Last year it was announced that stunt coordinator Matt Birman, who served as second unit director on George A. Romero's LAND OF THE DEAD, DIARY OF THE DEAD, and SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD, was seeking funding for a project called GEORGE A. ROMERO PRESENTS: ROAD OF THE DEAD, a zombie feature he wrote with Romero and intended to direct. We haven't heard much about ROAD OF THE DEAD since then. A month ago, Romero's widow Suzanne Desrocher-Romero mentioned that it's still in the works but she thinks "it's sputtered a little bit."
We'll have to wait and see what happens with the movie project, but one thing we're definitely getting is a comic book prequel to Romero and Birman's script.
Written by Jonathan Maberry and boasting art by Drew Moss, this three-issue prequel is titled Road of the Dead: Highway to Hell and will be published by IDW. The story has
legions of deadheads feasting on the living as a young female scientist holds the secret to a possible cure for the savage pandemic. On the run for her life, famished zombies, looney looters, and ruthless biker gangs hit the road to try and stop this savior, while lovable losers in muscle cars and a hijacked Abrams tank risk everything to save her.
Maberry had this to say about the comic book, which is said to be "over-the-top" and packed with "crack writing and visceral art" as well as "twisted humor":
I was ten years old when I snuck into a movie theater to see the world premiere of Night of the Living Dead. I've spent way too much of my life figuring out how I'd survive the zombie apocalypse — which is something I confessed to George Romero on one of our long, rambling phone conversations while we were editing the Nights of the Living Dead anthology. When the chance came up to dive back into that world for Road of the Dead: Highway To Hell, I jumped at it. I mean, how could I not? This is a bunch of misfit heroes in an Abrams tank against biker gangs, unregulated militia, monster trucks and zombie hordes. I have an absurd amount of fun with this."
The first issue of Road of the Dead: Highway to Hell is set to reach comic book stores tomorrow, November 7th. Syfy Wire got an exclusive 6-page preview of the comic that can be seen HERE.