Judges
When searching for Judges, we felt it was necessary to represent a cross section of our culture. For that reason we have an award winning author and zombie expert, a horror novel author, a movie critic/independent film producer, and an architect. We are happy to announce the 2011 Zombie Safe House Competition Judges.
Max Brooks
Preeminent Zombie Expert and Best-Selling Author
“People have asked me, ‘Did you write this as a metaphor for the paranoia that’s sweeping the nation?’ No. I’m not that smart, I’m just really scared of zombies.”
—Max Brooks
Max Brooks is considered by many to be one of the world’s foremost Zombie preparedness experts. As we all know, the world we live in has become a rather scary place, and the global increase in the number of Zombie attacks isn’t helping matters any. According to the Office of Homeland Security, Brooks is the preeminent authority on dispatching the relentless, flesh-eating armies of Zombies that seem to be everywhere these days.
Brooks’ latest release, The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks (2009), is the graphic novel that fans demanded: major zombie attacks from the dawn of humanity. Recorded Attacks reveals how other eras and cultures have dealt with—and survived—the ancient viral plague. By immersing ourselves in past horror, we may yet prevail over the coming outbreak in our time.
The Zombie Survival Guide, Brooks’ first release, is your key to success against the hordes of the undead that may be stalking you right now. The book is the result of Brooks’ tireless search for both the living dead and ways to eradicate them, which has taken him to over 30 countries and territories in Europe, Russia, Latin America, the Caribbean, the Arctic and Sub-Saharan Africa.
A New York Times best-seller, World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War (2007), tells the story of the world’s desperate battle against the zombie threat with a series of first-person accounts “as told to the author” by various characters around the world. Publishers Weekly called the novel “surprisingly hard to put down.”
The son of Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft, Max Brooks is completely dedicated to the cause of raising awareness on the issue of Zombie survival. Brooks is ready to come to your campus or community to help prepare your audience with the latest Zombie survival techniques.
Born in New York City in 1972, Brooks’ introduction to the living dead began with a traumatic childhood incident, an incident he still refuses to discuss. Since that time, he has devoted much of his life to the study and development of anti-ghoul security. He is, at present, the leading Western student in the Afro-Caribbean martial art of Mkunga-Lalem, the world’s oldest and most effective anti-ghoul fighting skill.
After working for the B.B.C. in Great Britain and East Africa, Brooks began writing The Zombie Survival Guide. A former writer for Saturday Night Live, he lives in New York City with his wife, Michelle and their miniature dachshund, Maizey.
Max Brooks’ Links:www.maxbrooks.com
Michael A. McClure
Michael A. McClure, FAAR, RA, founding partner of emerymcclure architecture, was raised in rural Pryor OK. Currently an Associate Professor in the School of Architecture and Design at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (http://soad.louisiana.edu), he was named the 2011 University Distinguished Professor. He studied liberal arts at Washington University in St. Louis MO with a major in Architecture and a minor in History and received a Masters in Architecture from the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation at Columbia University, NYC. Before starting emerymcclure architecture with Ursula, Michael worked for Karen Bausman and Associates, Gluckman Mayner Architects, and Robert A.M. Stern.
emerymcclure architecture (www.emerymcclure.com) was founded in New York City in 1996. Now based in Lafayette, La., the firm has developed a range of design projects including commercial, residential, historic home renovations, graphic identity packages, and furniture design. The firm’s work and writing has been published in numerous journals and popular magazines including 306090-05, Architecture Record Online, Journal of Architectural Education, Dwell Magazine, and Southern Living Magazine. The 2006 Venice Biennale, Architectural Record, and the AIA have also recognized Emerymcclure architecture. Washington University in St. Louis, School of Architecture recognized the firm in 2002 by awarding them the Distinguished Young Alumni Award. Most recently, the firm was awarded the Gorham P. Stevens Rome Prizefor their project, Terra Viscus: Hybrid Tectonic Precedent.
Michael McClure Links:
www.emerymcclure.com
http://soad.louisiana.edu
Ryan Reiter
Artistic Director of ZomBcon International
Ryan Reiter is the Founder and Artistic Director of ZomBcon International, the world’s first Zombie culture convention and the Guinness World Record breaking Zombie walk known as the Red, White and Dead located in Seattle, WA. In 2010, it featured special guests like legendary filmmaker George A. Romero, Bruce Campbell, author and Zombie Survival expert Max Brooks to over 8,000 Zombie fans in it’s first year.
