Zombie nation: At Broken Frontier, Shawn Hoke (not a permalink) looks at how zombies have replaced monkeys and pirates as the it characters in comics:

"Zombies have been hiding in a dark corner of my subconscious since I was a child. Romero’s second movie did a lot of damage to this fragile youngster. Nightmares and odd zombie fixations haunted me for several years after I saw Dawn of the Dead, even causing me to erect an extendable pole out of those orange hot wheel tracks and a broomstick that I used for turning off the lights to my room without venturing off the bed. Do you know how many times a zombie could get to you between the light switch and the bed? I knew and I wasn’t going to let it happen to me. It seemed that zombies could strike anywhere and they could be anyone. Your garden variety walking dead needed no complex origin story like a Dracula or The Mummy; zombies could emerge instantly in any town or any neighborhood. And when they did, you and your family were screwed."