While Horror Host, Svengoolie, and his predecessor may have christened Berwyn, Illinois as the epicenter of Chicago horror, that title has since been challenged by the city of Elgin. We’ve discussed their local Acme Design (who’ve carved their own Sven-legacy by creating his new coffin and MeTV set) as well as their annual Nightmare on Chicago Street . Now they can add yet another notch to their horror belt courtesy of local author & illustrator, John LaFleur and David Metzger! 8 Little Zombies is a scarier take on the classic children’s story, 8 Little Monkeys and one that us genre fans would enjoy reading to the little monster kids in our own lives (assuming you want to raise them right, of course). It’s a fun book with amazing artwork and even a forward written by the aforementioned Svengoolie himself!

With just five days until our favorite month of October arrives, we wanted to give our readers a chance to support this project in the hopes it will become available at the next Nightmare on Chicago Street (scheduled Saturday October 24th and please visit their Facebook page HERE for details).  Check out this press release along with how you can help!

From the official press release…

If you are a parent, uncle, aunt, or family friend, you may have read or sung “8 Little Monkeys (jumping on the bed)” more times than you care to count. (It may have been “5 or 10 Little Monkeys” for you). Two creators from Elgin, IL have reimagined that tale, modernized it a bit to ride the wave of “The Walking Dead” and now “Fear the Walking Dead” and also because their kids got older and somehow monkeys weren’t keeping their attention.

In speaking with loads of parents, they were having the same problem. Thus “8 Little Zombies” was born or rather, raised from the dead.

Set to verse like the original, but chronicling 8 demises of 8 zombies, this book gives you the perfect balance of what you want for an 8 year old – you’re appeasing their desire for all things zombie but never showing any graphic violence in the process.

Dave and John worked to lay out the book so all the action is clearly wreaking havoc with the zombie horde (ok, 8 may not be make a horde) but children reading it will never see any graphic zombie hunting violence. Everything is implied or after the fact thanks to some careful scripting by John and Dave’s subtle yet irresistible illustrations. His designs and palettes really set this title apart from any other kid’s zombie title out there. The iconic nature of the story makes it universally accessible – most parents have crossed the monkeys at one time or another during their children’s childhood.

Printed on high quality Sappi paper in hardcover and in the USA, 8 Little Zombies is sure to delight almost all ages. Yes, zombie fans are starting very, very young these days and the creators have had kids as young as five reading their preview copies – along with their parent’s full permission and frankly, enthusiasm. The 32 page 8 x 10 hardcover book will retail for $19.99.

The books can be accompanied by a limited edition 12 inch plush (which is also pretty much its width…the head is huge)! Dave and John have plans for other product and will be taking this to a publisher in 2016. They wanted to get out their creator’s edition this year in time for Nightmare on Chicago Street’s 5^th anniversary; an Elgin fall festival for which they’ve worked on the committee of since it started.

You can support their Indiegogo campaign which just launched and ends on October 1 at this following link:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/8-little-zombies-first-edition-printing/x/11927115#/story

A follow up “8 Little Vampires” has already been written and they are looking at a 2017 / 2018 release for that title. Other horror themed “8 Little’s” are in the works per John including a possible sequel to this title because you can’t go wrong with zombies.