San Diego Comic-Con Coverage: Spotlight on Max Brooks
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It might seem odd that the son of a comedy legend would make his name writing books about zombies, but listen to Max Brooks for five minutes and there’s no question that he’s Mel’s son. They have the same stage presence, the same comedic timing, the same… hair. When he walked out to his podium and realized that there was a big, empty table next to him with a line of seats and microphones, he invited the first row of the audience up to be his “panel” and had the Comic-Con workers let in any people who had missed the cutoff point and were still waiting outside. Classy. Funny. Brooks-y.
So, why did a man with such clear comic instincts and pedigree start writing about zombies? Does he use them as a comedy outlet? Are they meant to be blistering satire? Cleverly veiled ironic social commentary? To hear Brooks tell it, he’s simply a big nerd himself. In his own words, “You know when you go to movies and there’s some nerdbag in your row that won’t let you enjoy it? He’s like, ‘That would never happen because the Borg have micro-implants, and the laws of physics–’ And you’re like, ‘Oh my god, shut up.’ Well, that nerdbag is me.” Not shockingly, calling yourself a nerd plays pretty well at Comic-Con.
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Brooks didn’t write his first zombie book, The Zombie Survival Guide, with any real intent to publish it. Writing it was merely his way to keep himself sane while he was a struggling screenwriter living in “California Siberia” (aka the Valley) and trying to break into the entertainment business. As Brooks tells the story, he wrote the manuscript, tossed it in a box, and barely thought about it until several years later, when he had a chance meeting with a book agent who asked if he had written any books. Almost as a joke, Brooks brought up the Guide, and immediately the agent said he could get it published. “Yeah, you do that,” thought Brooks. And somehow the agent did.
When the Guide came out, Brooks knew that the only way it would sell was if he found an interesting way to market it, so he came up with the idea of zombie self-defense lectures. He would book himself as a speaker and treat the lectures seriously, as if zombies were real and he was an authority. During his first lecture, the audience was completely silent, and Brooks thought he was bombing: “I was just flop-sweating. Like Albert Brooks in Broadcast News. It was horrible.”
But then he came to the Q&A portion. Brooks, who had recently finished a stint as a writer on SNL, expected all the questions to be about how nice Tina Fey was and if Tracy Morgan was really that crazy. To his surprise, the first audience member who piped up asked very seriously how long he could wait to cut off his arm after being bitten by a zombie.
At that point, Brooks knew that he had found something; he also knew that he had to continue to keep it real and speak the language of his fans. So he answered in kind: “Well, that all depends. How bad is the bite? Were you bitten on a vein or an artery? If you’re bitten on a vein, the blood’s going right to the heart and you’re going to die a lot quicker than if it’s an artery and it’s going away from the heart.” He was a hit. The lectures continued and he kept answering people’s real questions.
So, again, why zombies? Because zombies scare the crap out of him — the slow kind; he finds the speedy ones in the Dawn of the Dead remake boring. Since human beings have gotten so good at killing, we’ve reached the point that most of the time we have to seek monsters out in order for us to be put in any real peril. Don’t want to be harassed by whatever is in The Ruins? “Don’t go to the ruins!” Afraid of Jaws? Stay out of the damn water. “If you go somewhere and you find it, well then, that’s your ass. And I have no sympathy.” But zombies don’t care: “They come to the heart of our world, and it’s like a walking plague…no middle ground and no surrender.”
And that’s precisely what motivated him to write World War Z. After Guide became such a phenomenon, it was a foregone conclusion that Brooks would write another zombie book, but he wasn’t interested in just repeating what had already been done time and again in the zombie genre. “I wanted to know what would happen to the environment and what the global consequences would be of a zombie plague.” He spent two years doing research, asking people he knew in the government, gathering statistics, and reading history books on previous wars. Many of the details for his survivor interviews come from historical accounts; he simply replaced whatever really happened with the zombies he so loves and fears. At times, he says, all this knowledge has led to arguments with people, especially regarding the use of automatic weapons in a zombie attack. “Maybe the M-16 is more accurate at longer range, but if the zombie’s that far away, he’s not a threat.” The result of his efforts is that Brooks single-handedly reinvented and reinvigorated the zombie genre…not to mention made zombies so popular that everyone and their brother (and sister…and my roommate) now has a zombie story to tell.
