A week or so ago, I got a book. I didn’t get the book for myself, though. I finally found a book about the Undead that I could read to my kids! Matt Mogk (you may have heard of him) is the founder of Zombie Research Society, and he is the author of That’s Not Your Mommy Anymore: A Zombie Tale. With his heroic sidekick, and illustrator, Aja Wells, Mogk has finally brought something to the table we can all enjoy.
In 2007, The Zombie Research Society dedicated the month of May as Zombie Awareness month. This year, they decided to pick a specific theme and geared the festivities toward helping the younger generation prepare for the “coming Zombie plague” and Mommy was born.
Sometimes, it’s my pleasure to have short conversations with the creators of the works we feature here on Z&T, and Mr. Mogk was happy to join in on the tradition. For me, it’s cool to know some of the stories behind the things we actually see show up on the shelves. Also, as a writer and artist, it sometimes feels that your favorite things about your work get completely missed when someone else tells their friends. So, I asked him, what was your favorite part about writing this book?
“I wrote the manuscript about a year ago, and the illustrator and I started mocking up the pages roughly last August. The final manuscript and images were submitted to the publisher at the beginning of this year. I'm a huge zombie geek, so my favorite spread in the book is probably a lineup of some of the most famous zombie from film history. There are also hidden nods to zombie movies throughout the book that most people won't notice. I like those a lot.”
This put me on a kind of Where’s Waldo hunt for every pop culture poke I could find in the book. Well, Matt, I noticed. I noticed a guy who looks like George Romero in the supermarket. I saw Bubs and teddy bear girl. I even think I saw a few throwbacks to Left4Dead. It’s one of those things where each time you flip through, you spot another.
So, yeah. That’s Not Your Mommy Anymore is 17 pages of sing-song verse about how our youngsters should react when the old folks just don’t stay dead anymore. It’s everything kids’ book should be and also a pretty funny read for us old fogies. However, it’s still a book about Zombies cannibalizing people. There’s a little bit of blood and people missing some of the parts they were built with. Probably not for preschool aged munchkins.
You can pick up your own copy of this book on Amazon, but Matt has been kind enough to donate a few signed copies for you, our readers. To enter, it’s the same ol’ song and dance: send an email with your name and address to mommy@zombiesandtoys.com and we’ll draw as many winners as we have books sometime in early June. If that’s not enough for you, Matt’s also hosting a giveaway of his own over on the Zombie Research Society every day during the month of May. Like I said, there are entirely too few of these types of things on the market today, so get onboard and land yourself a copy. It’s worth a few minutes of your time.
