MISCELLANEOUS
Promo items

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  One of the most common and cheapest of all ROTLD memorabilia is the pinback. More scarce would be the BEWARE! sticker.

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A 24-page Japanese program book with a bright red cover featured quite a few color shots inside. In the late 90’s there was an unofficial Taschenbildband ‘program’ book, #8 in a series of digest-sized zombie fanzines reproducing German lobby cards.

puzcan.jpg (42673 bytes)  puzzle.jpg (45199 bytes) East Texas Distributing created a 28-piece puzzle for Thorn EMI’s video release. The puzzle can itself was basic and white with the red logo. A design based on the zombie canister which would have been much better.

barfbag.gif (41573 bytes)  Does this item need any introduction? 

Shirts

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Here are some of the original mail-order t-shirts that Thom Mathews and Bobby Bauer whipped up for a time. This last shirt of the poster is an exceptionally well-done fan-made t-shirt from 2001. The Tar Man one, circa 2004,  frequently pops up on ebay and is another excellent fan-made shirt.


Something I don't have! My friend Ryan Kinder's excellent tattoo.

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   In the early 90’s, William Stout released a series of trading cards of conceptual zombies, many unpublished or rarely seen. Some showed up as 4x6 postcards for the Japanese Horror World Exhibition in 1985 previously. His Tar Man painting, in fact, was used for a 27x41 poster.

The super rare catalog seen in the movie where Freddy flips through is in my possession - check out http://www.collectorsquest.com/collection/1330/return-of-the-living-dead-part-1-original

GOOD STUFF GONE UNLICENSED

Unlicensed ROTLD merchandise is not too common; mugs, pins, chrome lighters and clocks have all been made at one point or another, and frequently are sold on ebay.com. But the most interesting are the three resin model kits. The first is of a Tar Man by John Cole, built in the nineties and long discontinued. "Do You Wanna Party?" was the name given to a Trash figure surrounded by zombies (Monsters and Mayhem) in 1997 and the ultimate of all three – the half lady corpse sculpted by her very creator, Tony Gardner for Alterian Studios. This model would be "the real thing" as far as detail but the licensing would be too costly to release it. It is not on the market yet. Note: some ebayers have claimed it was made BEFORE the film as to show the producers, but it was in fact, made in the 1990's for 'fun'. Here's a literal scan of mine (I know, dumb idea) with Tony's own paintjob. A fully painted "Tar Zombie" head - although highly stylized, straying from the movie version - was created by Harry Inman in 2000, another more faithful Tar Man was issued in 2003 by Cemetery Gate Prod. followed by yet another from another studio. Jeff Wehenkel created a lovely Trash bust later in the year.

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Something given to Linne'a (if only it were a bit shorter)


Can you guess what these are? Better yet, can you guess how much they cost?

Shirts:

ROTLDROT.bmp (36762 bytes) Rotten Cotton's t-shirt based on the European artwork (also sold through Blackest Heart Media)

CULTURAL REFERENCES 
Imagine Inc. in Pittsburgh produced "Drive-In Madness" (available on JTC Video), narrated by James Karen and also starred Linnea Quigley. This low-budget documentary on B movies contains no clips from ROTLD however. It was later re-packaged as "Screen Scaries."

Television’s The Simpsons (1991) and South Park (1997) did animated spoofs of the brain-eating zombie plague for Halloween Specials. A tasteless horror sequel called Nekromantik 2 in 1992 was cleverly subtitled "Return of the Lovin’ Dead" (it was about necrophilia).

At least two references appears in rap music of the 1990’s: a mention of the title in House of Pain’s "Over There Shit" and a song named after the film by D.O.C.


Fangoria’s Weekend of Horrors 
Highlights from the 1986 show include interviews with Clu Gulager, Dan O’Bannon, Jewel Shepard.

Blue Movies (1987 with Don Calfa) and The Monster Squad (Fred Dekker's 1987 comedy) both featured glimpses of the theatrical poster to ROTLD in certain scenes. Future Shock (1993, released by Hemdale) made sure to advertise Howling II and ROTLD.

Secrets of Hollywood Special Effects
This book included information on the rain machines used for two weeks on the set.

And below, a curiosity on surviving the living dead printed in 1993 by Western Publishing had no details on zombies but had a familiar still on the back cover.


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See?
How 'bout that? This magazine article Romero associated with the title (lower right corner)

Check out this cartoon once printed in Fangoria


RELATED BOOKS:

Invasion of the B-Girls by Jewel Shepard
Jewel devotes chapters of candid interviews Linne'a Quigley and all her scream queen contemporaries, like Kelly Maroney, Mary Woronov (both from Night of the Comet), Michelle Bauer, etc. 

If I’m So Famous, How Come No One’s Heard Of Me? by Jewel Shepard
Jewel devotes a chapter to Return and how she got the role for ROTLD after Dan O'Bannon met her in a strip club.

I’m Screaming As Fast As I Can by Linnea Quigley
Linne'a also recounts her experience on the set.