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THE FIRST DECADE
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ZOMBIES ZOMBIES ZOMBIES C
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Starting with 30 Days of Night, IDW had success with
horror titles and it was natural that the company would do comics featuring zombies. Ted Adams and
Chris Ryall discuss the history of zombie titles at IDW. TA: Zombies started at IDW with Dawn of the Dead. Steve Niles was doing a lot of work with us and he approached me with the idea of doing an adaptation of George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead movie. I was really
uninterested in doing it–I’d never seen the movie and it seemed unlikely to me that anyone would be interested in a comic-book adaptation of such an old movie. I only did it because Steve kept asking me about it and it was obviously important to him. So I tracked down the company that owned the rights and did a deal with them and the series ended up
__________________________________________ Zombies: Feast art by Enrique López Lorenzana.
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ZOMBIES ZOMBIES ZOMBIES C
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Starting with 30 Days of Night, IDW had success with
horror titles and it was natural that the company would do comics featuring zombies. Ted Adams and
Chris Ryall discuss the history of zombie titles at IDW. TA: Zombies started at IDW with Dawn of the Dead. Steve Niles was doing a lot of work with us and he approached me with the idea of doing an adaptation of George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead movie. I was really
uninterested in doing it–I’d never seen the movie and it seemed unlikely to me that anyone would be interested in a comic-book adaptation of such an old movie. I only did it because Steve kept asking me about it and it was obviously important to him. So I tracked down the company that owned the rights and did a deal with them and the series ended up
__________________________________________ Zombies: Feast art by Enrique López Lorenzana.
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___________________________ Dawn of the Dead art by Chee.
being very successful for IDW. The comics sold out and did much better than I expected and the trade paperback also sold more than I expected so our first “zombie” licensed book was a much bigger hit than I ever expected. All of that happened before you got here but around the time that you joined IDW, we were looking at other licenses and I think you brought up the idea to do an adaptation of Shaun of the Dead. CR: Right. That was one of the first things I got involved with after starting at IDW. I think the good thing about that is that we were right on the cusp of zombie comics becoming popular. At the time, four or five years ago, they weren’t all that popular so Dawn of the Dead hit and then we had the good fortune of riding that wave right from the start. With Shaun of the Dead, I remember I was literally two or three weeks on the job and I went up and met with Edgar Wright, the director. We wanted to do the comics and the rights were with Universal but he was really skeptical about doing it. So I met with him
______________________________________________________________ Land of the Dead art, including the zombie below, by Gabriel Rodriguez.
and he liked the look of our books and I know one of the books he singled out liking was the Dawn of the Dead adaptation. The other thing that I think kind of clinched it for IDW was that I had gotten my hands on a bootleg of the movie before it had ever been released here so when he was talking about the movie, I already knew it. So, I think everything seemed to impress him. The fact was that we had nice production values, and he liked the way we handled other properties because he’s a huge Romero guy, and so it just sort of took off from there. TA: You wrote the Shaun of the Dead comics and then later also wrote the Land of the Dead comics. CR: Yeah, I became the de facto “of the Dead” guy. I really wanted to do Land of the Dead because Gabriel Rodriquez wanted to draw the book and I really liked what he was doing on CSI at the time. That was a fun project
because we got to work closely with Romero and his people. That was another one that seemed to really ride the wave of zombie books that were cresting at that time. TA: Let’s discuss how we put together a licensed comic book–from a business and creative standpoint. The first step is that you and I talk about upcoming forms of entertainment and whether or not they would make good comic books. CR: That’s what drew me to the way you guys handle things at IDW. As much as a lot of these are big business deals–when we look at a new title, it really is as simple as, “Do we like this
property?” It’s not just, “Hey we’re taking things because we can make some money.” We’re going to have to live with a property for a number of years and we have to decide if we want to spend years of our lives working on a property. TA: There has to be some passion for it internally, whether it’s you or me or one of the other editors working here. Somebody has to have some passion for it or it really is just a cash grab and you can just tell when publishers do those kinds of books. CR: Yeah, there’s no hiding that from fans. So we look at the property and think would this make a good comic and then it’s fun to tailor it to the writer and artist we think could really bring it to life. We’ve done such diverse properties, it’s great that there are so many different things that appeal to so many different types of writers and artists. TA: That’s one of the nice things about the creative approach at IDW–you do a good job of finding people who are right for the property, rather than
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___________________________ Dawn of the Dead art by Chee.
