From Horror Movie To Horror Comic: Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1978)

Posted on January 13, 2025 by bloodlinematt

Welcome back to Rotten Ink and to another “From Horror Movie To Horror Comic” update. This time around we will be taking a look at a Sci-Fi Horror film, Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, from 1978 that was a remake of the classic 1956 film of the same name! This is a truly classic film and was one that I can remember watching when I was a young kid and being freaked out by the Pod People and their weird screams as they pointed at people that were not one of them yet. And while Marvel or DC Comics did not give the film the comic book treatment, the mad geniuses at FotoNovel sure did. This is the third FotoNovel we have covered here on Rotten Ink with the first being Love At First Bite that you can read HERE and the second being Nightwing that you can read HERE. This is one that I have been looking forward to doing as I am fan of this remake and this will be a first time read for me, so if you are ready let’s dive into the world of Invasion Of The Body Snatchers and see what this photo comic novel has in store for us.

Let’s start off by taking a look at The Pod People and their ways of dealing death to humans! The Pods are from outer space and once they get a person in their grip, they clone a version of that said person that acts with the others in a hive mind state of being. They travel from planet to planet as seeds and once on the planet can spread very quickly, as at first they attack the plant life on the planet before moving onto the humans. The Pod People act very strange and not like themselves, they stare and watch the normal people and are gathering in meetings to gain more people into their ranks with plans to take over the world. They chase follow and attack people in groups and they do secret strange business all around under the noses of the normal people. Their odd behavior is very unsettling to people and makes them feel confused, scared and can cause them to make mistakes that can lead to their deaths. The Pod People clone living people and once they go to sleep they do not wake up and the Pod Person will take over their lives, and the Pod Person is a perfect clone besides when it comes to behavior, but even then some have mastered even that. The Pod’s themselves use vines and flower buds to create the clones, and they can grow very quickly and take over the life of the person they appear as. The bodies of both the humans and the failed Pod People are crushed in a garbage truck in order to cover up the invasion. The real versions also cave in on themselves and turn to dust. The Pod People can use such things as guns, knives and other tools to deal death if they choose, and because they have a hive like mind they will also attack in packs. The Pod People also have a shrieking screaming that they will let out that will chill the blood of the people they are after, they also will use this shriek to alert the others to the whereabouts of a normal person. The Pods can also create weird hybrids of animal and human and these oddities cause shock in those who see them. Those who are aware of The Pods and The Pod People are often very paranoid, as they do not know who they can trust as family, friends and strangers could all be out to turn you. The Pods and The Pod People are very dangerous as they spread across the land very fast, but they can be killed like any living thing so being bashed, shot, stabbed, burnt and crushed will do them in. Super deadly and super wide spreading the Pod and the people that come out of them are very dangerous to the survival of mankind.

As you can see, The Pods and The Pod People are very dangerous to humans as they could easily wipe out towns, cities, states on continents very quickly. Now it’s time that we take a look at the film that spawned them, and like always, we will be taking the film’s plot from our friends at IMDB and after that I will write about the film’s production as well as my thoughts about the film. So if you are ready, try and avoid the pods and be aware of the people they spawn, as you don’t want to be apart of this hive mind.

Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1978)

“When strange seeds drift to earth from space, mysterious pods begin to grow and invade San Francisco, replicating the city’s residents one body at a time.”

The 1956 film Invasion Of The Body Snatchers was a huge cult classic as viewers really enjoyed its creepy nature and a fan of that film was director Philip Kaufman who jumped at the chance at directing a remake or reimagining of the film for United Artists in 1978. The film of course was based off the novel “The Body Snatchers” by Jack Finney with W.D. Richter doing this versions screenplay with Robert H. Solo coming in to produce the film that has a modest sized budget. This newer version would take place in San Francisco, California and would be set in the then currant time, and the film would play up on the Horror elements and would bring a very uncomfortable feel to the mood. The film would cast some amazing talent that include Donald Sutherland, Leonard Nimoy, Jeff Goldblum, Veronica Cartwright, Brooke Adams and would have a cameo from Kevin McCarthy the star of the original film as well as it’s director Don Siegel. The film was your normal and yet stressful shoot with Russ Hessey and Dell Rheaume doing the special effects and once done Denny Zeitlin was brought in to score. The film was released in theaters on December 22, 1978 and was a hit at the box office bringing in a total of $24.9 million and was a hit with both viewers and critics (well most of them) and over the years has found even more of a fan base and respect. Like Complex ranked it as one of the best Sci-Fi Horror Films of all time, Rolling Stone Magazine named it as one of the greatest remakes of all time and The Chicago Film Critics Association ranked it # 59 out of 100 for their Scariest Films Of All Time. The film would be released on home media and would find even a bigger audience of new viewers and still to this day is a well respected and loved remake that adds its own spooky touch to an already spooky classic. The film in 1978 was released along side such other Horror and Sci-Fi Films as Halloween, Jaws 2, Mardi Gras Massacre, Toolbox Murders, Patrick, Laserblast, The Curse Of Bigfoot, Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes and IT Lives Again to name a few. If you have not watched the remake of Invasion Of The Body Snatchers make sure to do so as it can easily be found on DVD, Blu-Ray and some streaming sites.

