I'm a relative newcomer to Zombies (books or movies). I was first drawn in by a rerun of the
Dawn of the Dead movie and have not looked back since. I think maybe the music might have had as much to do with it as anything in the movie, particularly the Richard Cheese and Jim Carroll tracks.
In my view, there has been surprisingly little develoment in zombie folklore, particularly in comparison to vampires. Apart from some that move more quickly (run), not much else that I have read has changed. In
Day By Day Armageddon the irradiated zombies seem to be evolving a little, and it will be interesting to see what JL Bourne does with that in the third volume when that comes out later this year.