C2E2 2014: George Romero Evolves Zombies in the Second Act of Empire of the Dead

At the Chicago Comics and Entertainment Expo this weekend, Marvel Comics confirmed that the second phase in filmmakers George A. Romero's zombie comics epic Empire of the Dead will kick off in September. The story, which sees vampires and zombies at odds with the city of New York stuck in the middle, will be drawn by Dalibor Talajic, who is delighted just to be working with the horror legend. "In my zombie films, I've always been at least as interested in what the living do as what the dead are doing," Romero said in an on-site interview for Marvel's website. "We're supposed to be superior to the zombies because we still have heartbeats, but most of the time it's us who mess things up. Faced with any kind of crisis—like, for example, a bunch of slow-moving flesh-eaters—our ability to communicate with each other always seems to break down and we end up fighting over all the usual human problems. Money. Food. Shelter. Power.

"The militia is just one part of that human breakdown," the writer added. "Instead of trying to figure out how to deal with the living dead, how to make the world a safer place, they only want to benefit themselves. And, in case anyone disagrees with their point of view, they've got tanks!" As the human and vampire characters are becoming more base and savage in the face of the zombie apocalypse, though, Romero says that the zombies are evolving -- something we've seen before, in his film Land of the Dead.  "Just because you're dead doesn't mean you stop changing," Romero said. "It's only logical to me that some zombies, the longer they survive, would sooner or later start to remember who they were when they were alive. And those memories could influence their behavior." "Xavier, one of the main zombie characters in Empire, used to be a police officer, and she's begun to remember what that was like," he continued. "How to use a gun. How to protect people. How to stand up for herself and her friends. So, yes, she's changing, and other zombies are, too, because of remembered behavior. Which poses a question or two: If the living dead start to remember who they used to be, will that make more them less of a threat to the living? Or will it make them more dangerous than they've ever been?"