Zombies give new life to classic novel

Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA

The undead have created a whole new life for Quirk Books, the brains — or rather the BRAAAINS! — behind the monster best-seller “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.”

Quirk, an independent publisher that started with a series of tongue-in-cheek guides for surviving highly unlikely misfortunes, has established the hybrid “mashup” genre bending of out-of-copyright classics and horror-fied kitsch.

“It has in a way become kind of a modern, or a postmodern, classic,” said Quirk president and founder David Borgenicht, whose 15-person staff works in an inconspicuous building on a cobblestone-paved side street in Philadelphia’s Old City neighborhood. “That wasn’t at all our intent. It was simply too crazy not to publish.”

Ever look at something and ask yourself why you didn’t think of it first? That’s one way Quirk comes up with its titles.

“When we have an idea and say, ‘If this was a book, I’d buy it,’” Borgenicht said, “that instinct is key.”

It was creative director Jason Rekulak’s idea to add lumbering hordes of discourteous flesh-eaters to Jane Austen’s 19th-century comedy of manners, “Pride and Prejudice,” spawning a monstrous hit.

“Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,” Quirk’s first foray into fiction, debuted in April 2009 at No. 3 on The New York Times best-seller list. It since has sold more than a million copies, been translated into nearly two dozen languages, been made into a graphic novel and an iPhone game, and been optioned for the big screen.

“Quirk has great quality to their books and an incredible design sense,” said University of Baltimore professor Arnold T. Blumberg, who teaches a class on zombies in popular culture. “It’s kind of heartening: You hear about how old-fashioned print is dying and here’s a company creating things that get widespread attention, good-looking books that stand out on the shelf, that you want to own.”

The book’s success says as much about the iconic nature of “Pride and Prejudice” as it does about the popularity of zombies, he added.

“Jane Austen, and that one book especially, has become a major cultural touchstone for so many people,” he said.

The runaway success of “Zombies” established Quirk, a privately held company that does not release financial data, as creator of the mashup genre. It also launched a cottage industry of copycats from “Jayne Slayre” to “Little Vampire Women.”