So, what did we learn from Brooks?
The World War Z Movie
- Novelists are supposed to be pissed at how screenwriters change their books and “ruin” everything, but he read a draft of J. Michael Straczynski’s script that was “amazing.”
- Paramount just renewed their option on the book, which he thinks means they have an “emotional investment” in making the movie.
- He has no desire to be a part of the adaptation process…so he doesn’t have to take responsibility if it sucks.
Reported Attacks
- Avatar is releasing Max Brooks’ first graphic novel based on the Guide, called Reported Attacks…and panel-goers got a free sample!
Q&A
- The War Dogs in World War Z are based on how the US used War Dogs in Vietnam. Apparently the dogs were left behind as part of Vietnamization.
- He dislikes that writers seem to be jumping on the zombie bandwagon, because he fears it will cause a backlash against zombie stories, and people who really want to create zombie movies–not just make a quick buck on something that’s currently popular–will suffer and not get to see their visions realized.
- Brooks would have no problem writing another zombie book…if he ever got a good enough idea for one and truly wanted to tell that story. He shares a quote from his father: “The only way to not fail is to be passionate about what you do.”
- World War Z was written while he stayed up nights with his newborn baby to let his wife sleep. During the day, he would sleep, and his wife would wake up and watch the baby.
- Stop asking him about the movie script. If you want to know, find JMS and ask him!
- In the event of a zombie attack, he would tell everyone to head out the same direction…and then he would leave in the opposite direction. SUCKAHS!
- He got the name of the zombie virus from his 7th grade Latin dictionary.
- The Rediker Plan came out of studying South African history. In the 60s and 70s, there were a lot of native African uprisings that scared all the white colonialists, and they started coming up with plans to survive potential uprisings. The character of Paul Rediker is meant to represent these people.
- Brooks breaks down his audience like this: 10 percent amused intellectuals who think he’s doing witty social satire; 80 percent zombie nerds like him who just think zombies are cool; 10 percent who are ready for a zombie attack.
- Quizlings (uninfected humans who act like zombies) were Brooks’ answer to what would happen to a small percentage of people when confronted with an enemy where there was no option of surrender.
- Voodoo zombies don’t scare Brooks because 1) they are controlled by Voodoo doctors, 2) they don’t eat flesh, and 3) they’re basically just cheap manual labor.
- Don’t write a zombie novel because it’s cool right now. Don’t write a zombie novel to make money. Don’t write a zombie novel because everyone else is doing it. Do it because you’re really into zombies. Brooks respects people like Len Barnhart (Reign of the Dead) who were writing zombie novels before it became the cool thing to do.
- Brooks based his World War Z President on Colin Powell and his VP on Howard Dean.
- Brooks is totally fine with the growing groups of people who like to dress as zombies…as long as they buy his book.
- The story in World War Z where the government tells parents to kill their children is based on something that happened in Okinawa during WWII.
- Brooks had nothing to do with the Guide audiobook, but he was allowed to cast the audiobook for World War Z. He got Mark Hamill by describing his role as “the soldier you played in The Big Red One 10 years later.”
- Buy more World War Z audiobooks if you want an unabridged version.
- The Holy Russian Empire in the book comes from his historical knowledge of Russia: they’ve been trampled on so many times that what they really want is just someone who can protect them.
- His story about the pilot who crashes in Louisiana is based off a real woman he knows in the armed forces and what it’s like to be shot down behind enemy lines.
- Zombies don’t rot because the virus that causes zombies repels the microbes that normally rot flesh.
- In part, Brooks credits growing up during Reagan-era paranoia for his own ongoing fears that drive his zombie books.
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Check out our Comic-Con coverage for Friday here and for Saturday here.
View some photos from the panels here.
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Read Josh’s blog Boring Future Generations here.
Read the TV spec scripts he wrote with writing partner Juliana Weiss here.
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