Birthday Zombies

Today is Jen’s birthday. She’s not on ShoutyFace, Twitter, Google+ or even Instagram. HOW can you wish her the happiest of days? OF COURSE, you want to!  Leave a comment here or there or there or there or even there and I’ll make sure she sees it.

How will we celebrate? Well, the skinny-ass workaholic’s gonna be on the job all day BUT afterward, her, Oni and I will have takeout (Thai!), cake from Saint Fratelli’s AND we'll likely watch an ep of our new fave show iZombie.

Question, why is the show entitled iZombie?  There's nothing specifically internet-ish about our zombie heroine.

She is, Olivia "Liv" Moore (get it? huh? get it?!) and a medical resident when she has an unfortunate zombification experience. While her life is radically altered, she does NOT become some sad, shambling or scary-ass I Am Legend-ish creature. Nope, ya see she get’s a new gig in a morgue where she has easy access to BRAINS (which she covers in hot sauce to, I guess, improve the taste…ish). The regular supply of BRAINZZZ keeps her mind human and mostly her old self. She does take on a heroin pale skin tone combined with heavy eye liner and a messy Gwen Stefani-esque color and do. Something's gotta shift, ya know? Can't be a zombie and just look like everyone else.

Love the show so far.

At first I thought it was based on Diana Rowland's White Trash Zombie book series.

Angel Crawford is a loser  

Living with her alcoholic deadbeat dad in the swamps of southern Louisiana, she's a high school dropout with a pill habit and a criminal record who's been fired from more crap jobs than she can count….it seems that Angel will never pull herself out of the downward spiral her life has taken. 

That is, until the day she wakes up in the ER after overdosing on painkillers. Angel remembers being in an horrible car crash, but she doesn't have a mark on her. To add to the weirdness, she receives an anonymous letter telling her there's a job waiting for her at the parish morgue--and that it's an offer she doesn't dare refuse.    

As the books go by, new zombie Angel (AND her NOT zombie father) pull themselves out of White Trashdom. She gets her GED and starts college – all while solving heinous crimes and keeping her very important, life preserving morgue gig. Daddy gets sober, solid and fiercely protective of the his zombie daughter. Yep, it’s rollicking, feel good escapism.

While radically similar, the show is NOT (not TOTALLY at any rate) based on Rowland’s books. Nope, they’re supposedly based on Chris Roberson and Michael Allred's comic:

Gwen Dylan is a 20-something gravedigger in an eco-friendly cemetery. Once a month she must eat a human brain to keep from losing her memories, but in the process she becomes consumed with the thoughts and personality of the dead person – until she eats her next brain. She sets out to fulfill the dead person’s last request, solve a crime or right a wrong. 

Our zombie girl detective is joined by a radical supporting cast: her best friend Eleanor, who happens to be a swinging ’60s ghost, a posse of paintball blasting vampires, a smitten were-dog and a hot but demented mummy. (source)

Fun, thrills, creepy shit and solved murder mysteries ensue. I think I've GOT to see if my local library has any of these to lend!

I hope Rowland got some big TV money since the show seems to be based as much on her books as the comics.