George Romero, father of the modern zombie film, has died at the age of 77. BBC, Variety, LA Times, New York Times, Hollywood Reporter.

“My stories are about humans and how they react, or fail to react, or react stupidly. I’m pointing the finger at us, not at the zombies. I try to respect and sympathize with the zombies as much as possible.”

He reportedly died in his sleep with his family close after a short, but fierce, struggle with lung cancer. He, of course, created the modern zombie film with 1966’s Night of the Living Dead. Made for just over $100,000, the film went on to earn $30 million at the box office despite heated criticism of its graphic nature.

“I always thought of the zombies as being about revolution, one generation consuming the next.”

The word “Zombie” never appeared in the film. He would go on to direct a total of six “Dead” films and inspire countless others.

“My zombies will never take over the world because I need the humans. The humans are the ones I dislike the most, and they’re where the trouble really lies.”

Thank you, George. You will be missed.

Felcia Day and company produce so many wonderful things over at Geek and Sundry. In what looks like a one-off lark, they put together a little zombie vignette for Halloween!

We’d love to see the Geek and Sundry crew do an extended take on zombies, but it seems like it we’ll have to satisfied with this… for now, at least.

We adore Cracked.com. Smart, insightful, no-nonsense comedy that often actually teaches you something (often things you never wanted to know, but still). So when they announced they were doing a zombie series, we were amazingly on-board. Well, it’s here! All four episodes uploaded at once for a mini-binge.

Sadly, the whole thing kinda blows. There’s giggles, but overall… it’s a pass. You want something hilarious from Cracked? Watch After Hours. Seriously, some of the funniest stuff I’ve ever seen. If you absolutely must have a story from the zombie point-of-view, why not try Wasting Away? It wasn’t great either, but it did give it one hell of a try.

The good, funny people at Cracked.com have released a trailer for their zombie series The Stumbling Dead!

The entire series will be released, NetFlix-style, on October 26!

We suspect that Zombies and cats would, in actuality, pretty much just ignore each other. The daydreamers over at Mr. TVCow have some different, altogether more awesome, ideas.

The first official trailer for Seth Grahame-Smith’s horror Pride and Prejudice and Zombies [IMDB] has been released. We’re still withholding final judgement, but at the moment this looks like it might be a fun (if empty-ended) ride!

There’s no official release date yet, but smart bets seem to be on early 2016!

As the New York Times reports, China is now arresting people creating hoaxes on social media after a rash of scares. Apparently, in addition to a refrigerated alien in Shandong Province and a hairless, lemur-elf-thing in the Huairou District of Beijing there have been no less that two high profile zombie reports that have gained traction with the population.

In one case photos of a mummified corpse found by archaeologists was promoted as  evidence of a zombie outbreak. In a second case, photos from an apparent subway zombie attack of a woman in the city of Guangzhou were published. Some reports claim the photos were of an actual assault, while others pin them as stills from a low-budget movie. Whatever the case may be, the man who posted them as a zombie attack spent 10 days in prison.

The moral of the story is clear: if you get attacked by a zombie in China, you might want to keep it to yourself.

John, over at Many a True Nerd, is our very favorite Let’s Player, and for his regular “Why Not Wednesday?” feature, he’s playing 2011’s zombie stomper “Dead Island”. He’s mature without being immature and his upbeat positivity is absolutely infectious!

If you like what you see, and we think you will, you should definitely check out any of his epic “Fallout” runs!

Sonya Belousova’s channel, Player Piano, offers up amazingly deft original arrangements of popular geek anthems. This time she (and violinist Eriko Tsuji) bring us Bear McCreary’s “The Walking Dead Theme” (directed by Tom Grey).

As you’ll obviously want more, may we also suggest her adaption of the Tetris Theme and, our favorite, AKIRA (Kaneda’s Theme).

Some time ago we wrote:

We have a simple rule here at MoreBrains: “If it wouldn’t matter when you’re huddled together in the corner of a tool shed gripping a bloody crowbar and hoping that the newly risen dead don’t hear you then it’s probably not worth getting too excited over.”  In that situation it just doesn’t matter if the guy holding the chainsaw is married to the guy frantically constructing Molotov cocktails.  You’d have bigger problems then and we have bigger problems now.

If you can find love in this crazy, mixed-up world before you’re disemboweled and torn to pieces by formerly-living neighbors then we say follow your bliss: marry whom you like.  Remember that matching Katanas make excellent wedding gifts!

We are now happy to report that the Supreme Court of the United States has, in a 5-4 ruling, declared marriage between consenting adults a civil right that cannot be infringed upon. It’s about time people.