MISCELLANEOUS
Promo items
One
of the most common and cheapest of all ROTLD memorabilia is the pinback. More
scarce would be the BEWARE! sticker.
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.
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.
Does this item need any introduction?
Shirts
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.
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zombies, many unpublished or rarely seen.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.
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:
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.
Fangorias Weekend of Horrors
Highlights from the 1986 show include interviews with Clu Gulager, Dan OBannon,
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.
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 Im So Famous, How Come No Ones 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.
Im Screaming As Fast As I Can by Linnea Quigley
Linne'a also recounts her experience on the set.
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