[Ryan Dunlavey via Super Punch]

Peanuts/X-Men
Garfield/Masters of the Universe
Bloom County/Lord of the Rings
Dennis the Menace/The Phantom Menace
The Far Side/Star Wars
Family Circus/The Fantastic Four
Calvin and Hobbes/Spider-Man
Nancy/Sin City
Spy vs. Spy/Alien vs. Predator
Prince Valiant/Valiant Comics

[b3ta.com via Neatorama]

Pocket Books has announced its purchase of Alan Goldsher's Paul is Undead: The British Zombie, which asks "What if John Lennon became a zombie before forming the Beatles?" Pocket Books has kindly released a full synopsis of Goldsher's pitch:

"Our story begins on 9 October 1840, in Liverpool, England. An African nzambi hides in the town's newly-built sewer system, only to reemerge exactly one century later at the Liverpool Maternity Hospital, in the room of Julia Lennon. The hungry nzambi takes a chomp from Julia's newborn's neck, and John Lennon is undead, a zombie with otherworldly powers, who will roam the Earth for eternity.

"In 1957, John, now a burgeoning singer and guitarist, meets Paul McCartney, a Liverpudlian with musical dreams of his own. Sensing a kindred spirit, John bites off Paul's ear and sucks out his mate's grey matter, after which he spits a healthy amount of his own brain into Paul's carotid artery-and thus is born the greatest songwriting team in rock history. John and Paul zombify local guitarist George Harrison, then welcome seventh level Ninja Lord Ringo Starr into the fold.

"Ladies and gentlemen, meet the Beatles.

"The lovable moptops murder then reanimate thousands of fans at the Cavern Club, simultaneously enslaving hundreds of lusty teenage girls. They invade the United States, mind-melding millions during an appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. They engage in an epic battle with rival band and notorious zombie hunters the Rolling Stones. They release album after album with hidden messages: Please please me by biting your young… Dear sir or madam, won't you eat your neighbor… All you need is eternal life…

"And before you know it, zombies are fookin' everywhere.

"Come 1968, the Beatles world begins to crumble. Experiments with illegal drugs melt the boys' brains. John begins dating an eighth-level Ninja Lord named Yoko Ono, who imagines all the people dying for today. And worst of all, a band called the Zombies-whose members are not actually zombies-seeks revenge on the Fab Four. All of which begs the question, can the three undead lads and the one Ninja stay unified and conquer the world?

"Nah. They break up, make a bunch of crappy solo albums, and fade into oblivion. But come 2010, with John, Paul, George, and Ringo all impoverished and bored silly, we hear whispers of a reunion. Sure, George's fingers keep falling off, but that won't stop the Beatles from following their dreams of death and destruction."

Goldsher is actually a music journalist, having written books about indie rockers Modest Mouse and jazz band Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. But with zombie literature spreading like...well...zombies, it's no surprise that more people are trying to cash in on the monster mash-up craze. And now that Quirk Classics has announced Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters and Mr. Darcy, Vampyre, and Seth Grahame-Smith will be following up Pride and Prejudice and Zombies with Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (not to mention Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter and I am Scrooge: A Zombie Story for Christmas, both due out this fall), publishers are hoping we'll accept what initially seemed a novelty as a legitimate subgenre. But will any of these mash-ups produce truly innovative stories, or are monsters just the spoonful of sugar to make us swallow historical dramas and Victorian literature?

Image from the Zombeatles.

[SFScope via Guardian]

Improv comedian Matt "Tinz" Herzau claims that he deliberately attempted to recreate the magic of Dark Side of the Rainbow, hoping to find another film that would synch up so neatly with a Pink Floyd album. He selected the band's rock opera The Wall and Pixar's film Wall-E based purely on the similar names, and believes he's stumbled onto another striking audiovisual coincidence:

Herzau's video quality leaves much to be desired, but he's not the only one to spot similarities between the album and the film. YouTube user zausuaz made the same discovery, and has the fully synched movie available for download. Among the nuggets he claims we'll see:

2:55 "drop it on them" he begins to pull out the hub cap
2:58 "drop it on them" he pulls it out in perfect time of the word "them"
3:05 GOLDEN! Perfect sync with touching the button on his chest
3:26 GOLDEN! WALL E comes up PERFECTLY
3:33 GOLDEN! WALL E logo fades perfectly
4:14 Cockroach "winks"
4:40 Walle gets new treads and camera change is perfect for the word "skating"
5:07 screen opens to show WALLE's on the word "feet"
5:13 The ship AXIOM on the word "mind"
5:22 guy next to pool "winks" in time with music
5:24 captain turns and autopilot begins moving
5:25 autopilot snaps into position as captian salutes
5:37 ship pans from people inside to whole view
5:39 on music change view of "SHELBY FORTHRIGHT" as Axiom takes off

I'm not sure whether I should be more surprised that these coincidences occur with not one, but at least two Pink Floyd albums or that there are multiple people who synch Pink Floyd up to random movies just to see what happens.