being very successful for IDW. The comics sold out and did much better than I expected and the trade paperback also sold more than I expected so our first “zombie” licensed book was a much bigger hit than I ever expected. All of that happened before you got here but around the time that you joined IDW, we were looking at other licenses and I think you brought up the idea to do an adaptation of Shaun of the Dead. CR: Right. That was one of the first things I got involved with after starting at IDW. I think the good thing about that is that we were right on the cusp of zombie comics becoming popular. At the time, four or five years ago, they weren’t all that popular so Dawn of the Dead hit and then we had the good fortune of riding that wave right from the start. With Shaun of the Dead, I remember I was literally two or three weeks on the job and I went up and met with Edgar Wright, the director. We wanted to do the comics and the rights were with Universal but he was really skeptical about doing it. So I met with him
______________________________________________________________ Land of the Dead art, including the zombie below, by Gabriel Rodriguez.
and he liked the look of our books and I know one of the books he singled out liking was the Dawn of the Dead adaptation. The other thing that I think kind of clinched it for IDW was that I had gotten my hands on a bootleg of the movie before it had ever been released here so when he was talking about the movie, I already knew it. So, I think everything seemed to impress him. The fact was that we had nice production values, and he liked the way we handled other properties because he’s a huge Romero guy, and so it just sort of took off from there. TA: You wrote the Shaun of the Dead comics and then later also wrote the Land of the Dead comics. CR: Yeah, I became the de facto “of the Dead” guy. I really wanted to do Land of the Dead because Gabriel Rodriquez wanted to draw the book and I really liked what he was doing on CSI at the time. That was a fun project
because we got to work closely with Romero and his people. That was another one that seemed to really ride the wave of zombie books that were cresting at that time. TA: Let’s discuss how we put together a licensed comic book–from a business and creative standpoint. The first step is that you and I talk about upcoming forms of entertainment and whether or not they would make good comic books. CR: That’s what drew me to the way you guys handle things at IDW. As much as a lot of these are big business deals–when we look at a new title, it really is as simple as, “Do we like this
property?” It’s not just, “Hey we’re taking things because we can make some money.” We’re going to have to live with a property for a number of years and we have to decide if we want to spend years of our lives working on a property. TA: There has to be some passion for it internally, whether it’s you or me or one of the other editors working here. Somebody has to have some passion for it or it really is just a cash grab and you can just tell when publishers do those kinds of books. CR: Yeah, there’s no hiding that from fans. So we look at the property and think would this make a good comic and then it’s fun to tailor it to the writer and artist we think could really bring it to life. We’ve done such diverse properties, it’s great that there are so many different things that appeal to so many different types of writers and artists. TA: That’s one of the nice things about the creative approach at IDW–you do a good job of finding people who are right for the property, rather than
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just taking whoever is available and sticking them on it. With Shaun of the Dead, the Zach Howard art is great. It’s so much more than just a “licensed” comic book. The art’s great and Gabriel’s art on Land of the Dead, and everything else he does is amazing. CR: That’s always the nice challenge of these things–we’re taking movies that people can watch fluidly on screen and we put them in static images on paper. That can fall apart if it doesn’t have something different to bring to the process. Zach’s art was so expressive and humorous and Gabe’s art is so kinetic and detailed–even for people that are familiar with the properties, it gives them something different. That’s always the main thing that I strive to do with these books–find some way to re-present familiar material in a new and interesting way. TA: The storytelling that Gabe brings to Land of the Dead is just so strong. There’s this page where the bad guys are smashing through a door with a big hacksaw and Gabe’s storytelling is so much better than just about anybody else in comics. CR: That brings up another one of the steps in the process of doing licensed books–finding somebody who can do good likenesses, because most of these titles have actors approving the way they look in the comic. So, you need someone who can not only draw faces properly but who can do more than just look like they’re tracing faces onto paper. The artist really needs to bring it to life and make it work as comic art. It doesn’t sound like it should be a big challenge but it’s something that very few people do well. Almost no one does it as well as Gabe.
TA: Getting the first issue approved was difficult because you were working off an old version of the script. CR: Yeah, it was an old version of the script and then some of the scenes were cut from the movie after they didn’t test the way they wanted and we had a couple of the actors that didn’t like their likenesses. It gave me a real crash course in what it’s like to put together a licensed book. It was just all of these different challenges hitting all at once. TA: That’s the thing you do better than anybody I’ve ever seen–you have the ability to roll with the punches, get the changes made to make a licensor happy and still get the book out the door. Let’s talk about some of the original zombie titles that we’ve published over the years. We’d had some success with our licensed zombie titles and, at some point, I approached you with the idea of trying to create some of our own. CR: Yeah, zombie comics were working well in the marketplace and we thought, “Why don’t we develop some of our own?” TA: Zombies: Feast was the first one.
TA: Yeah, Gabe is one of a kind. Another challenge with licensed books is accommodating the people who create the underlying entertainment–in the case of movies that’s typically the director or some of the on-screen talent. I remember that Land of the Dead was one of the tougher projects. CR: That was a good trial by fire. _________________________ Opposite Page: Shaun of the Dead art by Zach Howard.