This is a film that I can remember my Dad trying to scare my brother with when we were kids as he acted like the Pod People were real, and as he had my brother and I going of course my Mom made him stop…but what a fun memory that was as he did this right before I seen the film for the first time. I can also remember him telling us that Spock was in the film as we all use to watch reruns of Star Trek. The film had me glued to the screen as I was really drawn into the world it was created and the freaky screaming and pointing that the Pod People did really creeped me out! And I am pretty sure that for weeks after seeing the film my brother and I would mimic the point and yell at each other, and that is one of the best part about this film is the memories like these that I have. When I was a kid I had already seen the original 1956 film and was shocked when in the remake Kevin McCarthy showed up warning people of the Pods, and I always wondered was he playing Dr. Miles Bennell again? And was Donald Sutherland’s character of Matthew Bennell related to Miles and is this film really a sequel and the events of the first film covered up by the government hence why the people were not ready for this invasion…makes you think don’t it. While the film is only PG it still packs some spooky moments into the film and the atmosphere adds for some tense and creepy parts that will surely make you jump. Plus you cannot go wrong with watching a naked Brooke Adams playing a Pod Person shrieking at the site of Donald Sutherland. I feel that this remake often gets over looked when people talk about remakes of Sci-Fi Horror Films as most are so hung up on The Thing directed by John Carpenter being the best, but I feel they over look this one badly as it is a great take on its source material, brings spooky moments with cool special effects and adds its own scares and charm like The Thing did (I also think The Blob remake is great). If you have never seen this version of Invasion Of The Body Snatchers make sure to check it out as it’s a great slow burn that builds to a flame by the end and is one heck of a watch.

So now that we have talked about the 1978 film Invasion Of The Body Snatchers as well as The Pods and the People it creates we should now review the photo comic paperback based around it that was released by those creative minds at FotoNovel. I would like to thank the Etsy seller who had this paperback in stock and made this update possible. I want to also remind you that I grade these comics on a star scale of 1 to 4 and am looking for how well the comics stay to the source material, it’s entertainment value and it’s art and story. So if you are ready, let’s see if this FotoNovel does the film justice.

Invasion Of The Body Snatchers # 1 ***
Released in 1979 Cover Price $2.50 FotoNovel # 1 of 1

In space seeds float across the galaxy on their quest to Earth and they land in San Francisco, California and like a parasite they attach themselves to the plants as a light rain helps them grow into little pods with flowers. Elizabeth Driscoll on her way home picks one of the pods and takes it home, were her boyfriend and dentist Geoffrey Howell watches basketball, and at bed time they talk briefly about the pod as she explains that it is something rare. Meanwhile at a very expensive restaurant health inspector Matthew Bennell who finds rat droppings in the food, and for this he returns to his car to find a worker has busted a cheap wine bottle on his windshield. Before bed he calls Elizabeth to ask her to come to work early in order to look into his finding, she agrees and heads to bed. The next morning her boyfriend Geoffrey is acting very weird, and once at work she tells Matthew about his strange behavior, who wants to be their for his friend. That night Elizabeth returns home and is once more blown off by Geoffrey who goes to a late night “meeting” and she finds herself having dinner with Matthew telling him how different her boyfriend is with him suggesting they meeting his psychiatrist friend Dr. David Kibner. The next day Matthew on his way to work notices strange things as even the old man at the dry cleaners tells him his wife is acting weird. And after trying to call Elizabeth all day she finally shows up at Matthew’s office with tears in her eyes, as the two start driving she tells her friend about watching her boyfriend meet with strangers and just how odd it all ways. While driving a man runs into the front of the car screaming about things coming and watch as he runs away and then be hit by a car. Matthew takes Elizabeth to a bookstore were his friend Dr. David Kibner is doing a meet and great for his newest book, and things are very strange as the police on the phone seem to have no care nor have any information on the man who was just hit for Matthew and Elizabeth watches as a woman is speaking to Dr. Kidner about her husband acting different…and this is what is going on with her and her boyfriend. Later Dr. Kidner talks with Elizabeth and Matthew and tries to smooth it all over and put her mind at ease that nothing is truly wrong. But after Jack Bellicec a friend of Matthew’s and Dr. Kidner arrives to the Mud Bath Spa that he owns with his wife Nancy they find a un-hatched pod person that looks like Jack, things get crazy as the body goes missing and it’s clear that the town is being over taken by these Pod People and Matthew, Elizabeth, Nancy and Jack all stick together to try and get out of the city when they find that they are all in danger with some of them like Jack and Nancy already having clones that are ready to hatch, and they will awaken if the real versions end up going to sleep! And when the Pod People find their hideout they must split up in groups of two to try and survive. And later Matthew finds that Dr. Kidner is a Pod Person and soon Jack as well as Elizabeth becomes one. Matthew finds a warehouse were the Pods are being harvested to be shipped all over the world and does what he can to destroy as many as he can, before having to run away for his life. In the end Matthew shows up to work like normal as everyone keeps looking at him strangely, and when his workday is over he starts his walk home and runs into Nancy who calls him over, but to her horror Matthew has became one of them.

