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Would any fans of horror novels or movies or comics or games happen to know when the concept of zombies using guns was first introduced?

I think it would be too much of a challenge to go back and find the idea of zombies using melee weapons like shovels, pitchforks, etc but finding one using a gun seems possibly more of a feasible task.

The earliest instance I can think of in depicted media is the 1993 video game "Doom" where you had these guys:

http://doom.wikia.com/wiki/Zombieman
http://doom.wikia.com/wiki/Shotgun_guy
http://doom.wikia.com/wiki/Heavy_weapon_dude

But come to think of it... Rifts was out in 1990 and it mentioned zombies could use guns so I guess Rifts pre-dates Doom in terms of the idea of zombies using guns...

I expect there must be earlier incarnations of the idea though, like in 80s, maybe 70s or 60s? I'm guessing old horror comics or novels but I'm not sure. I usually tune in for an old zombie flick on Turner Classic Movies but don't recall seeing zombies using guns in movies until the more modern era.

Tor wrote:Would any fans of horror novels or movies or comics or games happen to know when the concept of zombies using guns was first introduced?

Day of the Dead, circa 1985.
The third installment of Romero's Living Dead Trilogy had a zombie who was a soldier when he was alive, and he retained some of the ability to use guns.
Enough to kill a guy, anyway, although not exactly to shoot accurately.

I'm guessing he wasn't able to reload, right?

Since you need WP skill to reload, the ritual spell Zombies can't do it, and I don't think the Thinkers can either. I bet a Mock Zombie could though. Not sure about Pattern. I guess possibly you could get locked in a pattern of reloading guns and JUST do that. A good resource if a Cultist found them and paired them up with a Thinker.

I don't think reloading ever came up in the Doom games since the soldiers/sergeants/commandos pretty much had infinite ammo and no matter how many times they shot at you it wouldn't deplete the number of shots in the clip they dropped, kinda silly. If they continue the franchise I hope they put in some kind of limit like that (and have some advanced zombies who can do reloads) so you COULD wait them out, but then you get less rewards from killing them. Give them some backup weapon like a knife.

Tor wrote:I'm guessing he wasn't able to reload, right?

Hm.
I honestly don't remember.

I'll have to go find a clip of this, sounds like a wild burst.

What about that one walking dead movie where they were trying to retrain the zombie? Did they try to get him to use a gun?

Dead Heat (1988)