Originally born in the U.K, Ryan grew up in Seattle and later studied at Vancouver Film School before moving to Los Angeles to finish school at UCLA in film & Television working for the 20th Century Fox, American Film Institute and Sundance Film Festival.
Ryan became infected by the undead culture three year ago, after helping to organize the world’s largest Zombie walk that broke the Guinness World Record for the “Largest Zombie Gathering” on the planet helping to make Seattle to be the “Zombie Capital of the World” with the cult success of the Red, White and Dead Zombie walk that has garnered a Guinness World Record for the past three years. Ryan’s interest is providing an experience to Zombie fans that helps to to educate and celebrate the undead community in the past few years to thousands of fans worldwide. His latest project is the world’s first-ever Zombie Culture e-zine that will debut on iPad and Android tablets in spring of 2012.
he is proud to be involved in the Zombie Safehouse Competition that will be hosted at ZomBcon International that moves to San Francisco in 2012. Ryan currently resides in Seattle with his Zombie hunting Chihuahua, Bentley.
VISIT ZOMBCONEskew+Dumez+Ripple
Eskew+Dumez+Ripple is a design-driven studio which produces diverse projects in architecture and planning by blending a signature collaborative process with professional talent, creative thinking and emerging technologies. We create unique projects of architectural excellence, buildings of their own time and place whose authenticity is expressed in each aspect of building massing, scale, siting, details and materials. Our commitment to enhance and protect both the cultural and natural environments of the communities we serve is evident in the beauty and technical craftsmanship of our designs and in the long-term sustainability of our projects.
For us, program content and design process drive architectural form. We believe that a building is an expression of both the process by which design decisions are made, and the program to which the building must adhere – its size, function, and context, as well as cost and construction time.
Based in New Orleans, we use the cultural and architectural heritage of our city as a platform for a practice of national range and recognition. The result is a vibrant portfolio that includes aquariums, research laboratories, marine facilities, interpretative centers and museums as well as office buildings, academic and health care facilities.
Five Firm Directors lead our studio of professionals, promoting design excellence, efficient project delivery, and mastery of technical construction systems. We advocate environmental sustainability, elegant craftsmanship of materials and spirited collaboration with each one of our clients.
Simon Clark
‘Simon Clark is the author of Blood Crazy, a novel that contains a few zombie safehouses, and decidedly unsafe safehouses that are gorily, bloodily and horrifically invaded (quite right, too). His latest novel is Whitby Vampyrrhic, featuring vampires, Viking mythology, World War 2 and a plenty of carnage. You’re more than welcome to visit Simon at his own virtual safehouse at www.nailedbytheheart.com
Simon Clark’s Links:www.nailedbytheheart.com
Donny Broussard
Co-owner of the popular entertainment portal http://www.killerfilm.com, Donny is a writer that works hard to bring his own brand to his readers. His short film This Way To You earned him the gold award at NOVAC, and his documentary Little Houses played theaters around the south and is currently airing on the Documentary Channel. He was the Director of Photography on John Fallon’s award winning short film The Red Hours, and worked as a sales agent to sell Fallon’s script Trance, which was shot in Louisiana with actress Dominique Swain. Donny has over 15 years of production and design experience and earned his BFA in multimedia from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
www.killerfilm.com
Shea Trahan
2010 Gold Shovel Award Winner, Associate AIA, LEED AP
Shea Trahan is a young designer with a flair for the undead. Hailing from Lafayette, LA, Shea received his architectural education at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and is now a masters candidate at Tulane University. Shea’s design foci often centers around the point where site and culture meets contemporary sustainability. This is quite evident in his 2010 ZSHC entry which uses a zombie based bio-diesel to command control of the Mississippi River.
Shea Trahan discovered an interest in zombie lore following the 2002 release of 28 Days Later. Since that time he has sought out avenues for exploring his love of zombie culture and as such was one of the creators of the Zombie Safe House Competition in 2010. His entry in the 2010 competition was selected as the Golden Shovel winner. He now enjoys his role as a Legacy Judge and competition administrator.
Shea is lucky to have an understanding wife who supports his un-dead passion.
Zombie Safe House Competition 