As each a long-running comedian and a beloved TV establishment, The Strolling Lifeless stays the definitive phrase in immediately’s zombie fiction. Creator Robert Kirkman (alongside authentic artist Tony Moore, and collection artist Charlie Adlard) labored on each the unique comedian and its adaptation, and hasn’t been shy in sharing his ideas on zombie fiction, heaping reward on the work of George A. Romero. Edgar Wright’s beloved zom-com Shaun of the Lifeless – starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost – is a very completely different tackle the style than Kirkman’s huge, character-driven drama, and followers would possibly count on Kirkman to dismiss its place within the undead canon.
Nonetheless, they couldn’t be extra mistaken. In The Strolling Lifeless Deluxe #69 (at the moment remastering the unique collection with Dave McCaig’s colours and behind the scenes commentary), Kirkman shares his solutions to fan letters, together with one asking what he thinks about Zombieland. Kirkman says he loved the comedic film, however that it didn’t maintain a candle to Shaun of the Lifeless. Kirkman says:
Whereas Shaun of the Lifeless is beloved by horror and comedy followers alike, it would shock many to see Kirkman rank it alongside the oeuvre of George A. Romero. Romero primarily launched the fashionable popular culture obsession with zombies in his 1968 film Night time of the Residing Lifeless, and has continued to evolve the undead within the years since. Certainly, Kirkman has admitted that The Strolling Lifeless is constructed on the shoulders of Romero’s work, and is outlined by happening in a world the place Night time of the Residing Lifeless was by no means made – therefore why the survivors don’t acknowledge zombies after they see them. Kirkman has additionally made artistic selections to distance his world from Romero’s work – within the comics, Strolling Lifeless‘s zombies by no means evolve from their shambling state, particularly as a result of Romero had already accomplished it.
Because the creator behind Invincible, Die! Die! Die! and Thief of Thieves, it’s not shock that Kirkman would recognize Shaun of the Lifeless as a masterpiece, however many horror aficionados shall be offended to see a ‘horror parody’ ranked alongside Romero. Nonetheless, The Strolling Lifeless has lots in widespread with Wright’s film: a give attention to the small image of human survival, a zombie plague that’s by no means defined (as a result of the trigger is inappropriate), and an undead apocalypse that’s resolved by the top of the story (albeit on very completely different time scales.)
Whereas The Strolling Lifeless isn’t recognized for its humor, it’s not exhausting to see that – with its appreciation of on a regular basis emotional life and deep reverence for previous zombie fiction – it shares some DNA with Shaun of the Lifeless, making it significantly satisfying that Kirkman is keen to point out a lot like to a movie that’s in many individuals’s Prime Ten of all time.