The King of the Zombie genre reclaims the throne this week in a new Marvel comic book series. George Romero team ups with artists Alex Maleev (Daredevil) and Arthur Suydam (Marvel Zombies) for Empire of the Dead.
“George A. Romero singlehandedly created the zombie genre that’s captured the public imagination for decades,” said Marvel Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso. “Now, his unique vision for the silver screen comes to life on the comic book page – a chilling rumination on human nature and man’s place in the food chain, served with a terrifying twist.”
The new story is set in a quarantined Manhattan after the zombie outbreak with the undead and a new threat loose on the human survivors inside.
At New York Comic Con the legendary creator discussed with Marvel.com the opportunity to write in the comic book medium:
“I grew up reading comics and I’ve always loved them,” Romero says. “The good ones stretch the imagination. Writing a comic book does the same thing for me. It encourages me to explore new ideas and characters that I might not have tried otherwise. I can turn off the part of my brain that’s always worrying about how to do things, like how I’m going to shoot a particular scene or how much it’s going to cost. Of course, that time may come, if we adapt EMPIRE OF THE DEAD for other media.”
Romero’s previous films have been set in rural isolated environments but this time he’s letting the undead bite the Big Apple.
“I grew up in New York, so it’s in my blood,” he says. “I’ve never consciously avoided setting a film here. It just seemed appropriate do it now, for EMPIRE OF THE DEAD, which wouldn’t be called [that] unless it was set in the Empire State. I wanted a setting readers would recognize so that I could portray a familiar place in an unfamiliar way.”
What could be worse than an army of undead?
“Evolution doesn’t necessarily stop just because you’re dead,” he teases.
Romero is the writer/director who created the zombie apocalypse genre with Night of the Living Dead then followed with Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, Land of the Dead, Diary of the Dead and Surviving the Dead.
George A. Romero presents Empire of the Dead: Act One #1 stalks comic book shops this Wednesday.
By Editor