Witter Entertainment and Broke Horror Fan this week will open up presale bundles for the first of its new line of “Gory Books,” adaptations of classic horror properties into a format that resembles children’s picture books in style and format. The first such adaptation will be their take on George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, the 1968 film that reinvented the “zombie” horror genre and essentially created the genre as we know it today, removing elements of voodoo and mysticism in favor of dead souls who rise from the grave in various states of decomposition to consume human flesh and/or brains. Witter has provided ComicBook.com with an exclusive first look at some covers and pages from the title.
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The main cover is by Will Perkins (Dark Horse Books’ Gregory Suicide), who also illustrates the interior, with two variant covers by Giles Crawford and ibTrav artworks (Travis Falligant, known for his Disney-characters-gone-horror pieces as well ashis Horror Babies lineup). You can see the trio below.
Additionally, they’ve provided us with a couple of interior pages from Perkins that give more of a sense for how Night of the Living Dead — and Gory Books more generally — will present to the reader.
Per its official solicitation in Previews, the series (created in association with 215 Ink) will “explore the foundations of fright through poetic prose and intriguing illustrations inspired by the children’s classics of yesteryear.
“In this children’s book-style take on George A. Romero’s classic horror film, a group of strangers barricade themselves in an old farmhouse to ward off an encroaching plague of flesh-eating zombies. Featuring charming illustrations by Will Perkins and hypnotizing prose by Mike D. Perkins, Night of the Living Dead is the debut installment in the Gory Books series.”
You can see the preview pages here:
Romero’s Night of the Living Dead may be a masterpiece — but it was a masterpiece that was never properly copyrighted at the time, making it one of the most frequently riffed on, spun off, and adapted works in all of the American horror canon. Comics done both with and without Romero’s involvement, as well as movies and other properties that used “the Living Dead” with and withotu Romero’s consent, have been part of the cultural landscape since just after the movie exploded onto the scene more than 50 years ago.
Gory Books’s Night of the Living Dead is due in comic shops on December 23. The Diamond Comics Distributors pre-order code for Will Perkins’s standard edition cover is: OCT201621, Variant #1 Cover by Giles Crawford is OCT201622, and Variant #2 Cover by ibTrav artworks (Travis Falligant) is OCT201623 and is available for ordering to local comic shops. You can also check out WitterEntertainment.com, where the books and upcoming bundles will go live for preorder this Friday, October 9, at noon ET/9 a.m. PT.