[The Stranger Forums via Octavarius via Metafilter]

1. Space Oddity by David Bowie. The ultimate science fiction ballad. If only the bar let you wave a lighter around.
Singing ability required: Moderate. You just need to be able to intone "Ground control to Major Tom" in a sort of monotone, count down from five, and then wave your beer bottle over your head to the rousing chorus.

2. Rocket Man by Elton John. The other ultimate science fiction ballad, and pretty much a rip-off of the Bowie song, only cheesier.
Singing ability required: High. Unless you decide to do a cover version of the famous Shatner rendition, in which case you need absolutely no vocal chops whatsoever.

3. Rapture by Blondie. Mostly for the rap about the Man from Mars. Who knows what the other part of the song is about anyway?
Singing ability required: High. But here's what you do. Either you find your cute friend who can actually sing to do the singing part, OR you cover the Go Home Productions mash-up of "Rapture" with "Riders On The Storm" by the Doors. (You can find this mash-up online pretty easily, I think, and it still includes the Blondie rap.) But this is the crucial part: memorize the rap. You don't have to be Kanye West to pull it off, but you do have to have it memorized, especially if you're already sorta drunk. Promise me you'll memorize it in advance, so you don't embarrass me too much. Or else, don't tell anybody I told you to do this.

4. 1999 by Prince. It's sort of an apocalyptic party song, about nuclear war or something. And on the album, it starts out with that robot that only wants you to have some fun.
Singing ability required: Fairly high. This is the one you drag all your friends up there to help you sing. Bonus points if you actually work out in advance which one of you will be Dez Dickerson (bass) and which one will be Lisa (alto).

5. She Blinded Me With Science by Thomas Dolby. It's pretty much the classic mad-scientist boogie number, from one of the most scifi-ish singers of all time.
Singing ability required: Moderate. If everybody is really really drunk, you can just sort of chant the lyrics and then put everything you've got into screaming "She blinded me! With! Science!" when appropriate. Or if that's too hard, just do the screaming part.

6. Anything by They Might Be Giants. Especially if they've got "Particle Man." They're sure to have that Istanbul/Constantinople song, which isn't really scifi, but TMBG has instant scifi cred anyway.
Singing ability: Fairly high, but you can bluff your way through it if you at least remember the lyrics.

7. Flash Gordon by Queen. Or, in a pinch, Another One Bites The Dust, which is sort of post-apocalyptic sounding. Do NOT try to sing Bohemian Rhapsody. It's not science fictional, for one thing, and your friends will disown you. You're not as funny as Wayne and Garth. Trust me.
Singing ability required: High. Sorry. It's Freddy Mercury.

8. Atomic Dog by George Clinton. Why is the dog atomic? Was there some kind of nuclear disaster, or bizarre scientific mishap? (Hint: Clinton also made the awesome Dope Dogs album, all about weird drug-related experiments on puppies.) Whatever the reason, this dog is probably chasing the cat using a jetpack or something. In an ideal universe, your karaoke bar would have "Unfunky UFO" or "Mothership Connection" or "Dr. Funkenstein." But we both know that's not going to happen.
Singing ability required: Pretty high, but you can pretty much just chant your way through it. If you can master the "bow-wow-wow-yippie-yi-yippie-yay" part, you're home free. This is another song you can bring your friends up for, and just have a dance party.

9. Styx, Mr. Roboto. Well, duh. His brain is IBM.
Singing ability required: I'd say moderate. Annalee just did an impromptu performance of it for me. If you put a lot of energy and emotion into "I'm just a man whose circumstances went beyond his control," and "Secret secret I've got a secret," you're home free.

10. Anything by Daft Punk, especially Technologic. It's pretty much all weird robots or creepy cyber-voices chanting about how they're going to fix everything.
Singing ability required: Not that much, really. Just chant and sound as robotic as you can. But work out a dance routine with a couple of your friends.