28 Days Later (2002)
28 Days Later:
Where Fast and Viral Zombies Began
Movie (series) / Outbreak & Aftermath / Fast Zombies
It’s hard to believe it’s been twenty years since Danny Boyle and Alex Garland (the often-overlooked screenwriter who’s gone on to write amazing movies like Never Let Me Go and Ex Machina and most recently Devs. But yeah: Prior to 2002, all zombies were slow. Relentless, evil, able to sneak up on you without making a sound, but slow. And though the idea of a virus behind the zombification had been tossed around before, it was 28 Days Later, and the creation of Rage, along with the super-swift conversion of the populace that basically changed the whole genre going forward. It was also the first time that most of us ever heard of Cillian Murphy or Christopher Eccleston, and… well, look at what they’ve done since. Awesome.
Anyone who calls themselves a zombie fan pretty much has to have seen 28 Days Later and its sequel, 28 Months Later, as well as cursed God for not giving us 28 Years Later, or at least not yet. But it’s also one of the Essentials that should be on the shelf, digital or analog, for any fan. And we’ve given you a link to the Amazon page that offers this classic in all its multiple variations – blue ray, original, packaged with the sequel, on and on.
Let’s not get all gummed up in the argument that these aren’t real zombies because they’re not dead people, just infected people. Hey: they’re raging humans bent on stalking, chasing, tracking down and ultimately eating other humans. That’s good enough for us, and for about 7 billion other people, so deal with it. So if you’re looking to revisit one of the best zombie movies ever made, this is the one to choose first. Or if you’re trying to convince the newbie, the uninitiated, or the just-plain stubborn that there really is some great movie-making in the genre… here you go.
Year Zero, a classic and surprisingly fresh take on the zombie apocalypse, has been a comics series for a few years now. In fact there are two trade paperbacks already available 
The prequel, referred to as "Volume 0," focuses on a streetwise Russian cop patrolling the back alleys of a post-apoc black market, as well as a North Korean soldier in the DMZ, an ER nurse in the rural South fights to protect her hospital from threats without and within, and a transgender flight attendant crisscrossing the globe. It won't be out until May of '23, but individual issues are already available 
We produced the first Zombie Gift Guide for Christmas 2021 (it seems so long ago), and during a recent "refresh" here on the site, we found an alarming number of our fave items are no longer available -- not just through Amazon, but at all. And we're already feeling the pain of separation. We're talking our beloved Zombie Rubber Ducky, our first choice of Voice-Activated Zombie Baby Dolls, and even the classic early Peter Jackson zombie movie Dead Alive. Read it and weep...