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Phoenix Comicon: Max Brooks Rips on Attendee

Posted by on May 28, 2011 at 9:39 pm

Watch as Max Brooks, author of “The Zombie Survival Guide”, rips into the Vice President of the Zombie Research Society, Mesa Chapter, when she asks why he put fictional elements into his book.

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  • Kieth anderson

    BIG fan of MB, I was in the room, but I have to admit after watching my own video of this, I can’t tell if she was a plant or not. If not, gawd dayum MB, that was f*****g ruthless.

  • I was in a very good position when she walked back to her seat…she was about 15 feet from me.  She didn’t look too happy and the people she was with seemed to be trying to comfort her a bit so if she was a plant they did a really good job of making it look like he tore her a new asshole, on the real.

  • MikeHunt

    Why include fictional elements in the book? It’s a zombie book! Its fiction to begin with.

  • I would just like to say that i am the fan Max Brooks “ripped on” at
    Phoenix Comicon. I was not a plant. We just honestly wanted to know why
    Max Brooks included fictional elements in his book. Yes it is about
    zombies, but it is a serious survival guide. If Max Brooks is trying to
    make a real survival guide, why did he include fictional elements, such
    as the solenum virus, so honest question.

    Our Official
    Statement is, we weren’t trying to start anything with Max Brooks. We
    were just curious. But we think he did a very good job sidestepping the
    question without answering. 

    • And by Our Official Statement, I mean my friends and I not the Zombie Research Society

      • Good catch and, again, thanks for popping in to clear the air.

    • I’m curious what kind of answer you were expecting though? ‘cus, I mean, from a creator standpoint it would be easier for me to make up a whole new virus/bacteria/whatever, call it “top secret” and “hidden from the public” or whatever and give it the rules and properties of something that can raise the dead and cause a pandemic. That would be easier then it would be for me to say this is an “evolved mutation” of something already present on Earth.  At that point you are treading on something real doing something fake (and the backlash from that) rather than something fake that COULD be real.

      The closest thing you can get to the living dead is through voodoo Haitian black magic.  Potions created using the poisons from Pufferfish skin can cause a “walking dead” like appearance.  Watch “The Serpent and the Rainbow” and read the books that was based on.  Those are based on real studies on real cases.

  • Thanks for popping in to clear the air, Kylara.  We appreciate you taking the time to make sure everyone has all of the facts!

  • Ouch, seriously. Funny as ‘ell.

  • As I said on the YouTube page… Why is it, out of an hour or so panel, THIS is the only video online?! Seriously, I can’t find any other portion of his panel then this “attack”.  The video almost acts out of context, if you hadn’t seen the rest of the panel, and comes off seemingly mean HOWEVER this is largely his sense of humor. He is not his dad, he doesn’t do slap-stick.  I found this to be funny and so did the majority of the crowd as I continued to hear people laughing-out-loud (which is also clearly heard on the video).  After the attack, another question or two later, someone else asked a question and Brooks started off with “Am I gonna have to act angry again?!” (or something close to that affect).

    I seriously dont see what else was to be expected from this question?! An honest “I made it up?” or what? The book acts as a factual book while it sits in the “Fiction” section of the book store. The books largely play up the fact that real world events were, more or less, caused by a zombie outbreak of some magnitude. Because there is no virus or bacteria that will bring the dead to life with a hunger for flesh, I could see why he decided not to say “It’s Mad Cow, evolved”. It’s far easier to come up with a “new virus” or an as-of-yet discovered virus or one that is “kept secret by the government” or whatever.  He answered the question while not answering it and I feel it was a B.S. question anyway. “Oh! You’re here to bust my balls!” shoulda been a good indicator of humor to come.