“Walking Dead” artist to Gov: zombies aren’t the problem; you are

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ)- “Walking Dead” artist Tony Moore, a Kentucky Colonel from Cynthiana has written a response to Governor Matt Bevin’s words about mass shootings’ connection to what he calls a culture that celebrates violence.

Tuesday, Bevin spoke about several topics, including midterm elections, the economy, and violence on Leland Conway‘s radio show.

When Conway brought up mass shootings in Kentucky, Bevin said such violence is an indication of deeper cultural problems

“Television shows are all about what? Zombies. Seriously I don’t get it. I really don’t understand that. “I was never a big fan of space or science fiction either, but now it’s all about zombies. Which is what we are; we celebrate death,” Bevin said.

In the past, the Governor has said video games play a role in in leading people to act violently toward others.

“The culture is surrounded by, inundated by, rewards things that celebrate death whether it’s zombies in television shows, whether it’s the numbers of abortions that we just indiscriminately think is just okay, tens of millions of people in recent years, but that’s okay. That’s just who we are. It’s just for inconvenience,” Bevin said on Conway’s show.

Bevin also said people in America celebrate death, not life.

“At every turn we denigrate human life. We disregard the sanctity of human life from beginning to end and all these things have an effect, and we are reaping what we have sown for decades,” Bevin said.

“You know that there’s media reporters right now listening and they’re typing in their computers already and they’ve already say that you blame ‘The Walking Dead’. You know that’s what they’re going to type. That’s going to be the headline,” Leland Conway eventually laughed in reply.

“These people who consider themselves to be journalists are an embarrassment. To the extent they ever were competent, those days seem to long be gone,” Bevin replied.

He went on to say journalists don’t know what is going on so they listen to people like Conway who have “thoughtful questions” and then write their own “spin” on it.

Tony Moore, one of the co-creators of “The Walking Dead” comic book, which the AMC TV show is based on, wrote a post on his blog “Colonel Tony Moore” in response.

“So, now in this uneasy age, when people are more racially and politically divided than I have seen in my lifetime, Governor Bevin decides to trot out this tired old garbage position and accuse our creation of being the root of society’s problems. These stories, as many others in the genre, are generally viewed as being about the strength of the human spirit in the face of phenomenally bleak circumstances,” Moore said.

Moore writes he is proud of his Kentucky heritage, but the Governor’s comments hurt him. He turned the Governor’s words around.

“…if Governor Bevin wants to point the finger at simple escapism, at stories that celebrate survival and hope, that celebrate LIFE, and denounce them as the cause of violence, perhaps he needs to have a good long look in the mirror to see what the face of a culture celebrating death truly looks like,” Moore said.