________________ Zombies: Feast art by Chris Bolton.
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just taking whoever is available and sticking them on it. With Shaun of the Dead, the Zach Howard art is great. It’s so much more than just a “licensed” comic book. The art’s great and Gabriel’s art on Land of the Dead, and everything else he does is amazing. CR: That’s always the nice challenge of these things–we’re taking movies that people can watch fluidly on screen and we put them in static images on paper. That can fall apart if it doesn’t have something different to bring to the process. Zach’s art was so expressive and humorous and Gabe’s art is so kinetic and detailed–even for people that are familiar with the properties, it gives them something different. That’s always the main thing that I strive to do with these books–find some way to re-present familiar material in a new and interesting way. TA: The storytelling that Gabe brings to Land of the Dead is just so strong. There’s this page where the bad guys are smashing through a door with a big hacksaw and Gabe’s storytelling is so much better than just about anybody else in comics. CR: That brings up another one of the steps in the process of doing licensed books–finding somebody who can do good likenesses, because most of these titles have actors approving the way they look in the comic. So, you need someone who can not only draw faces properly but who can do more than just look like they’re tracing faces onto paper. The artist really needs to bring it to life and make it work as comic art. It doesn’t sound like it should be a big challenge but it’s something that very few people do well. Almost no one does it as well as Gabe.
TA: Getting the first issue approved was difficult because you were working off an old version of the script. CR: Yeah, it was an old version of the script and then some of the scenes were cut from the movie after they didn’t test the way they wanted and we had a couple of the actors that didn’t like their likenesses. It gave me a real crash course in what it’s like to put together a licensed book. It was just all of these different challenges hitting all at once. TA: That’s the thing you do better than anybody I’ve ever seen–you have the ability to roll with the punches, get the changes made to make a licensor happy and still get the book out the door. Let’s talk about some of the original zombie titles that we’ve published over the years. We’d had some success with our licensed zombie titles and, at some point, I approached you with the idea of trying to create some of our own. CR: Yeah, zombie comics were working well in the marketplace and we thought, “Why don’t we develop some of our own?” TA: Zombies: Feast was the first one.
TA: Yeah, Gabe is one of a kind. Another challenge with licensed books is accommodating the people who create the underlying entertainment–in the case of movies that’s typically the director or some of the on-screen talent. I remember that Land of the Dead was one of the tougher projects. CR: That was a good trial by fire. _________________________ Opposite Page: Shaun of the Dead art by Zach Howard.
________________ Zombies: Feast art by Chris Bolton.
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_________________________________________________ Zombies vs. Robots vs. Amazons art by Ashley Wood.
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_________________________________________________ Zombies vs. Robots vs. Amazons art by Ashley Wood.
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____________________________________ Everybody’s Dead art by Dave Crosland.
CR: I reached out to a few writers and told them we wanted to do a zombie book and asked them to throw some ideas at us. Shane McCarthy came up with Feast–the twist was that rather than a group of nice, innocent people being attacked by zombies, we had a prison chain gang getting attacked. Now you have this group of people that are almost as much a danger to each other as the zombies are to them. TA: Zombies: Feast did OK for us both as comics and as a trade which led us to do Zombies: Eclipse of the Undead. If I remember correctly, that title was brought to us by Sulaco Studios, a studio in Spain that used to do a lot of creative service work for IDW. CR: Yeah, and it was interesting because it was set in America and was written by creators from Spain. I liked that you got this different take on America and Americans and the way they would handle these sort of zombies. TA: One of the best things about Eclipse of the Undead was the Jeremy Geddes covers. We haven’t been able to get him to do much for us but those are some great covers. 188
Much later we did Brian Lynch’s Everybody’s Dead– the story of a zombie infestation at a college fraternity. CR: Yeah, Brian has been doing Angel and Spike for IDW for years and we all really love his writing. Brian’s hilarious script combined with Dave Crosland’s art made for a fun, and funny, take on zombies. TA: Our only Eisner-nominated zombies series is, of course, the book you did with Ash–Zombies vs. Robots. CR: I’d always wanted to do something with Ash but I also thought, here’s a guy doing his own stuff– Popbot and Lore and everything else. He doesn’t need anybody else but I think it was as simple as he told you, “Hey, have Chris write me a book about zombies fighting robots,” and it was the stupidest and also greatest, premise ever. It was a challenge of how do I write a story that’s going to take this ridiculous idea and make it, hopefully, into something that Ash would want to spend his time drawing.
