Comic-Con attendees prowl the grounds in zombie make-up in 2010.
Photo: Port of San Diego/Flickr

Hollywood is turning from a batch of soulless, bloodsucking sycophants into a pack of mindless, shambling corpses looking to destroy your brain.

“Zombie is the new black,” said Armand Dorian, host of Spike’s Deadliest Warrior, which is hosting a presentation called “Vampires vs. Zombies” Thursday at Comic-Con International in San Diego.

“There’s no question — I think zombie is the next wave,” Dorian said in an interview with Wired.com. “Part of the reason is because I think the person who is the consumer is becoming more and more educated and more and more interested in being heavily into the science part of science fiction.”

Dorian may be on to something. Another Comic-Con panel is devoted to the scientific possibility of a zombie virus. World War Z author Max Brooks will be speaking on two panels — one on the history of the modern ghoul with zombie neuroscientist Bradley Voytek and another on surviving a zombie apocalypse (Brooks’ specialty).

While Comic-Con is not an infallible predictor of an upcoming movie or TV series’ success, the annual pop culture convention in San Diego does act as a sort of geek barometer, with the 130,000 attendees showing their love for this superhero or that variety of supernatural creature by way of costumes, T-shirts and massive lines for a particular panel presentation.

Bloodsuckers and “walkers” aren’t just battling it out at the box office and on DVRs across America, they’re also going undead-head-to-undead-head at Comic-Con 2011. Scroll through the schedule for the giant convention, which runs Wednesday through Sunday, and you’ll still spot plenty of hot vampire properties, from cast panels on Twilight and True Blood to a discussion of LGBT fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer .

But you’ll also notice a large number of events dedicated to zombies. Moreover, the zombie talk seems to be far more popular than bloodsucker banter. The panel for AMC’s The Walking Dead is currently leading the pack in terms of what attendees say they’re attending, based on the Sched web app for the San Diego convention. True Blood comes in fifth and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 1 was at No. 38 at the time of this writing.

A crossover panel, run by webcomics publisher Keenspot, is promising updates on the movie adaptation of Last Blood — the comic about vampires that have to keep the survivors of a zombie apocalypse alive in order to secure their food supply.

It’s an interesting turn of events considering just last year at Comic-Con, Walking Dead comic book scribe and show executive producer Robert Kirkman told Wired.com, “I understand that vampires are a little more romantic and all that stuff, but I mean, zombies: Give ‘em a chance.”

Now, it seems, he’s getting his wish.

In 2012, we should see zombie flicks Paranorman, Warm Bodies and the much-hyped World War Z, starring Brad Pitt and based on Brooks’ novel.

Maybe the move to dig up the rotting corpse of the zombie — freeing it from the crypt of folklore, horror comics and George A. Romero’s Living Dead films — and thrust it back into the spotlight is only natural. While shows like HBO’s red-hot True Blood and The Vampire Diaries are still going strong, they’re in their fourth and (soon to be) third seasons, respectively. And The Twilight Saga will be wrapping up at the end of 2012, depriving the world of sparkly vampire movies.

The legitimate fear of virally spreading disease also might be fueling the growing interest in zombies, tying in, as it does, with what terrifies people in the real world. After all, even the Centers for Disease Control recently issued instructions for surviving the zombie apocalypse.

“What are we really afraid of when it comes to warfare?” asked Deadliest Warrior’’s Dorian. “Biological warfare. That’s much more powerful than a gun or bullet. Napoleon failed because he made some bad decisions, but one of the main reasons was dysentery.”

Or perhaps the zombie revival is based on something far more simple: the recent success of AMC’s gritty show based on Kirkman’s zombie graphic novels.

“I think Walking Dead has had a big impact,” World War Z’s Brooks said in an interview with Wired.com. However, he added, “When you attach zombies to the name Brad Pitt, I think that certainly segues it into popular culture.”

Surprisingly, Brooks — who actually pitted the two reigning camps of undead against each other in the short story “The Extinction Parade,” doesn’t take any credit for the current rise of zombies in an entertainment universe lousy with bloodsuckers.

“Oh god, no. If I had the thinnest thread of judgment when it came to understanding popular culture I’d still be on Saturday Night Live,” Brooks said. “I just do what I like and I hope people catch up with me. I’m the last guy to ask about trends. I mean, come on! I still listen to Wang Chung for god’s sake.”

So, pop culture domination aside, which type of undead — vampires or zombies — would actually win in a battle to the true death?

The possibilities should be laid out at the Deadliest Warrior panel, and an episode of the show dedicated to the topic will be aired in September. For his part, show producer Dorian puts his money on the viral effects of zombie-ism to win in a war, even if one-on-one, it’s something of a draw.

In the end it comes down to numbers.

“If you put one vampire versus one zombie, Thunderdome-style, there’s no competition, that’s like me versus one fire ant,” said Brooks. “Me versus a billion of them? Maybe not so much.”

Photo: Port of San Diego/Flickr