daniel kraus has dedicated his life to enjoying and studying the work of george a. romero from a very early age and shortly after romero passed away in 2017 kraus got the gig of a lifetime: romero’s widow suzanne asked him to finish the draft of a novel about the living dead. a brand-new story, an epic story from start to finish, not a melange of previous films squeezed into a book for a rinse/repeat monetizing scheme.
take it from drax [a romero fan albeit not nearly as obsessive as kraus seems to be] = “the living dead” is a powerful story, timely, even timeless just like romero’s films. it contains gore, splatter & action plus all the big themes and issues that romero tried to shed light on through his critical and often quite pessimistic lens: the destructive nature of capitalism, culpability of mainstream media in regards to a populous amusing themselves to death while the world burns, all told through a wonderfully diverse cast of characters [that according to kraus where pretty fleshed out by romero in the draft] …
interesting sidenote? the book seems surprisingly optimistic despite constant and heartbreaking [sometimes graphic sometimes not] death and destruction. is it kraus’ doing? or was romero ultimately more hopeful than he admitted even to himself?
enjoy the show! read the book ! ! !
now once you read the book you can read further and watch further right here below:
- the original livestream of the show:
- postgame hangout in sl with daniel:
- daniel did a lot of research before outlining the narrative, one big task was putting all of romero’s zombie films into the actual order of occurrence in the timeline, not when they were released:
- guillermo del toro [daniel kraus has collaborated with him on several occasions] and romero came up when i searched on youtube, trying to feed my holes in knowledge of romero – very interesting conversation!
- and an earlier interview with romero = interesting how he parses out different horror films within the genre. this must have been broadcast in the early 80s shortly before “creepshow” came out:
- the early romero industrial film “amusement park” has been found, is being restored and will hopefully be available widely!
- romero’s biggest influence was not his contemporary jodorowsky but “the tales of hoffman”, more specifically the movie version from 1951 by powell and pressburger, after jaqcues offenbach’s opera based on stories by e.t.a. hoffman [with the writer put into the opera as protagonist]
- i mentioned santa sangre during the interview, a film that influenced me on everything i do today, especially in music [well yes zappa is also still in my mind]:
- what else is happening in second life? a look at poetry scene in sl is happening and it is coming tomorrow!
- what else is happening on the book club? if you get this podcast before 6pm on 8/17 come to con sweeney’s spin-off show!
the drax files radio hour is a weekly production of draxtor … and media for all!
the show is supported by fabeeo breen, ragvr, vinyl, masoom, delacruz industries, journey by debi baskerville, zero-one heavy industries corporation, aeros avatars, time portal, slartist, hextraordinary fine magical goods, bay city you know for kids, botanical, strawberry singh, abranimations, kahruvel design, {what next} and landscapes unlimited.
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