Customer Reviews

Zombie Haiku: Good Poetry For Your...Brains

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The below review was taken from Aint It Cool News. I loved what they said about the book, and thought it was worth repeating it here.

Zombie this, zombie that. Everything and anything has had a zombie version of it as of late. But none fit together better than zombies and poetry. Haiku poetry that is. Known as a meditative form of linking words to find meaning and peace in a 5-7-5 word per line structure, the art of Haiku has been cannibalized by Ryan Mecum in his original graphic novel ZOMBIE HAIKU and the result is simply one of the best zombie reads of the year.

A man starts yelling
"When there's no more room in hell..."
but then we eat him.

Although a series of non-connected poems would be kind of fun, this book is so much more than that. The book tells a narrative of one man's attempt to survive during a zombie holocaust, but doesn't stop there. Like Romero's zombies in his later films, after the narrator/poet succumbs to the zombie infestation, he continues to write Haikus and that's when the real poetry starts.

Always be careful
when you're biting teeth with teeth.
Dead teeth tend to lose.

With nods to just about every zombie film you can imagine (RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD, Romero's films, even obscure zombie fare like ZOMBIE HOLOCAUST and Bianchi's incestuous BURIAL GROUND) and reminiscent of high concept stories like Stephen King's SKELETON KEY story "Survivor Type" and "trapped in a dead body" episodes of TWILIGHT ZONE and JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN AKA the Metallica "One" video, ZOMBIE HAIKU takes the reader on a journey through the zombie holocaust on a personal level and makes the journey a fascinating, often hilarious, and most assuredly horrifying trip to take. You are literally riding in the brain of a zombie as it eats, shambles, and zombies about.

The two of us take turns.
I chew when he bites and tears.
When I bite, he chews.

This isn't necessarily a comic, but a book that comic book readers can appreciate on a intellectual level and most assuredly on an aesthetic level. ZOMBIE HAIKU is packaged extremely well, done on slick paper and bound tightly in soft cover. The pages are made to look like real journal pages smeared with blood and other zombie oozings. Included are extremely creepy photographs like close up images of zombie mouths, obscured long shots of people wandering the streets, and blurred snapshots that suggest action, panic, and carnage.

The city is dead.
Streets are just filled with people
who aren't quite people.

This is the single best zombie read I have laid my eyes on this year and sure to show up in my picks for best original graphic novel of the year. The book does a phenomenal job of going into the mind of a zombie and does so in a creative and wholly new and imaginative way. If you have a taste for horror, this quirky little book is for you. But if you're a zombie fiend like myself, you should make it your single minded goal to seek out this book and digest then savor it. It's a true gem of a book for those with a taste for the macabre.

Biting into heads
is much harder than it looks.
the skull is feisty.

Highly recommended.

It never occurred to me to look for a zombie story in something other than novel form; this book was on display by a register when I purchasing some other books. I figured since The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead (guide form, obviously) and Day by Day Armageddon (A Zombie Novel) (journal form) worked for me, I would give zombie haikus a chance.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that the haikus formed an actual story, instead of just being random haikus. Another bonus was the size of the book makes it easy to carry with me in my purse (gotta have zombie literature on me at all times).

I was very impressed with the author's creativity. I look forward to more from this author.

"All of us searching, / all of us with fat stomachs, / still hungry for more." Ryan Mecum has managed to capture the essence of modern American consumer culture with this witty and hilarious allegory. This is great haiku--Like a feast of fresh brains, I didn't want it to end: "Its over too fast. / I hunger, longing for more / while I'm still eating."

This is totally one of those awesome books you pick up and can't put down until you finish it. I totally loved this collection and stayed up all night reading this book after I picked it up! =D

Along with Mecum's work, I also recommend The Photos in the Closet by Daniel E. Lopez and any works by Alison Townsend. These are two great writers that will compliment Mecum's work really well.

I enjoyed this little gem. Ok, it's not perfect haiku. I don't think I could think of a season word to go with blood and gore.

I thought it was very original and had some fun parts that kept me laughing through most of the book.

This would make a perfect gift for that special someone with zombies on the brain!

Folks, the world takes itself so seriously sometimes, you need to smile when someone smashes our expectation to pieces. Yes, this book is not the best poetry, nor is it the best horror, but rather an idiosyncratic mutation (much like the zombies). You get to go through the "mind" of a human going "zombie." The little snippets of verse are just right in capturing blinks of consciousness from the poor victim. Yes, sometimes repetitive and gory, with silly photos and no happy ending, nevertheless, a good addition to any haiku library. High marks for bravery and innovation.

I got this book as a gift from a friend and I have to say that it was just awesome. I loved it so much I bought a few and passed them around as Christmas gifts this past year to anyone I knew that would appreciate this kind of humor. It's witty, it's funny, it was just very well done and an entertaining read.

I bought this for a friend who's a zombie fan, but I'm thinking of keeping it for myself since it's such a fun read. If you are a zombie fan, this is a great and affordable addition to your collection.

Since this is the third zombie book in a row that I didn't care for, and I don't recall one that I liked, I think I just dislike zombies. There really is no movement to a storie with a zombie protagonist (jokes about shambling aside). They don't care about much and only want to eat continually so the plot is *seek food, eat someone Repeat from *.

You get increasing gore (hey look, my arm fell off). You get weird shock value (mom is tasty) but you get no real story.

The execution in this one is brilliant, but the content isn't.

After reading Ryan Mecum's totally enjoyable Vampire Haiku, I dug up the listing for Zombie Haiku and ordered this prequel to Vampire Haiku. Expecting more of the same irreverent, no-taboo-held-sacred haiku, I could hardly wait to sink my teeth into the Zombie volume. So how is it?

I enjoyed the book, but I wish I had read this one before Vampire Haiku which excels in wit and "literary style." The last lines of the Vampire haiku just seem to pack more punch than the zombie haiku, but I guess that's appropriate for anything zombie.

All in all I enjoyed Zombie Haiku though it could have been a few haiku shorter; the extra length might be considered an little bit of overkill. Anyway I like this one enough to order another haiku extravaganza, Werewolf Haiku by the same author.

Be forewarned that Zombie Haiku is not for the squeamish. There's a lot of brain eating going on and no topic is taboo.
Grandmothers who always insist you eat more probably would like zombies.

Inspired by Ryan Mecum, here are a couple of original haiku from this Potato Head.

Twas a silent night
Grandma eaten by some zombies
Christmas Eve nightmare

Begged me to eat more
The constant "Mangia, Mangia".
So I ate her brain.