Image Comics’ The Walking Dead from creators Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore has become one of the most definitive representations of zombie mythology in entertainment. However, the Eisner Award-winning comic book series may not have reached the heights of its popularity without George A. Romero’s highly influential Night of the Living Dead film series. Romero’s cult classic films reinvigorated life into the zombie genre for modern moviegoers and introduced a variety of zombies that would continuously advance throughout several films.
Kirkman had other plans in mind for his zombies that would inhabit the world occupied by core character Rick Grimes and the remaining survivors of the human population. These zombies are fairly identical to the titular undead specimens from Romero’s 1968 classic Night of the Living Dead in which they are robbed of their average human intelligence and receive a new goal… to eat the brains of surviving humans. In addition to their lack of intelligence and human emotion, the zombies are quite steady in their movements. Kirkman made sure to pay homage to Romero’s existing films but allowed his series to retain its own identity with future issues. From issue 1 to issue 193, the zombies remained consistent with the direction that Robert had originally laid out and established.
The Walking Dead’s Zombie Never Really Changed (For A Good Reason)
As Romero’s fan-favorite franchise continued to develop with new entries, so did its zombies. Later films in the franchise, beginning with 1978’s Dawn of the Dead, began to give the zombies a renewed sense of intelligence as well as self-recognition. In the letters columns for Kirkman, artist Charlie Adlard, and colorist Dave McCaig’s colorized reprint of The Walking Dead Deluxe #55, Kirkman discusses his decision to keep the zombies of the series in further detail. “I felt evolving or changing our zombies in any way would have veered too close to his hallowed work. So, I dabbled but for the most part… steered clear.” Kirkman even mentions other influential zombie movies such as Edgar Wright’s Shaun of the Dead and Max Brooks’ novel turned-film World War Z, which are responsible for taking the elements that Romero had established and slightly turning them on their head to offer fans something new.
For Robert, borrowing elements of Romero’s signature zombie classic but preventing the zombies from evolving past their own instinctive nature was essential in giving The Walking Dead its own distinct DNA. However, allowing the zombies to evolve past their basic instincts would have been quite an engrossing new obstacle for the series that surely offers some fun conflicts for Rick and his group among the numerous hostile survivors they are forced to contend with on a regular basis.
If The Walking Dead is not allowed to be its own distinct property, then the zombie genre itself would not be allowed to grow and flourish as it rightfully should.
