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: 2015 Island Dreams Dark Side Of The Island Zombies

This month’s Art Gallery display comes from Dan Gorman a graphic artist who has worked in the comic industry for a while and has sketch cards included in many of the major releases like Topps, Upper Deck, Rittenhouse, Cryptozoic, Leaf and a number of smaller card companies too.   

This specific card is from 2015 Island Dreams Dark Side Of The Island and is a group of zombies emerging from the water. This is part of my recent zombie phase that I have been in and I knew I had to have it.

I am a big fan of the Island Dreams sets, each year the set is based on a theme and the sketch artists are allowed to freely interpret the theme themselves. In 2015 the theme was "Dark Side Of the Island" so there were plenty of monsters, voodoo, witch doctors, etc. The 2016 theme is "Girls of the Island" so expect lots of girls in bikinis, some sketch card subject matter that you will find on previous Island Dreams sketch cards include pirates, sea creatures, super heroes, surfers and a special theme last year was "Prohibition Pretties". They have even included treasure cards which contain a coin from a sunken treasure find.

Some day I have been working on some sketch cards hoping to better my talent, I would like to submit some portfolio pieces in hopes of becoming an artist for one of their future sets.