Pencils and Pop Culture: Zombies Shall Inherit the Earth

Pencils and Pop Culture: Zombies Shall Inherit the Earth

I will fully admit that I am squeamish when it comes to anything related to horror films. Vampires, ghosts, zombies, things that go bump in the night – all grist for the mill in my far-too-overactive imagination. So I will be the first to admit that I’m not as up to date on shows like The Walking Dead, a zombiepocalypse thriller on AMC that aired its second season finale this past Sunday. What I have seen through the gaps in my fingers as they were firmly pressed over my eyes has certainly been well-written, well-acted, and downright compelling.

I had a lot of time to think about zombies and their collective hold on our imagination over the past three days, during which I’ve slept for approximately eight hours total, due to said thoughts about zombies (as I said, I’m a wuss, and a hyper-imaginative one at that). Vampires have certainly had their day in the sun (okay, poor choice of metaphor there), popularized by authors from Bram Stroker to Anne Rice to Stephenie Meyer. And ghosts have been haunting hallways and attics for centuries, it’s true.

But while zombies are certainly not a new creation, it seems like they are experiencing a steady revival in the pop culture pantheon of horrors in a way that seems truly of its time. Maybe it’s the sheer bad-assery of zombies and zombie killing – after all, any zombie is waaaay creepier looking than some pasty dude who fries like a bug in the zapper when it comes to sunlight. And in our video-game obsessed, more-than-slightly desensitized culture, what’s cooler – whapping a zombie in the head with a baseball bat (I have on good authority that the only way to kill one is to destroy the brain) or shaking some garlic and a wooden stake at a vampire and hoping for the best?

Perhaps it has something to do with our innermost fears as a collective society, too. A zombie, by definition, is a soul-less, undead being wandering the earth in search of human flesh. I know many people who are otherwise rational, mature adults who freely admit, without a trace of irony, that they have a survival plan for the inevitable “Zombie Apocalypse.” Christopher Fong, in his review of “Left 4 Dead” in the San Francisco Chronicle, noted, “These monsters embody our fear of death and perhaps our dwindling sense of humanity..In an apocalypse, we have only each other.”

Perhaps I’m giving too much credit to the zombies. However, I do know that if the Zombie Apocalypse comes, pencils will be on the front lines. Jorg Sprave has long been interested in designing and creating weaponry of the sling-shot variety, but now he has designed the Nerd Revenge 2000, a pump-action air launcher that shoots sharpened pencils at speeds nearing 100 mph. Calling the sharpened pencil “the deadliest weapon,” the airborne pencils zoom through cardboard, apples, and my worst nightmares. He has designed other weaponry as well for those looking to add a DIY touch to their zombie arsenal, but this is the first that uses a pencil as ammo.

Hmm. The bad-assery of zombie weaponry, combined with a wooden stake for ammunition. Maybe we can find a cooler way to get rid of vampires after all.

Photo Credit: Zombie Dunny/kitty27 via Every Stock Photo

DISCLAIMER: Studio 602 does not condone building a pencil slingshot or using our products as ammunition. Please do not post schematics, notes or other information about building a pencil slingshot in the comments. We are not liable, and cannot be sued. Thanks.