The Peoria Plague

I’ve been listening to zombie podcasts recently in order to return to the zombie apok mindset. While listening to an episode in the 120’s I found a review of the following:

 

Peoria Plague

https://archive.org/details/ThePeoriaPlague

 

 

This is a 1-hour broadcast made circa 1970 at a radio station in Peoria, Illinois. It appears they were doing homage to Orson Wells’ War of the Worlds radio broadcast from the 1930s.

 

In this show, actual radio reporters and staff of the station narrate you through a zombie-ish outbreak in Peoria on Halloween, apparently started by a UFO. It was an AM station, so the sound is rough but it’s a nice (and free) mp3.

 

Zombie Chow

 

Zombies & the Turner Thesis

Hello all,

 

This post is going to divert from the usual ATZ game…though it’s been on hiatus while my Victorious Kickstarter was plugging along. This is more about the idea of zombie apocalypses (ZA) and their fascination to Americans.

 

What first got me interested in this idea was a comment made on the “Watching Dead” Podcast (baldmove.com) where the hosts compared the shooting and camerawork of the series The Walking Dead (TWD) to a western cowboy-style show. This connected with me, and I wondered why that was. After all, other than gunplay it didn’t seem to have much similarity on the surface.

 

Then (as I’m a historian) I thought of the 1893 Turner Thesis. In essence this lamented the fact that by 1893 the “Frontier” of the United States no longer existed. Turner was concerned at this because he believed that American culture was shaped by the idea of a frontier. A place where people who failed or had trouble in one place could simply go to the frontier and ‘remake’ themselves and their lives. This created the American ideal of self-made (wo)men and hard work leads to success. In short, overcoming obstacles was a character building exercise.

 

Then it occurred to me, isn’t that exactly what a post-ZA world is? A frontier of danger and opportunities all around you? Civilization is limited to small communities constantly under threat by outlaw humans and ‘natives’ (ie zombies)? A place where people can remake themselves for good or ill? Thinking about each of the main characters in TWD (TV)…each one of them has changed and grown as people. A few went bad to be sure, but they either died because of their bad choices (Shane) or recovered a sense of humanity to become overall better people (Rick, Daryl,…arguably Carol).

 

Anyway, it seems fascinating to consider. Please feel free to post opinions!

 

Zombie Chow

 

Shots in the Dark: Turn 2

Connor couldn’t see much past the small circle of light around him, but heard CJ’s voice echoing from the upper landing of the stairway. While waiting for his brother to make his way down the dark stairs, a stranger made the landing first. He blinked at Connor in the yellow flickering light and said “Hey. Did you hear anything about the riots? Are the police here yet?”

 

Before the zippo-wielding man could comment, the sound of police sirens cut through the night. They rose in volume, then began to recede. Strobing red and blue lights past the windows of the convention rear of the building as a squad car shot down the street, moving at high speed.

 

Matthew joined his friend in the lobby, and said “Riots? What’s that about?” The unnamed man continued in a rush. “I was watching TV before the power went out, and the local station was saying something about attacks and fights breaking out at the hospital. They had some guy at the scene, but were having trouble raising him.” He shrugged at Connor and Matt, then said “Either way, I’m not staying at this lame con. I’m outta here!”

 

With that he walked blindly towards the back door. From the side windows, the four of them (now joined by CJ) saw the faint yet steady glow of flashing lights…they appeared to be coming from an ambulance down the street, parked next to something in the darkness. The stranger opened the back door and stumbled off into the night, going west toward the parking lot.

 

 

***Ok, next moves?

 

Zombie Chow

 

Cast of Characters

Our 3 Survivors

 

“C.J.”

Reputation 4 Citizen

Attributes: Medic 2, Marksman, Free Spirit

Weapon: None

 

“Connor”

Reputation 4 Citizen

Attributes: Medic 1, Athlete, Knife fighter

Weapons: None

 

“Matthew”

Reputation 4 Citizen

Attributes: Born Leader, Swordsman, Runt

 
Weapons: none

 

 

...pics to follow tonight. Honest!

Zombie Chow

A warning for those buying plastic minis

ThinkGeek is running a sale on some plastic army men and zombies...As I am big into 20mm figs (ie plastic army men) I thought this would be a great set to use to increase my variety of zombies. A few extra survivors wouldn't hurt either. So, I put them on my Amazon wishlist for Christmas.

My In-Laws (of all people!) got them for me. Great, right! Wrong! The figures are nice, well sculpted....and about 45mm tall(!) Who thought THAT was a good scale? not only are they waaay too big for my 20mm stuff, they're not even terribly useful for the standard 28mm gamers! I sent them to Dexter (from the Board of the Living Lead) to see if he could do something with them, as I can't.

The big gripe I have is that ThinkGeek didn't put their scale on the page, just that they were zombies and troopers of "traditional plastic army men". Now, is it just me or does "traditional plastic army men" bring 1/72 scale figs to mind? Or even 1/35 at the outside, not 45mm.

***This has been a Zombie Wargamers Public Service Announcement***

Zombie Chow

Survivors return....

Hey all,

My survivor figs (along with a few police and soldiers) arrived painted from Dexter in the UK...they look great! I'll get the lovely wife to take some pics to show off the figs in a couple of days. I'm especially impressed by the work he did on the Red Box plastic police and gangsters...RB is notorious for flash and chunky molds; but they're the only place to find 1/72 police, civillians, etc. He went above and beyond the call in fixing these guys up. ;)


Even though the blog has languished, I've been reading (ok listening to audio) some zombie books from Audible. Quite a pile actually, and of the group I've got to reccomendJonothan Maberry's Dead of Night and the Zombies of Lake Woebegotten by Harrison Geillor. Alison Hewitt is Trapped (book done in the form of an updated blog) is also pretty ok, but has a couple of continuity SNAFUs that bug me a bit. Still each is a good listen if you have the time and inclination....thogh as you can imagine the Zombies of Lake Woebegotten is a Zomody; taking the idea of having a zombie apocalypse in the iconic Minnesota town of Lake Woebegone (see Prarie home Companion on NPR for more). Of course they couldn't CALL it Woebegone, so we get Woebegotten. Still funny, and yet just as plausible zombie story too.

Of course, if you read this blog I don't need to remind you that AMC's The Walking Dead has had its finale and we've got the crew back on the road once again. I look forward to Season 3, though it'll take until Oct for us to see it. :P 

***SPOILERS!***

I'm glad they finally whacked Shane, but even though they did it differently from the comic I still thought it was well done. Especially how they sorta paid homage to the comic by having Carl sorta-shoot Shane after all. ;)  I frankly expected a higher body count from the farm, but its probably best since I liked all the characters that survived. Well, except Dale but they did his death well so I won't complain (much). I just wish they'd work with T-Dog to build his character like they did with Daryl this season. He's had maby 6 lines all season? I'm afraid if they don't do something soon, it'll mean he's going to be red-shirted this Fall. <sigh>

More soon, and I'm going to work on doing a better job of posting from now on. Honest!

Zombie Chow