Undead was originally intended to be a tie-in to the classic zombie film by Jorge A. Romero, Night of the Living Dead. Robert Kirkman’s iconic comic book series is famous for reviving interest in zombies, especially the slow-moving ghosts featured in George Romero’s original film. However, while Undead – by Kirkman and artists Tony Moore and Charlie Adlard – became famous for paying homage to Romero’s famous 1960s film. Kirkman originally planned for the series to be directly linked to the events of the film.
According to Comic Featuresthe original plan for Undead it was supposed to be a sequel to Romero’s famous 60s horror film. In its original tone, “the book takes place in the 1960s, even including the presenter of the original film.” Due to Night of the Living Dead Because it was in the public domain, Robert Kirkman saw this as an opportunity to help boost comics through name recognition, especially since he wouldn’t have to pay royalties to anyone at the time.
If Robert Kirkman had kept his original idea for the series intact, the comics would have ended up being incredibly different when the first issue hit the stands.
Undead It could have been totally different with Robert Kirkman’s original Undead Flat
The franchise would be unrecognizable today if these changes had occurred
By call Undead to the continuity established in Romero’s original film, the series’ execution would have made it completely different to how fans remember it today. For starters, the comic probably would have been restricted to a short period of time. The ending of the original film suggests that the zombie problem was changing in the morning, with a firing squad taking over, killing and burning the corpses alive. If the comic had been a tie-in, she would have faced the pressure of approaching this pacing of the story.
Limiting what would become Undead be a link to Night of the Living Dead put history at risk.
By far the biggest change, however, would be the way the comics portray zombies. Zombies in the original Night of the Living Dead They look more like hypnotized ghouls with very little blood hanging from them, making them indistinguishable from the human characters and contributing to the social commentary present in Romero’s film. Although they had “originally decentralized“Over time, which is a concept that ended up making it into the final comics, there’s no denying that the main attraction of the series would be completely different for the rotting corpses fans know them to be now.
Jim Valentino encouraged Robert Kirkman to do Undead an original story
Comic gets a major overhaul after some helpful reviews
Upon sharing his concept with Image Comics co-founder Jim Valentino, he received some praise for wanting to bring back zombies through comics. However, limiting what would become Undead be a link to Night of the Living Dead put history at risk. So, Valentinto suggested that would be a better idea”create his own original concept and therefore Kirkman would own it entirely.” It was useful constructive criticism that helped Kirkman on the path to creating one of the most influential horror comics ever made.
The entirety of the original Undead comic book by Kirkman, Moore and Adlard is available now in a variety of collected editions from Image Comics/Skybound.
Another piece of advice Valentino gave Kirkman also helped give Undead your own sense of identity through your zombie design. He was told to make them look more like zombies that fans were familiar with to help get their attention from the start. This choice ended up benefiting the comics, as the zombies’ morbid designs made them seem original to the comics they came from. There’s been nothing like the Walkers and their biology since Undeadand they would never have existed without Valentinus’s advice.
Robert Kirkman maintains Undeadof Undead Living roots in its history
Classic Undead Tropes come to comics
Although Robert Kirkman ended up abandoning the idea of ​​making a connection with Night of the Living Deadthe beloved film’s influence has lived on throughout history. One of UndeadThe biggest twists – that humans turn into zombies no matter how they die – come straight from Night of the Living Dead. This influence manifests itself when a girl’s mother returns despite having been killed by a spatula and not being bitten. The series even references the film when revealing the origin of the zombie apocalypse.
It’s amazing to see how the original plan for Undead continued to live the story, even after the major changes made in the development process. This shows how influential Romero’s work has been over the years, especially given its public domain status that allows fans to create their own zombie stories. Despite Undead growing up to be his own vision of the genre, his original plan to be a liaison with Jorge A. Romeroof Night of the Living Dead helped the comic get on the right track and tell one of the greatest modern zombie stories of all time.
Undead is now available on Skybound.
Sources: Comic Features, (YouTube)