Beautiful Infographic Identifies Over 350 Kinds of Zombies

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Holy hell, look at this you guys. No, really, look at it. This is beautiful. This is like the zombie infographic version of Maria Sibylla Merian’s plant illustrations. It looks ripped from an old anatomy book. Artist Jason Thompson is a bit of a zombie fanatic. When he hears the word zombie, he wants to know more, and not more as in, "Are they from the South?" or "Do they work at the CDC?" He gets deeper into things.

"As a horror fan, when I hear that something has 'zombies,' I want to know: are they fast zombies or slow zombies? Viral zombies, supernatural zombies, or alien-invasion zombies? Headshot zombies, living zombies, or writhing-severed-limbs zombies? Crazed, unreasonable people who are alive but act 'zombie-like'? Voodoo zombies, cannibal zombies or rotting Etruscan curse zombies?"

For Thompson, zombie isn’t a species of monster, it’s a genus with hundreds of variations. Literally. Hundreds. Over 350 variations, to be almost exact. His anatomy illustration inspired Map of Zombies is designed as a 24”x36” poster, and to figure out what type of zombies you’re dealing with, you start in the center, the brain, with one question — “Shoot them in the chest with a shotgun. Do they die?” Things divide further from there, as you move through the neurons into the body, echoing the way the infection spread in 1985’s Return of the Living Dead.

After a successful Kickstarter campaign, The Map of Zombies is available in Thompson’s online store for just $30, which seems a small price to pay for the high aesthetic value, let alone the hours of entertainment it could provide.

Thanks to Fast Company for the tip.