First thing I have to say is that this was such a fun read and did a pretty good job of capturing the mood of the film on the pages. While in my opinion, it’s not as spooky this FotoNovel tried really hard to bring the scares. The one major complaint I do have about it is that at times the dialogue’s color blends in with the backgrounds and makes it hard to read in some panels. The plot is this a group of friends in San Francisco have to come together to survive when they find out that their city is being over ran by space pod created people clones that are hell bent of taking over the Earth one person at a time. The hero of this paperback is Matthew Bennell a health inspector who loves his job, crushes on a chemist he works with and must stay logical, quick witted and strong when he finds out about the aliens coming to kill them all. Matthew also does what he can to survive and will do whatever he can to protect the love of his life. Elizabeth Driscoll is that love of his life a young pretty chemist who is the first to really discover that something is wrong in their city when her boyfriend becomes a soulless shell, she tries what she can to survive and while prone to slow the group down she is very sweet and caring. Jack and Nancy Bellicec are a couple who own a mud bath health spa and who find a pod person in their spa and help Matthew and Elizabeth and are also the ones who get the ball rolling on becoming the target of the Pod People who want these troublemakers cloned and out of the way. The Pod People and The Pods that spawn them are all over the city and are looking to clone people and take over the world, they are creepy soulless, emotionless beings that screech and chase around those who are normal. The Photo Comic Paperback does not bring its scares from blood and gore but brings the Horror with mood and atmosphere. All of the nudity from Elizabeth Driscoll is cut from this FotoNovel as well and in one panel they have a well placed dialogue box to block her breasts. The cover for this FotoNovel is cool but also kind of puzzling as it showcases the cracked car windshield and the crazed face of Kevin McCarthy looking in, plus they added small pictures in the corner of three of the films main characters. The photos used in the paperback are cool, but I do have to say that some are a little blurry and as I said before some of the dialogue is hard to read due to color. Over all this is a really cool photo comic paperback book and if you are a fan of the movie you should check this out. I do also want to stress that Photo Comics are not for everyone as they don’t like that the panels are done with stills and not artwork. Check out the photo panel below to see the style use for this FotoNovel.

I truly think that Invasion Of The Body Snatchers from 1978 is one of the great remakes that was made in the 70’s and 80’s that spooked movie goers, and while I know that FotoNovels and Photo Comics are not for everyone, I still am glad that they are made and gave films like this a chance in the world of comic books. And while this FotoNovel could not capture the full spooky mood and atmosphere of the film it did do its job of delivering a creepy fun read. As you can see, this “From Horror Movie To Horror Comic” update is coming to an end and for the next update we will be taking a look at a short lived Horror Host who aired his show Weird Web Theater on YouTube and his name was Mod Ghoul! So until next time read a Horror Comic or three, watch a Horror Film or two and as always support your local Horror Host! See you next update as you know its always fun to chat about Horror Hosts!

From Horror Movie To Horror Comic: The Fog (2005)

Posted on October 12, 2019 by bloodlinematt

In the 2000’s Hollywood filled the cinema with remakes of iconic Horror Movies of the past. Many of them were not well received and are still very much snubbed by viewers and fans who wonder why they were even made. One of the films remade was The Fog, a classic 1980 spooky ghost flick that was originally made by John Carpenter and Debra Hill, and the weirdest thing about this one is, rumor has it, they wanted it to be remade! And as you guessed this countdown to Halloween and From Horror Movie To Horror Comic update will be all about the 2005 remake of The Fog as well as the Dark Horse Comic prequel based on it! So if you are ready to brave your way into The Fog, I think we should get started on this From Horror Movie To Horror Comic update!

