There's lots of news coming out of the New York Comic Con, but one particular nugget of interest is the annoucement that horror legend George A Romero will be writing a new series for Marvel Comics entitled Empire of the Dead. Though many of the details are still to be revealed, we do know that the story is set in New York and will deal with both the threat of a post-zombie apocalypse AND with vampires. Romero has said he always wanted to film one of his zombie films in the city, but that it wasn't pragmatically possble to do it in a live-action format in such locations because of costs.
“It’s a zombie story (of course)," Romero revealed. "... but there are other characters in it that are living dead but they are not zombies. There are two kinds of living dead, zombies and vampires, trying to survive."
Noting the metaphors and allegories that will play into the human angle of the drama, Romero explained that in the partly-devastated, much-diminished and 'old west' mentality of his New York "... there are the haves and the have nots and the zombies have nothing. It made sense when I thought about the initial story, it needed to be in a real metropolis that could survive by itself with its own government."
Considered the 'Godfather' of the zombie genre, Romero's undead movies - including Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, Land of the Dead, Diary of the Dead and Survival of the Dead - have become acclaimed, respected and notorius to different degrees, but there's no doubt the current popularity of the circulatory-challenged owes him a great deal.
Marvel's Axel Alonso said recently: "George A. Romero singlehandedly created the zombie genre that’s captured the public imagination for decades. 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 interior art for the comic will be by the acclaimed Alex Maleev and there will be a 'variant' cover by Arthur Suydam who has previously created the covers for the various 'Marvel Zombies' mini-series the company has produced - though this will tie in more with Romero's cinematic vision not Marvel's existing works.
