2T’s 1st stories start in the world established by the Night of the Living Dead. Then we let our imaginations and our zombies run wild. Mostly, our creators are telling new stories starring new characters. But, if you love the classic film, you won’t be disappointed; you can follow your favorite characters from their first appearances, through their dying breaths, to their first baby Zombie steps.
CBM :
Night of the Living Dead was a huge success, it has to be an honor to be apart of this. Can you give us a little background on the two Comics you wrote;
Z-Men and
Rise?
Jeff: Rise follows closest to the original Night of the Living Dead. The two main characters are Johnny and Barbara, the first two people we meet in the film. It follows them from a trajectory and we see what happens to Johnny. He pops up in the beginning of the film. He gets “killed off”, then we don’t see him again until the end as a Zombie. So this kind of fills in the blanks with what happens with him between then and when we see him in the movie.
Z-Men is about two disgraced Secret Service Agents that get sent by Lyndon Johnson to follow the event that takes place right after the Night of the Living Dead. As investigators LBJ wants an unfiltered version of what they see there and that’s what their role is.
CBM: Besides Zombies how are all 10 books connected?
Jeff: They all take place in Evans County PA, which is where the original Night of the Living Dead happened. They are all people that live or were sent there like Z-Men when the event happens. So really it is an expanded view from people we see as extras in Night of the Living Dead. Where they come from, what goes on from there, and also some take place before Night of the Living Dead. This ramps up to what would be in the film.
CBM: The books are all set in different times. Does it matter in what order you read them?
Jeff: No. While some of them take place right before, many of the stories are dealing with the next two days. Rise is dealing with the aftermath of what happened on the Night of the Living Dead at that point. Even by the end of the film, Washington has an idea that something bad has happened there. With Johnny and Barbara, we get into them trying to get out of Evans County. In the beginning of the film they are
there to visit their Fathers grave. So when the dead rise they are trying to get the hell out of there.
CBM:
Night of the Living Dead has a cult following, does that put pressure on you because it does have such a huge fan base?
Jeff: My background is a lot of Indie and self published stuff. When you are making those kinds of comics, you are trying to get people to look. The fact that this has a following makes things a lot easier off the jump. They may love it, they may hate it but there is not much that you can do about that as a writer. It’s nice to have a quantity of people to know about it.
CBM: When creating a new story how do you try and think of something new that hasn’t already been seen with Zombies?
Jeff: Bill Jemas wants to focus on the characters vs. what we call Zombie chatter. Which is when the character is trying to explain how Zombies work and how you have to shoot them in the head. There is so much that the culture already knows about Zombies that we need not retread that. The characters were all blank slates as far as there personalities go, so that was a lot of fun. With Johnny and Barbara being brother and sister, that is a dynamic that is a lot of fun to play with.
CBM: What got you so interested in Zombies? What’s your inspiration?
Jeff: I’ve done a series called FUBAR, which is historical Zombies. I tried the historical aspect and how you frame the Zombie in that particular time period. It was a lot of fun doing Rise and Z-Men to explore Washington’s reactions to the Night of the Living Dead.
CBM: Do you enjoying illustrating or writing more and why?
Jeff: I think of myself as an illustrator. I definitely feel more at home at the drawing board making comics. Writing is a lot of fun because it opens more possibilities. A lot of times when I am doing my own creative stuff I am writing and drawing at the same time. I miss not being able to work with a team of people. When I am writing I get more opportunities to work with a team, which is big.
CBM: Out of all of your works, what is your favorite?
Jeff: So far probably Mother Russia. It was a lot of fun to do a black and white World War 2 zombie story. Mother Russia is the first full story we put out for FUBAR. I wrote it and I drew it, so I would say Mother Russia is my favorite.
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