When director George Romero returned in 2005 with Land of the Dead, he was in the right place at the right time. Zombies were hot, thanks to the success of the Dawn of the Dead remake, and 28 Days Later. While Land of the Dead didn’t do well in US theaters, it did do well on home video, and it was also a success overseas.
Now Giant Freakin Robot tells us that George is back with more zombies, no surprise there, but he’s teaming with Marvel to create a zombie comic called Empire of the Dead. This comic will take place in New York, and Romero told USA Today his zombies never invaded the big apple because “I could never afford to shoot there.” (No wonder the guy rarely left Pittsburgh, although he’s now based in Canada.)
Thankfully comics are far less expensive to produce, and you can place zombies anywhere you want without having to worry about shooting permits, and spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a day making a movie. Romero also promises much smarter zombies than before.
“I’m having a lot of fun with it,” he says. “We’ve got some new rules and some new characters, and we’re taking it in a completely different direction.” Marvel artist Alex Maleev will be illustrating the comic, Empire currently has a projected release date of January. With so many zombies everywhere you look these days, it’s always nice to see the OG zombie master come back to teach the young upstarts a thing or two.
