 Deadworld, the long running independent zombie title that has appeared from Arrow, Caliber, Image, and currently, Desperado Publishing, will have two new projects coming out for the October horror season. Slaughterhouse is a mini-series within the Deadworld saga that showcases the depths of depravity mankind will succumb to in order to combat the growing zombie menance. It features the writing return of Gary Reed after Michael Raicht (Marvel Zombies) handled the Frozen Over story arc. Reed will be joined by rising star, Sami Makkonen, who worked with Elizabeth Genco on the Blue graphic novel as well as stories in various anthologies.
In addition to Slaughterhouse, Desperado is also releasing Deadworld Chronicles which is an anthology graphic novel of all new stories from various creators. Chronicles is intended to be an ongoing series of graphic novels featuring glimpses into the Deadworld.
"There's a lot going on with Deadworld," said Reed. "In addition to the two projects, we have plans with Desperado for a couple of original graphic novels, bring the sold out Requiem for the World graphic novel from Image Comics back in print, a special project featuring original Deadworld artist, Vincent Locke, and we're looking at a way of presenting the original Deadworld series which has been out of print for over a decade."
Other Deadworld projects include the Deadworld role playing game from Seraphjim Guard scheduled for release in 2009 as well as the Deadworld novel. Shocker Toys is also preparing the Deadworld action figure for a 2009 release. "Deadworld has branched out into some areas such as licensed T-shirts, masks, and the CD-Rom that collects the first 46 issues," Reed said, "and we hope to announce soon details regarding the movie option. But I'd rather wait until we had more details." Reed noted that the film situation could be announced shortly.
The Slaughterhouse saga, beginning in October, features a testing facility that searches for a way to defeat the zombie plague. Humans are subjected to tests, often causing death (or undeath) in order to find an answer. Reed said that he has been looking forward to doing this story for awhile and was a national progression for the zombie title. "Deadworld has always been more about the people and how they interact rather than a simple zombie chase and this story allows me to use my science background (Reed teaches college biology) to explore things in this direction. But I always thought it should have a certain art style and when Sami was available, I knew the time was right."
Sami Makkonen was happy to come on board saying, "When Joe Pruett (Desperado Publishing) asked me if I was interested to do a Deadworld story arc I was like yes, VERY interested! I have been a big fan of Romeros zombie movies a long long time and soon as I started to really study realistic illustration style it was always like some day I`m going to do a comic that includes the dead walking. All I did was drawing zombies for couple of years and then some more. So for me this is one dream come true. My approach for the illustration style will be darker when compared to Blue, my last comic project. This is a post apocalyptic world with nearly no hope in sight, so it just has to be. The script Gary has written is a challenging and yet fun to draw: there is a lot cool stuff to do; gas masks, laboratories, piles of bodies and of course the zombies."
Also in October will be an anthology of all new stories under the umbrella title of Deadworld Chronicles, which according to Reed is designed to be an ongoing series of graphic novels of new stories without any firm schedule at this time. Reed writes some of the stories and is joined by Chris Dows, Colin Clayton, Gary Francis, and the original Deadworld writer, Stu Kerr. Artists include Mark Bloodworth, Wayne Reid, Bill Bryan, Steve Beckett, Tomm Gabard, and others. "It's a nice variety of stories set in Deadworld but not in the continuity of the series itself," said editor Joe Pruett.
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