake story. I made it up. I’ve been working on one of my short stories, (and) the short story they found was about zombies. Yes, it did say a high school. It was about a high school over ran by zombies.”

Even so, police say the nature of the story makes it a felony. “Anytime you make any threat or possess matter involving a school or function it’s a felony in the state of Kentucky,” said Winchester Police detective Steven Caudill.

…and just like every other super-reactionary post-9/11 police force (I’m analogizing you, Boston), called on on the inane stupidity of their actions, they entirely cast aside common sense in favor of blind enforcement of the law.

Seriously - doesn’t the Lexington law-enforcement apparatus have anything better to do than harass 18-year-old amateur writers with zombie fixations? Even the prosecuting attorneys want the kid’s head on a platter - his bond was increased from 1 to 5 grand due to the ‘seriousness of the charge‘.

Here’s an idea - call the Winchester, Kentucky police department at (859) 745-7400 and (politely) ask if this is for real.

I mean, it can’t be - right?

Here’s a little treat - back in 2004, Mazinga and I interviewed actor Ken Foree (Dawn of the Dead, The X-Files, The Devil’s Rejects) at GenCon 2004 in Indianapolis. It’s truly one of the best things that’s ever come from running the site - Mr. Foree was a gracious and charming interviewee, and I was happy to have stumbled across it while digging through our archives to get started on the new Ghost in the Shell Episode Guide. One note…when we conducted the intervew, we were still called Destroy-All-Monsters.com, so you’re not confused with all the “DAM” stuff.

I also don’t have the photos we took with Mr. Foree handy, but the interview is still a worthy read. Enjoy!

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