It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Zombies!

Spradlin’s chorus to Zombie Claus Is Coming to Town goes “He eats you when you’re sleeping; He bites when you’re awake. He chews if you’ve been bad or good, So just hide for goodness’ sake!” LAPEER — Ah, brains in place of sugar cookies, human flesh instead of a holiday ham — It’s a very zombie Christmas.

At least in the mind of local author Mike Spradlin, who released his newest book, It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Zombies, last week.

No, Spradlin is not himself a zombie. Don’t worry. The idea to write this gruesome missive came to him last summer.

Surrounded by everything zombie at the 2008 San Diego Comic-Con, Spradlin had a thought.

“I started thinking, ‘What if zombies had their own Christmas carols?’” he said.

In the book, zombies don’t go for a Sleigh Ride they go for a Slay Ride. After all, Christmas carols seemed to be the only nonzombie related thing at the convention. There were even zombie Teddy bars.

Once the thought of the undead celebrating the birth of Jesus by, ya know, roasting people instead of chestnuts on an open fire, Spradlin couldn’t let it go.

The result is one of Spradlin’s newest books.

The 81-page soft-cover is filled with soon-to-be zombie classics set to the tune of already classic Christmas songs.
Spradlin’s personal
favorite — Deck the Halls
with Parts of Wally — is a
perfect example.
(Set to the tune of Deck
the Halls with Boughs of
Holly)
Deck the halls
with parts of
Wally,
Fa la la la la, la
la la la.
‘Tis the season
for brains by
golly,
Fa la la la
la, la la la la.
Chew we
now our
friend’s
gray matter,

Fa la la
la la, la la
la la.
Wear
old clothes
‘cause
fresh
brains
splatter,
Fa la la la
la, la la la la.

See the blazing
town before us,
Fa la la la la, la
la la la.
Let’s go in
and eat the chorus,

Fa la
la la la,
la la
la la.

Spradlin’s book is filled with a zombie take on classic holiday characters like the nutcracker for the song Have Yourself a Medulla Oblongata. Follow me, we eat with leisure

Author Michael Spradlin Fa la la la la, la la la la.

A fresh brain for your Yuletide pleasure

Fa la la la la, la la la la.

“It’s sufficiently gruesome,” said Spradlin laughing.

A close second favorite for Spradlin is Good King Wenceslas Tastes Great.

Other titles include Slay Ride, I Saw Mommy Chewing Santa Claus, Silver Brains and more.

“The book is kind of a homage to Mad magazine,” said Spradlin. “It’s fun ... It’s not meant to be taken seriously.”

Along with zombie lyrics, Spradlin’s book includes zombiefied-illustrations by Jeff Weigel.

Illustrator Jeff Weigel But zombies aren’t Spradlin’s only topic of interest.
He has had 13 books published,
and in the same
week that It’s Beginning to
Look a Lot Like
Zombies came out, a
second installment
in
his Youngest Templar series, Trail of Fate, was released.

Spradlin’s books are sold in 11 countries, and the Templar series is huge in Germany, said Spradlin.

Three more books are in the works to be released next year.

And while he has yet to be offered a movie deal, he has sold the audio rights to It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Zombies to Brilliance Audio.

“It won't be out until next year, but I think it's hilarious,” said Spradlin. “I can't wait to hear what they do with the recordings.”

This drawing was done for the song Zombie Wonderland sung to the tune of, what else? Winter Wonderland. Spradlin, who graduated with a degree in history from Central Michigan University, began writing about 10 years ago when his daughter Rachel, now 17 and healthy, was experiencing health problems.

“I wanted to do something (where) I had control on the world,” said Spradlin who already was working in the publishing world.

“Writing started out as a way to deal with that.”

And so the Spy Goddess

book series, featuring a main character named Rachel, was born with the first installment: Spy Goddess: Live and Let Shop.

At first Spradlin, who also has a 24-year-old son, Mike, wrote the book just for his daughter, but in talking to some friends in the publishing world, he realized he had something that would sell.

Instead of We Three Kings, Spradlin imagines that zombies sing the tune We Three Spleens. “I realized this is something I’d like to do,” he said. “I always

loved books.” Spradlin still works in the publishing world, but would love to write fulltime. To help spread the word about It’s

Beginning to Look a Lot Like Zombies Spradlin, his kids and wife, Kelly, are walking in the Lapeer Christmas parade on Saturday, Dec. 5, in downtown Lapeer.

“(Kelly’s) got her zombie costume,” said Spradlin. Following the parade, he’ll sign copies of It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Zombies at the Book Self also in downtown Lapeer. Details: www. michael spradlin .com.