Rob Zombie has expressed his amusement at British tabloid newspaper The Daily Mail's lame attempts to stir up controversy over the release of his new children's spelling book, Z Is For Zombie: Learning To Spell With House Of 1000 Corpses Friends
The tongue-in-cheek book, based on Zombie's 2003 cult horror film House of 100 Corpses, was published by Neck Bolt Publishing last week (March 10), and an official product description on Amazon reads: "It's always more fun to learn with friends, especially when they're House Of 1000 Corpses friends! Rob Zombie presents Z Is For Zombie: Learning To Spell With House Of 1000 Corpses Friends, where aspiring spellers can learn the important words and phrases properly. With support from positive role models like Captain Spaulding, Baby Firefly, Otis Driftwood, Professors, Doctors, and Rob Zombie himself, learning is just so damn good!"
It didn't take long for professionally offended journalists at the Daily Mail to spot the existence of the 76-page book, and on March 14, the tabloid ran a story headlined: 'Outrage over violent children's book featuring sadistic serial killers teaching toddlers how to spell'
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This "outrage" seems to be very, very, very strictly limited to be fair, as the Daily Mail writer J. Peterson could only cite three vague examples of it, one of which simply reads, "I'm not giving that to my kid!"
Another comment cited reads, "If this is ACTUALLY for kids, the author can fuck himself. If it's for adults, and just a little parody, then kudos", which doesn't terribly outraged, in all honesty. The third comment quoted simply asks: 'This is an honest question, is it problematic to expose children and glorify characters who are depicted committing murder, torture, sexual assault, body mutilation, necrophilia etc?' And really, if you genuinely have to ask this question, good luck with negotiating life on planet earth in 2025.
Rob Zombie himself appears to have been rather tickled by the Mail's half-arsedattempt to stir up shit.
"Now this is hilarious!" he commented on Instagram, sharing a screen shot of the Daily Mail website story. "We are just trying to teach the children some good book learning."
The book can be purchased here, alongside an Official Rob Zombie Coloring Book, and Rob Zombie presents Grandpa Hugo's Dirty Jokes. Warning: some jokes may offend, probably.
