It’s not news that George Romero (‘Day of the Dead‘) is working on a zombie project for Marvel entitled ‘Of The Dead. What is news is that we actually have an update on it! After its initial release announcement. there has been scant details. He’s let it slip in past interviews that it is a stand alone piece with no superheroes while Marvel’s first announcement had it pegged for Fall of this year. Past that? Not so much.
So basically, this is going to be a separate piece from the ‘Marvel Zombies’ books that have been released in the past. With the announcement of no superheroes, it could take place in an entirely stand alone universe or perhaps one based off of one of the properties Romero has built in the past. With ‘Night of the Living Dead’ in the public domain, it could easily spin off from there. Most of Romero’s other works are tied up with one studio or another so I wouldn’t expect it to involve them. Regardless, if it has anything to do with ‘Night’ or a stand alone, Romero fans are going to be picking this comic series up.
With so little information released about the project, you would think that the information we have is all up to date, right? Well it looks as if even some of that may have been wrong, at least the Fall release date that Marvel itself originally announced. In an interview with Daily Dead, Romero updated on the comic series’ release date:
“They were going to originally launch it in October, but I understand that they’re pushing it back. I don’t know why, but maybe they don’t want to bridge it over Christmas.”
Why push it back? Well if you are going to create a stand-alone or 4 issue comic this push back might work. However, if you are going to create enough issues that could last over a year, then you might have to re-prioritize. But to have to wait over a year? How long of a comic series are we talking about? Romero reveals:
“It’s fifteen books, so it’s long. It’s the equivalent of two and a half screenplays. It’s a novel basically and, in fact, I might novelize it.”
That’s right, we’re talking about a 15 issue mini-series. Sure it could be released with multiple issues a month but it looks like we’ve got an ongoing story to run with here by the father of the modern zombie. Yes, I’m excited. Would this be Marvel’s answer to Image’s ‘The Walking Dead‘? Well with only 15 issues currently lined up, that’s doubtful, but if it proves popular enough we could just happen to see this as an ongoing title.
Wondering if we going to see standard zombies here? According to Romero, his undead have been evolving and slowly gaining intelligence over time in his films.
“Max Brooks and I do these panel discussions together and he believes that humans don’t stand a chance. I don’t know… I’m writing a comic book series right now for Marvel. I can’t really say anything about the story, but I’ll just say that the zombies are advancing even a little further.”
I’m hoping this won’t go the ‘Warm Bodies‘ route, but I am interested to see what Romero and Marvel have next for my favorite monster.
Still loving the concept behind ‘Marvel Zombies’ or are you done with them? Since this is apparently a stand alone work not involving the heroes are you considering picking it up? Sound off below!
Source: Daily Dead.