Queens residents take ‘zombie walk’

In small groups, the zombies hobbled their way to 30th Avenue’s Shillelagh Tavern, where they celebrated with drinks and music from local artists.

Bringing a zombie walk to Queens was something that organizer Chante Tenoso, who runs the memorabilia website Zombiescantlove.com, wanted to do after attending other walks.

“I’ve had zombies on the brain for seven years,” Tenoso said.

Zombie walks have occurred throughout New York, but most have charged participants some kind of fee and have taken place in Manhattan. Tenoso wanted to avoid that for-profit scheme.

She met with Thomas Art, who runs the website Zombiesworldwide.com, and Astoria Music and Arts founder Justin Finley, to work out a program and bring a zombie apocalypse to Astoria.

The idea appealed to Finley because it’s “an interactive publicity stunt for the neighborhood. Zombies are huge right now.”

It was Art’s idea to hold the event in November, so as not to clash with other zombie fests that take place during the Halloween season. He also came up with the walk’s slogan — “Let’s all be thankful that we have a human to eat” — to complement the Thanksgiving timing.

Since George Romero’s 1968 film “Night of the Living Dead” made the zombie a true pop culture icon, the character has attained a level of interest perhaps unrivaled by any recurring figure in the horror genre, save the vampire.

Tenoso couldn’t identify any one single reason to explain the appeal zombies continue to hold.

“For some people it’s the horror aspect. For some it’s the fascination with the end of the world,” she said.

For his part, Art views the walking dead, as depicted in everything from comic books to video games to film, as an unstoppable force that cannot be reasoned with. “They’re the ultimate scary character,” he said. Other horror figures “can be tricked or manipulated.”

On the day of the zombie attack, Johnny Leavitt and his wife, Monica, combined their love of the original 1960s “Star Trek” television series with their passion for zombies. They dressed as “redshirts,” a term for the Enterprise crew members who are often the first characters to die in any given episode and typically appear in red jerseys.

“We came today as Trekkies in red shirts and we got infected first,” Monica Leavitt said. “The other ‘away mission’ made it back to the Starship Enterprise.”

Self-described Halloween nerds, the two were looking for something Halloween- related to do when they read about the zombie walk.

“We were like kids in a candy shop,” Monica Leavitt said. “We just love zombie movies. We love the fact they can’t die or they die very hard.”

While the walk in Astoria was all about fun, Art did have some advice for people should a real zombie epidemic ever hit Queens.

“Stick to family, weapons and canned goods,” he suggested.