_______________________________________________ Zombies: Eclipse of the Undead art by Jeremy Geddes.
TA: I think that’s what you accomplished. Like you said, when people first hear Zombies vs. Robots their instant response is, “Wow, that’s really stupid,” but what ultimately happened was that Zombies vs. Robots became one of our most critically acclaimed books. Everybody who read it loved it. The first series was nominated for an Eisner Award.
Ash where he was drawing robots and zombies but he loves drawing women, so how do we work that in? All right, let’s give him Amazons–let’s give him the ultimate woman.”
CR: Let’s be honest about it, though–had I written the story for anybody else, it would have probably been pretty stupid. But when Ash Wood takes it on, you can take something like that and really make it into something that I don’t think anybody else could have.
CR: At the end of Zombies vs. Robots vs. Amazons, we introduced mermen so we could take it underwater. We’re planning to do a book called Zombies vs. Robots Adventures where we can tell different sorts of stories set in and around the world.
TA: And what’s the third book in the series going to be called?
TA: No question, Ash definitely raises the bar on everything. And, of course, Zombies vs. Robots led to Zombies vs. Robots vs. Amazons.
TA: Over the years, we’ve had a lot of interest from various Hollywood people who want to try to make it into a movie. I know that that’s something that’s hopefully still in the works.
CR: Yeah, at that point, we’d embraced the ridiculousness of it and thought, “OK, what’s the next thing?” And I thought, “We did a series with
CR: Maybe, by the time people are reading this book, we’ll have made an announcement that a film is in the works. IDW
189
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____________________________________ Everybody’s Dead art by Dave Crosland.
CR: I reached out to a few writers and told them we wanted to do a zombie book and asked them to throw some ideas at us. Shane McCarthy came up with Feast–the twist was that rather than a group of nice, innocent people being attacked by zombies, we had a prison chain gang getting attacked. Now you have this group of people that are almost as much a danger to each other as the zombies are to them. TA: Zombies: Feast did OK for us both as comics and as a trade which led us to do Zombies: Eclipse of the Undead. If I remember correctly, that title was brought to us by Sulaco Studios, a studio in Spain that used to do a lot of creative service work for IDW. CR: Yeah, and it was interesting because it was set in America and was written by creators from Spain. I liked that you got this different take on America and Americans and the way they would handle these sort of zombies. TA: One of the best things about Eclipse of the Undead was the Jeremy Geddes covers. We haven’t been able to get him to do much for us but those are some great covers. 188
Much later we did Brian Lynch’s Everybody’s Dead– the story of a zombie infestation at a college fraternity. CR: Yeah, Brian has been doing Angel and Spike for IDW for years and we all really love his writing. Brian’s hilarious script combined with Dave Crosland’s art made for a fun, and funny, take on zombies. TA: Our only Eisner-nominated zombies series is, of course, the book you did with Ash–Zombies vs. Robots. CR: I’d always wanted to do something with Ash but I also thought, here’s a guy doing his own stuff– Popbot and Lore and everything else. He doesn’t need anybody else but I think it was as simple as he told you, “Hey, have Chris write me a book about zombies fighting robots,” and it was the stupidest and also greatest, premise ever. It was a challenge of how do I write a story that’s going to take this ridiculous idea and make it, hopefully, into something that Ash would want to spend his time drawing.
_______________________________________________ Zombies: Eclipse of the Undead art by Jeremy Geddes.
TA: I think that’s what you accomplished. Like you said, when people first hear Zombies vs. Robots their instant response is, “Wow, that’s really stupid,” but what ultimately happened was that Zombies vs. Robots became one of our most critically acclaimed books. Everybody who read it loved it. The first series was nominated for an Eisner Award.
Ash where he was drawing robots and zombies but he loves drawing women, so how do we work that in? All right, let’s give him Amazons–let’s give him the ultimate woman.”
CR: Let’s be honest about it, though–had I written the story for anybody else, it would have probably been pretty stupid. But when Ash Wood takes it on, you can take something like that and really make it into something that I don’t think anybody else could have.
CR: At the end of Zombies vs. Robots vs. Amazons, we introduced mermen so we could take it underwater. We’re planning to do a book called Zombies vs. Robots Adventures where we can tell different sorts of stories set in and around the world.
TA: And what’s the third book in the series going to be called?
TA: No question, Ash definitely raises the bar on everything. And, of course, Zombies vs. Robots led to Zombies vs. Robots vs. Amazons.
TA: Over the years, we’ve had a lot of interest from various Hollywood people who want to try to make it into a movie. I know that that’s something that’s hopefully still in the works.
CR: Yeah, at that point, we’d embraced the ridiculousness of it and thought, “OK, what’s the next thing?” And I thought, “We did a series with
CR: Maybe, by the time people are reading this book, we’ll have made an announcement that a film is in the works. IDW
189