That's right...after a long, long, LONG time away, we are back, in the best shape possible, and we have a LOT to catch up on, so let's not waste any time. For those brave few of you who might have seen the original incarnation of this blog from a couple years ago, you may well remember that THE DEAD is Ralph Griffith and Stuart Kerr's followup to their iconic 1980s indy horror comic DEADWORLD, the book that brought Romero/O'Bannon style zombies to the world of comics during the black and white boom. At the end of the 80s, Deadworld slipped through Griffith & Kerr's fingers as the boom collapsed around itself, but Deadworld continued on, with different teams, and different publishers...though very much a different animal than that which the boys had originally intended in their VHS-and-grindhouse fueled salad days. However, in 1993, Arrow Comics rose again, and the boys took another run at their original idea...this time though, they pulled out ALL of the stops, and unleashed a comic book abomination that matched not only their original concepts, but their original goal of providing a shock-and-awe splatter tale that would go where others feared, and put all else to shame. That book, of course, was THE DEAD. A nightmare at the time unlike any other. A nightmare that has since been echoed by the likes of THE WALKING DEAD and CROSSED, all while the original, unfinished masterpiece has fallen unto obscurity.
Well, no longer.
Our initial plan, as of 2013, was to fund a collection of the original eight (seven published, one unpublished) issues of The Dead, and launch a brand new webstrip ("Dreams of The Dead") that would tie the various little-seen incarnations of the book together, in a continuing series of two-page installments, that would slowly tell a new chapter in the book's legacy. But as you've doubtless noticed, it was not to be. Even though the players were in place, and the dominoes lined up, the devil is in the details, and the project withered on the vine for a variety of reasons, much to the chagrin of yours truly. After a lull period, trying to figure out what to do next (and unwilling to give up on the project), fate tossed us a curve ball...and that curve ball's name was DEREK ROOK.
Around the dawn of the millennium, Rook (seen here with his paramour SARAH MICHELLE, The Dead's very own Mistress of Sales & Promotion) illustrated a graphic novel adaptation of Lucio Fulci's immortal ZOMBIE (a film which was itself a massive influence of Ralph & Stu), along with the still-unfinished GATES OF HELL and HALLOWEEN COMES TO HADDONFIELD, which he also published. I first crossed paths with Derek when I was writing my old COMIC CASKET column for the one and only FANGORIA, and we both wound up contributing several pin-ups for Gary Reed's illustrated prose collection VOICES FROM THE DEADWORLD. Not long after, Rook decided to once again enter the world of publishing comics, and he called upon me to write the twisted works he was planning on unleashing unto the world. Derek is a die-hard, lifelong fan of Deadworld (and it shows in every line of his Voices work), and so I showed him some of The Dead, a book he'd vaguely heard of, but had never actually seen...it happened quickly from there. It was like watching a bomb going off. Like watching pieces of a puzzle just put themselves together. In no time at all, it was decided - we were going to bring back The Dead.
And so it has come to pass that ROUGH HOUSE PUBLISHING - headed by Derek, and assisted by yours truly - is producing what has come to be known as THE DEAD OMNIBUS. Not only will it feature EVERY produced issue of The Dead up to now...including long lost unpublished material...not only will it feature a complete, full color cover gallery, and definitive collection of behind-the-scenes errata, it will feature an ENTIRE ISSUE'S worth of new content, to tie up the story as we've seen it these past 22 years. We've worked directly with Ralph and Stu to craft this 28 page coda, with the boys providing the storyline, myself writing the script, and Derek handling the art. Words cannot express the honor placed upon me to further this work...if my 15 year old self could see this day, he'd lose his goddamned mind.
And to make matters even more powerful, even more INSANE, we have drafted the artist who started it all, the one and only VINCENT LOCKE to illustrate six book-ending pages that act as a prologue and epilogue to the main event, and what's more, will be painting the cover. Myself and original series artist JASON MOORE toiled endlessly to come up with the most depraved, indefensible, hardest-hitting cover design possible, and once we landed on it, Jason tight-penciled it up and sent it out to Vince to finish...and believe me children, your years of collecting Crossed and devouring gore metal STILL haven't prepared you for everything (just be glad it's not scratch and sniff!). And that's to say nothing of the psychotic back cover by legendary Deadworld alum MARK BLOODWORTH (pictured above), that you'll be BEGGING for us to release as a poster.
And that's not nearly the tip of the maggot-encrusted iceberg...we have plans for more. Much more. Dreams of The Dead (our ill-fated webstrip) just might mutate into our first annual. And that's to say NOTHING of the big, five-part...well, that would be telling. If you could only be a fly on the Rough House walls...
But nothing in life is free. The simple fact of the matter is, the book has nearly doubled in size from what we had originally intended. This thing is going to be a goddamn phonebook. Come with a barf bag. And it is guaran-fuckin'-teed to change your life on the spot. But that's a lot of pages, sport. Frankly, we need your help. We're gonna put out this book come Hell or high water, but if you want it to come out SOON, and you want it to come out RIGHT, you can make that happen. We are holding out our mold-stained top hats to you, the loyal deadthings, our children, our army, our fans. Pull out your bloody pocket change, and throw it at us.
http://www.gofundme.com/sbf7cvs
We've tested out a crowdfunding campaign with GOFUNDME (which we'll be expanding there and on other platforms soon enough), but the fact is, not enough people know what the hell The Dead is all about. But that can change in an instant. YOU can make this happen. YOU can bring about the rise of the most foul, depraved, apocalyptic book of all time. The book that SHOULD have crushed the 90s. The book that SHOULD have had a Charles Manson-like following. To quote The Joker, all it takes is one, little push.
So keep your eyes on this spot. This two-fucking-years-in-between-posts thing is over and done with. As of June, we'll be going weekly with our updates here, if not even MORE frequent. You'll be seeing interviews with the creators, and you just might see crazy shit like prose pieces expanding on the world of The Dead. Anything's possible, but what we have in mind is pure insanity. We'll be at FANTACO mastermind TOM SKULAN'S very own end-all-be-all bash FANTACON this August, and if you slither out that way, there's a safe bet we just might have something...COOL for you. And you'll probably need a tetanus shot when you're done, but it'll be worth it.
In the meantime, you can hit us up on Facebook, at both the Rough House and official Dead pages...stop by, pay your respects, and be a part of the revolution. We await your presence. And if you DON'T make yourself known, we'll start with your FAMILY...and work our way down 'til we find you.
see you all soon....
https://www.facebook.com/ArrowComicsTheDead?fref=ts
https://www.facebook.com/RoughHousePublishing?fref=ts
http://www.fantacon.co/
