Arr!

First of all, hope you all had a great Christmas and a Happy New Year. And if not a happy one, then a drunk one! Personally mine was both.

I know it's slightly belated but I thought I'd mark the end of the year with my first (and probably last)...

CitizenWolfie Zombie Awards 2008!
Celebrating the Undead Contribution to the world of entertainment and art.

And the categories are...

Film:
Winner - Rec.
Runner-up - Diary of the Dead.
Honorary Mention - I Am Legend.

Diary of the Dead almost had this until I saw Spanish indie film Rec. Both were filmed in a similar way but Rec. just pipped it to the post with its sustained panic throughout and fucked-up factor towards the end.
Honorary mention to I Am Legend however. It started off a really awesome film with Robert Neville just living through post-apocalyptic NYC but it let itself down with ropey CGI monsters. Thank God they changed the original ending!

"What the Hell you doin' out here, Fred?!?"

TV:
Outright Winner - Dead Set.
Runner-up - X-Factor.

For once the UK gets something homegrown on TV that rocks everyone's tits off. Those of us lucky enough to have seen Dead Set will tell you that it was a great (if short) series following a group of Big Brother contestants and what happens to them when the dead start walking the earth. If the real BB had zombies in it, I'd watch it.
As for X-Factor, the whole show is full of zombies. From EVERY contestant, to the automatons who buy the inevitably shitty single afterwards. Shame on you all.

Music:
Winner - Rick Astley.
Runner-up - Heavy Metal.

2008 was truly the year of the comeback. With Metallica, AC/DC, Slipknot and (fucking hell!) Guns N Roses finally releasing Chinese Democracy all releasing killer comeback albums, it seems Heavy Metal has risen again.
However the real winner here was Rick Astley. For a ginger one-hit-wonder in the 80s to be the subject of the Internet's most famous prank, pull well over 11,000 YouTube hits, and (fucking hell again!) win an MTV award, that my friends is coming back from the dead in style.

Comics:
Outright Winner - The Walking Dead.
Honorary Mention - Hack/Slash.

I've been following Robert Kirkman/Charlie Adlard's Walking Dead series from the start and every time I pick up the next trade paperback I forget just how good it is. Seriously, no other zombie comic comes close to surpassing this. I can't believe the same guy (Kirkman) also wrote the steaming pile of turd thast is Marvel Zombies but that's another rant for another time.
Hack/Slash by Tim Seeley gets a mention as it involves killers who wont die and is also very good.

Games:
Winner - Fallout 3.
Runner-up - Dead Space.
Honorary Mention - Left 4 Dead.

Like the film category, the runner-up came very close. However in the nuclear wastelands of Washington DC, in a world full of hostility, the "ghouls" of Fallout 3 are surprisingly refreshing. Gob FTW!
I give an Honorary Mention to Left 4 Dead as I've not got an Xbox360 or a "gaming" PC and for all the shit I spew about the Xbox, this is game I would love to play. I read a rumour that Valve are looking into porting it to the PS3 at a later date and I hope it's true. If any of you readers have played it, let me know how it is.

The "Goddammit We Came Back and Tried" Award:

Has to go to Rockstar and Manhunt 2. After a UK banning, lengthy court case and subsequent unbanning-on-the-condition-it's-edited, Manhunt 2 finally came out in the UK. While I haven't played it much due to other huge games being out at the same time, I was slightly disappointed. Maybe if it had come out as originally intended Aug 2007 or if it wasn't so heavily edited (really abstracted execution graphics).
Still, props to Rockstar. It really cant be easy to (no pun intended) butcher your own creation like that and censor it yourselves. Maybe next time will be different.

The "Shoot 'Em In The Head To Put 'Em Down For Good!" Award:

Goes to Jack Thompson. This soul-less undead zombie tried to wipe out many things, but now he's de-barred and can no longer practice law. *Nelson voice* HA HA!
It was a long time coming you facist.

Best Performance by a Living Impaired Person:

Goes to Heath Ledger. If he doesn't get an Oscar we riot.



So there it is. My Zombie Awards 2008. Any of you agree with my choices? Or should I go fuck myself? Comment below!

Power to the people!

-CitizenWolfie

PS. I found out on Monday that Bettie Page died in December. She will be greatly missed. As a pin-up artist she has long been an inspiration. God bless ya Bettie!

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The Manhunt Series: [link]
Gallery of The Endless: [link]

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My Myspaces! - [link] [link]

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