It’s that time of year again: the weather is turning colder (in theory anyway, it was 80 degrees on Sunday), hyper-thyroid monsters are destroying one another on the football field, and young men’s thoughts are turning to zombies. That’s right, it’s World Zombie Day again, which means it’s time to head to Detroit and check out this year’s festivities.

Unlike last year, I was actually able to make it to the walk early and got a chance to hang out and take a few photos (395 actually, but who’s counting?). The crowd was raring to go, and growing by the minute. The local ABC and NBC affiliates were even there filming the event.

This year the walk took place downtown, instead of in one of the suburbs. It was a hell of a lot of fun to listen to some of the locals try to figure out just what in the hell was going on in their fair city.

On the way to the walk, I overheard one man on the phone say: “I don’t know what it is, but if you imagine the Michael Jackson video for thriller, it’s kind of like that.” It sure was.

Another added element was that the Detroit Lions game let out just about the same time the walk was getting started, which meant Lions fans had to run through a gauntlet of the living dead to get safely to their cars. I imagine it was quite an experience for them. Thankfully, they were still high off the Lions’ first win of the season, which surely helped them battle through the throng of zombies choking Greektown.

The event was really well attended. I’m no professional crowd-size guesser, but I would estimate there were a whole shitload of zombies downtown, and that’s nothing to shake a stick at.

Not only were there a load of people participating, but the crowd was incredibly diverse. From babies (seriously, babies) on up crotchety oldsters, everyone in the D was catching the zombie spirit.

I don’t have totals on zombies or the amount of money and food raised just yet, so stay tuned. As always, check out Zombie Walk Detroit’s official site for full details.

Update: