The Zombie Apocolypse

Last week George Kosana passed away at the age of 81 years old, he co-wrote Night Of The Living Dead with George Romero, he was one of the producers and he also played the sheriff in the movie. In honor of him and his work I am doing this post which includes two Kosana autographs.

Night of the Living Dead has been a favorite of mine for many years. George Romero is the father of modern zombies and if he had not been able to rustle up $114,000 in investments in 1968 and put together what would amount to a student film we would not have movies like Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland and World War Z and shows like Walking Dead and iZombie would be flops.

But Romero and his friends did pull things together and along with the citizens of Evans City, Pennsylvania unleashed Night Of The Living Dead and the zombie world has not looked back.

Actually beyond liking the movie I used to not be a fan of zombie stories but that has since changed. A quick factoid, many of the actors were part of the production company or friends of the production team with the extras roles being filed by the citizens of Evans City.

I have been working on a nice collection of autographs and sketch cards from the 2012 Unstoppable Cards Night Of The Living Dead but there are a couple of other options, not many, available like the 1987 Rosem 50-card set (My next target of NOLD cards) and 1988 Image 10/Fantaco 68-card checklist.

2012 Unstoppable Cards promo card of Karen Cooper, played by Kyra Schon

A couple of sketch cards showing Karen Cooper

A couple of sketches of Harry Cooper, played by Karl Hardman.

A couple of sketches of Ben, played by Duane Jones.

This second sketch card of Ben was drawn on pages from the original script. There were only two of these in the entire sketch set.

A couple of sketches of Johnny, played by Russ Streiner. He was part of the production company (One of the movie producers) and while he was one of the first characters seen in the movie his role was uncredited in the movie. His mother also played a zombie in the movie.

A sketch of the first zombie of the movie, Bill, essentially he is the Godfather of all the zombies on television and in movies now. The role was played by Bill Hinzman, who was a cameraman for the movie.

A sketch of the news reporter, played by Lee Hartman.

I have a 10 autographs from three different sets. My favorite is the Russ Streiner that has an inscription from probably the most famous line to come from the movie. Most of his cards are just his signature so this one cost a bit more than I was hoping to spend but I had to have it.

A Kyra Schon

A John Russo. He wrote the screenplay and had two parts in the movie, one as a military reporter and one as a zombie, which is pictured here.

A double dose of George Kasano. I am not sure why but he signed in both blue ink and black ink, neither seems rarer than the other so they both sell around the same price so I picked up one of each. He was another producer for the movie.

The next three are part of the 1990 Image 10/Fantaco set. Two I already had from the 2012 Unstoppable Cards set; John Russo and Russ Streiner, but the third was a big coup. The man himself George Romero.

The final two autographs come from the 2010 Breygent Classic Vintage Movie Poster Autographs; Judith O’Dea (she played Barbara) and Bill Hizman. What is cool about this one is that he add the inscription “Zombie #1”), most of these cards he just signed his name.

The latest card in my collection is a printing plate form the Movie Poster subset. As far as I know Unstoppable Cards only released one printing plate per card. The back is just a sticker that was added before the plates were packed out.

The Art Gallery: 2012 Unstoppable Cards Night Of The Living Dead Bill

This month’s Art Gallery display is from the 2012 Unstoppable Cards Night of the Living Dead release. The artist is Adam Talley, a comic book artist and illustrator. He has cards included in Marvel sets, DC sets, Star Wars sets, Mars Attacks and smaller oddball sets like Night of the Living Dead and Titanic.

What caught my attention, besides the cartoonish work (which I like), is the subject. This is Bill, the first zombie we see in the movie. He is in my favorite scene, which I talked about in an earlier Art Gallery card of my other Night of the Living Dead sketch card.

Bill here attacks Barbra but her brother Johnny jumps the zombie and while scuffling Johnny falls and slams his head against a grave stone and dies. We later see Johnny, as a zombie, trying to break in to the farm house. But, we can track back every zombie in every movie since 1968 to this one zombie, Bill. He is the dead man who started the destruction of the zed.

I picked up this card for a couple of dollars from the same seller from my other NotLD sketch card, so he bundled the shipping together for another $1. This is one of my favorite sketch sets.

The Art Gallery: 2012 Unstoppable Cards Night Of The Living Dead Johnny

This month’s Art Gallery design is from the 2012 Unstoppable Cards Night of the Living Dead release. The artist is Jerry Fleming, an amazing artist out of Los Angeles. He is well known for his appearances at Comic Cons around the country. The movie Night of the Living Dead is one of my favorite horror films. It was George Romero’s first film, and it was a giant step in establishing the zombie genre.

 

When the Night of the Living Dead cards were released I had talked with Unstoppable Cards owner Jason Wright, they are a small company out of the UK with a number of British entertainment licenses like The Avengers, Blakes 7 and Dr. Who. Jerry Fleming has done a number of sketch cards for the various Unstoppable Cards releases.

 

I picked up this card because it is from my favorite scene in the movie, the scene where Johnny and his sister Barbra are visiting their father’s grave and in the distance a staggering man appears shuffling along through the grave yard and Johnny does his famous “There coming to get you Barbra!’ line. The card was only a couple of dollars but cost another $4.31 in shipping because it was coming from England, a price I would happily pay again for a cool card like this.

Preview: Unstoppable Cards- Night of the Living Dead

One of my favorite horror movies goes back to one of the original zombie movies, George A Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. The movie kicked off Romero’s career and led to a whole slew of “Dead” films. Even though the movie was made on a miniscule budget ($114,000) it was quite successful and has become a cult classic.

Unstoppable Cards will be bringing Night of the Living Dead to cardboard within the next few weeks. The officially licensed set should be available by early May through the Unstoppable Cards web site.

Premium Packs are $35 and will contain 6 base cards, 2 chase/foil cards, a sketch card and an autograph card. Boxes/Cases run $330 and include 12 Premium packs plus an exclusive sketch card incentive. The base set has a 36-card checklist and there are an additional 9 Gold Foil cards.

Autographs include Russ Streiner, Judith O’Dea, Judy Ridley, Kyra Schon, George Kosana and John Russo. The dual autograph cards are Streiner/O’Dea, O’Dea/Ridley and Ridley/Schon. There are more than 60 artists who will have their sketch cards included in the release.

Gold Foil

Gold Foil

Gold Foil