Real Zombies, the Living Dead, and Creatures of the Apocalypse. Brad Steiger

is a psychic and natural spirit medium, able to see and communicate with spirits and often drawing those she has come into contact with. She is a member of House Kheperu in the Priest caste and teaches classes on energy work, spirit communication, art and energy, and performs energy body readings/manipulation and cleansings. An award-winning artist with over ten years of professional experience in illustration and manuscript illumination, her latest project is the Watcher Angel Tarot with psychic Michelle Belanger, author of Walking the Twilight Path and The Psychic Energy Codex at http://www.michellebelanger.com.

      Pastor Robin Swope

      Lance Oliver

      A native Texan, young Lance Oliver experienced several kinds of paranormal phenomena, including three vivid OBEs to a higher dimension of existence, as well as a visitation by some dark specter, seen through the slats of his bed. Overall, these experiences seemed to lean more toward a positive nature than a negative one.

      Through his years attending high school, Oliver’s fascination with the unexplained grew, prompting him to join the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON). Later, Oliver had the privilege of being personally trained by the organization’s founder, Walt Andrus. After becoming an official UFO Field Investigator, he later was chosen to be the State Section Director of Tarrant County for MUFON.

      After moving to Denton, Texas, he founded the Denton Area Paranormal Society (DAPS) in the fall of 2004. With the help of his wife, Mary, and several others, Oliver has positioned the organization to research and investigate numerous urban legends and reports of things that go bump in the night. He can be reached at [email protected].

      Jackie Williams

      Julia Cole

      Julia Cole has become known as The Empress of the Known & Unknown Universes™, and devoted herself to bringing enlightenment and inspiration around the globe by providing spiritual guidance to those seeking a deeper understanding. In her personal empowerment consultations, Julia provides in-depth advice and teaches clients to tap into their own inner-strength and achieve a more fulfilling and joyful life.

      As a psychic medium, Julia brings healing and comfort by serving as a liaison between those here in the physical realm and those who have crossed over into the spiritual planes of existence.

      Julia’s weekly radio talk show Namaste Beloved™; is heard on Blog Talk Radio every Friday evening starting at 9:00 PM Eastern. Julia Cole’s email is [email protected].

      Tuesday Miles

      Tuesday Miles is an experienced psychic medium who is known to have had exceptional experiences with spirit entities. Tuesday’s psychic abilities are multidimensional, which means that she can see spirit manifestations on all levels of the veil. Tuesday lives in a very active haunted house; she knows what it feels like having some unseen force enter into your life. One thing Tuesday teaches each of her clients is how to empower themselves. Tuesday believes that if you stand as a victim, the ghost will treat you as a victim, just as any human bully would do. Tuesday has made a promise that she has yet to break—if someone needs help with a paranormal situation, she will not turn her back on the client. She will do everything that she can to get that person some help. Tuesday Miles’ personal website is http://www.Tuesdaymiles.com.

      Wm. Michael Mott

      Wm. Michael (Mike) Mott is a freelance artist who writes both fiction and nonfiction. His artwork and writing have appeared or been featured in many publications. He has created artworks and graphic designs for mass-market book covers, posters, brochures, packaging, CD-ROM covers and art collections, and digital/web-based media, and has won several design awards, from regional Advertising Federation awards for printed material to awards for website graphics and design. His artwork has been featured in the exhibition “In Dreams Awake: Art of Fantasy” at the Olympia and York Gallery, New York City, 1988; at the 1987 World Fantasy Con, Con*stellation, the DragonCon 2001 art show, several one-man exhibits, and digital galleries in various venues. He also researches and writes on Fortean, folklore, comparative religion, and paranormal topics.

      Mike is the author of the satirical fantasy novel Pulsifer: A Fable and its sequel, Land of Ice, A Velvet Knife, both soon to be re-released in one omnibus edition from TGS Publishing, as well as the nonfiction books Caverns, Cauldrons, and Concealed Creatures and This Tragic Earth: The Art and World of Richard Sharpe Shaver. His pulp fiction anthology of fiction, verse, and artwork, PULP WINDS, featuring an introduction by Brad Steiger, has been recently published by TGS (http://www.hiddenmysteries.com). Mike can be reached at [email protected] and at [email protected]. His website is http://www.mottimorphic.com.

      Ryan Mott

      Fifteen-year-old Ryan Mott is the son of Mike Mott and is a budding artist and writer. He has a very fluid and natural drawing ability and a way with the written word as well. He shares his father’s interests in history, myth, legend, and Fortean topics. He likes zombies, samurai, knights, dogs, and rock and roll. This marks the first publication of his artwork in a professional capacity.

      THE ZOMBIES ARE COMING

      In 1965 when I wrote Monsters, Maidens, and Mayhem: A Pictorial History of Hollywood Film Monsters (Merit Books, Chicago), I included chapters on man-made monsters, vampires, werewolves, mummies, and Things from Outer Space, but I made no mention of zombies.

      The book became successful enough for the publisher to request a sequel that same year. In Master Movie Monsters I elaborated on such topics as “Fantasy’s Finest Hour,” “Vintage Vampires,” and “Mad Scientists and What They Hath Wrought.” Once again, I included no discussion of zombie movies.

      Why did I neglect to include the zombie, the dreaded creature of the undead, in two books about Hollywood monsters? Because American filmmaker George A. Romero had not yet scraped together a $114,000 budget, gathered some unknown actors and friends, and filmed an independent black-and-white horror film that was released in 1968 as Night of the Living Dead.

      Before Night of the Living Dead birthed the way that motion picture audiences and popular culture would perhaps forevermore view the zombie, there had really only been two films of any note about zombies: White Zombie (1932) with Bela Lugosi, and I Walked with a Zombie (1943), the second horror film produced by Val Lewton, who was highly respected for his classic The Cat People (1942).

      While White Zombie and I Walked with a Zombie have never exerted much influence on the mass audience, they were both set in the Caribbean, and they each made an effort to depict with some accuracy the legend of real zombies. Some critics have said that Lugosi’s portrayal of the Voodoo master in White Zombie was one of his very best. The scene depicting the mindless zombies working in their master’s sugar mill caught exactly the cruel exploitation of the undead slaves.

      Jack Pierce, Universal Studios’ top makeup artist (famous for the work he did making Boris Karloff’s monster in Frankenstein), created unusually striking makeup for Lugosi. Pierce also designed the head-to-toe costume and the make-up for actor