Deadworld is an ongoing American comic book published by Desperado Publishing in association with IDW Publishing.
The series follows survivors in a post-apocalyptic scenario brought on by zombie attacks. Led by King Zombie, Deadworld brings forth a different slant than just humans slaughtering zombies.
Publication history
Originally published by Arrow Comics, Deadworld was written and created by Stuart Kerr and Ralph Griffith in 1987, scripted by Kerr for the first seven issues and illustrated by Vince Locke. The comic book quickly became a cult favorite success in the independent publisher industry.
Arrow Comics ceased production of all titles, but sold the rights of the title to Locke who transferred the rights to Gary Reed's Caliber Comics. By the twelfth issue of the title, Reed took over as the primary writer. The first volume of Deadworld ended in 1992 after twenty-six issues. One year later, a second volume began. The second volume ended after fifteen issues.
After a lull in its printing, the series returned to print in 2005 through Image Comics, with Gary Reed and Locke working on the series. By issue number 3, Dalibor Talajic took over illustration duties and completed the story arc of Requiem to the World. Following that, Image released Deadworld: Frozen Over with guest writer Michael Raicht and artist Federico Dallocchio. Deadworld: Bits and Pieces collected the short stories and scenes from various issues and was released through Transfuzion Publishing. Desperado released Deadworld Chronicles which featured all new short illustrated tales of Deadworld. Deadworld: Slaughterhouse was released in 2010 with artwork from Sami Makkonen in a hardcover edition only. IDW released volumes one and two of Deadworld Classics which collects the long out-of-print first original 16 issues illustrated by Vince Locke. Gary Reed joined up with Gary Francis for original graphic novel, Deadworld: The Last Siesta, illustrated by Mark Bloodworth and released through IDW (ISBN 1613770448).
In 2012, Gary Reed teamed up again with Sami Makkonen to bring Deadworld into full color for the first time. The five issue series, "War of the Dead" was released by IDW as a weekly comic series during the month of August and then collected in October (ISBN 978-1613775080). It received a number of award nominations including the Shel Dorf for Best mini-series and Comic Monsters.com for Best Mini-Series and won the Ghastly Award for honoring excellence in horror comics as Best Mini-Series.
In October, 2012, Reed released a special graphic novel sized book called "Voices from the Deadworld". This was a series of single page tales from those who lived and died in Deadworld with each text page accompanied by an original illustration from over 40 various artists.
Also in 2012, Reed licensed Deadworld to PopFunk for t-shirts and to Breygent Marketing for a collector card series. IDW also released the "Deadworld Omnibus" which collected the Image series' "Requiem for the World" and "Frozen Over" plus the "Slaughterhouse" saga from Desperado. (ISBN 978-1600108587).
The most recent series was Deadworld: Restoration, the full color follow up mini-series to War of the Dead, also from IDW which debuted in December, 2013 with the final issue shipping in April 2014.
Issues
Ongoing series
The ongoing series are:
Deadworld vol. 1
- #1-9 (Arrow)
- #10-26 (Caliber)
Deadworld vol. 2
- #1-15 (Caliber)
Limited series
From Caliber:
- King Zombie #1-2
- To Kill a King #1-3
- Realm of the Dead #1-3
- Tattoo #1-4
- Deadworld Archives #1-3 (reprints first three Arrow issues)
From Image
- Deadworld vol. 3 #1-6 (2005)
- Deadworld Frozen Over
From Desperado
- Deadworld Slaughterhouse OGN
From IDW
- War of the Dead #1-5
- Restoration #1-5
One shots
One shots include:
- Deadworld: Daemonstorm
- Dead Tales: collection of back up story
- Dead Killer: collection of back up story
- Deadworld: Necropolis
- Deadworld: Plague
- Roadkill: A Chronicle of the Deadworld
- Dire Wolves: A Chronicle of the Deadworld
- Deadworld: Bits & Pieces: comic collection of short stories
- Deadworld Chronicles: All new tales of Deadworld
- Deadworld: Voices from the Deadworld: A narrative.
Contributors
vol. 1
- Mark Bloodworth
- Paul Daly
- Dan Day
- Jack Herman
- Phil Hester
- Stuart Kerr
- Vince Locke
- Ron McCain
- James O'Barr
- Scott Parish
- Gary Reed
- Mark Winfrey
vol. 2
- Chris Morea
- Troy Nixey
- Gary Reed
- Galen Showman
- Chris Torres
2005 to present
- Mark Bloodworth
- Federico Dallocchio
- Vince Locke
- Sami Makkonen
- Mike Raicht
- Gary Reed
- Dalibor Talajic
Collected editions
The series has been collected into a number of trade paperbacks:
- Deadworld Book One (WeeBee did first print, Caliber did 2nd and 3rd printings)
- Deadworld Book Two (Caliber)
- The Killer & The King (Caliber) Reprinted as The Dead Killer (Image)
- Realm Of The Dead (Caliber)
- Deadworld: Requiem for the World (Image)ISBN 1582407177
- Bits and Pieces: trade collection of shorts and scenes (Transfuzion)
- Deadworld Chronicles: All New stories (Desperado)
- Deadworld Classic:
- Volume 1 (collects Deadworld #1-8, 288 pages, IDW, August 2010, ISBN 1-60010-817-2)
- Volume 2 (collects Deadworld #9-18, 272 pages, IDW, July 2011, ISBN 1-60010-925-X)
- Deadworld Omnibus: Volume 1 (reprints Frozen Over, Slaughterhouse and Deadworld vol. 3 352 pages, January 2011, IDW, ISBN 1-60010-858-X)
- Deadworld: War of the Dead ISBN 978-1613775080
- Deadworld: Restoration Shipping in June 2014. ISBN 978-1613779743
Deadworld CD-ROM collection library
Eagle One Media collected and released the first 46 issues of the original Deadworld comic book series along with two mini-series onto CD-ROM. Each page from the issues are scanned and viewable on one's PC in protected (non-extractable) PDF format.
Film
In June, 2009, it was announced that Deadworld was to be turned into a film. Dark Hero Studios partners David Hayter and Benedict Carver have teamed up with Bill Mechanic to turn the comicbook into a zombie feature franchise. In 2013, Gary Reed announced that the option had expired and he did not renew it.
References
External links
- Official website
- Eagle One Media