Prime Real Estate At Close-Out Prices: Marvel To Publish George Romero’s Empire of The Dead

Back in February, we reported that Marvel was teasing some kind of comic with one of those text-based promo images reading, “…of The Dead,” and that George Romero, the director and creator of Night of The Living Dead and Dawn of The Dead (not the one with Ving Rhames; the good one, with the guts and exploding heads and the story), had also announced that he was working on some kind of zombie comic for Marvel.

And at the time, I speculated that, rather than Romero working on, say, a Marvel Zombies story or anything like that, that instead he would take the opportunity that comic books, with their unlimited special effects budgets, to tell a truly epic story about the zombie apocalypse. You know, like World War Z, only with blood, and people getting eaten. I realize that those are optional elements for stories about the walking dead who exist only to feast upon the flesh of the living, but you know: they’re nice bonuses.

That announcement in February was that the book would be released in the fall. Well, it is the fall… and Romero and Marvel has announced that they will be releasing Empire of The Dead, a 15-issue miniseries staring in January. And that it is based on a 300-page screenplay that Romero wrote that was originally intended to be a movie set in New York City during his Night of The Living Dead zombie apocalypse. And why is he doing it as a comic book?

“I could never afford to shoot there,” Romero, 73, says with a laugh.

I am wrong a lot, but Goddamn am I glad I called this one right.

According to Romero and Marvel, the story (drawn by Alex Maleev) will take place a few years into Romero’s zombie apocalypse – for Romero fans, that sounds like it puts it somewhere between Day of The Dead and Land of The Dead – with zombies that are becoming more and more intelligent – which puts it above Dead Snow, where the zombies were as stupid as the rest of the movie.

“These zombies are starting to show sparks of real care and concern for each other,” Romero says. “I’m not going to go all the way to Omega Man where they take over the world, but I’m having a lot of fun with it. We’ve got some new rules and new characters, and we’re taking it in a completely different direction.”

Look, you can say what you want about some of Romero’s later zombie movies – they rely too much on computer special effects, they don’t have the scope that some of the earlier ones do – but I won’t believe you. Because every single one of Romero’s zombie flicks features zombies, but is about something much bigger. Dawn of The Dead is about rampant consumerism, Day of The Dead is about the military mindset in the face of mutually assured destruction, and even the much-maligned Survival of The Dead (which, by the way, lives on the shelf in my DVD collection) is about the dangers of tribalism. That’s what elevates Romero’s zombie stories, and it sounds like Empire of The Dead will be no different.

It’s basically Chicago or Detroit. The city isn’t destroyed, but it’s just running on its engine, corrupt and no holds barred. It’s a little bit like the Old West.

Empire of The Dead starts in January, and more news about the project will be announced at the New York Comic Con next weekend.  Now if you’ll excuse me, I think it’s time for a case of beer, some rare beef, and a Romero Blu-Ray marathon.

(via USA Today)