The Fog Ghosts from this 2005 remake are evil spirits who have many ways of killing people, and before we get too deep into this update we need to take a look at their ways of dealing death. The Fog Ghosts come from the sprits of people who were lepers who were sold a patch of land in order to live their lives out, but instead they were tricked and killed by men who robbed them and then killed them all by burning them alive on their ship. And after many years of being dead at sea, the lepers have returned and want revenge on the ancestors of the people who wronged them. The Fog Ghosts travel by sea on their massive ghost ship as well as by turning into a very thick fog that they also do on land in order to stalk and terrify their prey on land. By turning into the fog, the Ghosts are able to get into just about anything from closed doors to inside cars via the vents making them super hard to escape from. The Fog Ghosts’ ways of killing a human are this: they can appear out of nowhere and use objects like knives and such, they can use their powers to explode glass and then use the shards to slash and stab their target. They can spread sickness and cause healthy people to became very ill with leprosy similar to their human lives, not to mention the fact they can melt not only metal but also human flesh causing a person’s skin to melt and rot off their bones! The Fog Ghosts also do not seem to care who they kill or injure as their main goal is revenge and this makes them super dangerous. Another aspect of them is their rotten appearance which, once they get into human form, also terrifies and shock the humans that are to be their victims. Nothing is really known to hurt The Fog Ghosts as they are spirits and things like guns, knives and other weapons have no effect on them. The Fog Ghosts are very powerful and no matter where you run you can’t hide as they will find you!

So as you can see, these Ghosts of the Fog are super deadly and are truly some great movie bad guys…well at least in the original film, they are awesome, and in the remake they are passible. But now that we know about The Fog Ghosts’ killing ways, it’s time now to move onto the remake film that spawned them. The film’s write up, as always, will be taken from our pals at IMDB with the production and my thoughts being written by me. So if you’re brave enough, let’s chat about The Fog from 2005!

The Fog (2005)

“The inhabitants of Antonio Island, off the coast of Oregon, are about to unveil a statue honoring the four men (Castle, Wayne, Williams and Malone) who founded their town in 1871. Nick Castle is one of the descendants of the men, and owns a fishing charter company, using his vessel, the Seagrass, for tourism. When his girlfriend Elizabeth Williams returns to the island after spending six months in New York, a bizarre series of events begin to occur, including several gruesome deaths and the presence of a mysterious fog. When Elizabeth slips in Nick’s boathouse and falls into the sea, she finds an old journal from 1871, written by Patrick Malone, one of the town’s founders. It tells how a man named Blake bought half the island for use as a leper colony. While bringing his people to Antonio Island in their clipper ship, the Elizabeth Dane, Blake is betrayed by Castle, Wayne, Williams and Malone. The four men locked Blake and his people in the vessel, stole their money and possessions.”

The film was made to help cash in on the rise of Horror Films being remade, as many filmgoers were feeling nostalgic for films they grew up watching and the studios thought remakes were better than sequels so they pumped them out. And when John Carpenter and Debra Hill made the mistake of saying they would like to remake The Fog, enter Revolution Studios (Sony) who green-lit the film before a script was even written as they saw the names Carpenter and Hill attached and they wanted to try and cash in on the slight Horror boom. The film was written by Cooper Layne with Rupert Wainwright stepping in to direct and Graeme Revell doing the score. When it came time to cast the film, they brought in Tom Welling who played Nick Castle who was best known for playing Clark Kent in TV Series Smallville and he was joined by Selma Blair, Meggie Grace, DeRay Davis, Kenneth Welsh and Sara Botsford, to name a few. The film shot in Oregon and Canada and actress Selma Blair did her own stunts showing that she is one of the best actresses of my lifetime. The film sadly would also mark one of the last productions that Debra Hill was apart of as she sadly lost her battle with cancer and passed away on March 7, 2005. The film was released on October 14, 2005 as was met with poor reviews from both fans and critics and brought in $29,550,869.00 at the US Box Office for Sony and $16,650,563.00 via Foreign screenings. The film ranked # 92 for the year and beat out other cult films as Doom, Dark Water, Land Of The Dead, Cursed, The Devils Rejects, Wolf Creek, The Cave, Cry Wolf, Alone In The Dark, High Tension, Stay and Venom showing that while hated it did bring in movie goers who wanted to see The Fog Ghosts once more on the big screen. The film also would go onto win the Worst Film award for the Fangoria Chainsaw Awards showing the Horror fans just did not really care for this film and found it not to be scary at all.

The Fog (2005) was one of those films I decided to skip seeing in the cinema and just waited for it to come to DVD as I was very lukewarm on the trailer and I heard terrible things about it from friends. I can remember the day it hit home media, my then girlfriend Jennifer and I headed to Wal-Mart and I bought a copy on DVD, and we made a dinner and a movie at home night out of it. And I can remember the dinner was good as was spending time with Jennifer…the movie we both thought was just okay and nothing special, and I for one did not find it even close to capturing the spooky nature of the original. The film was one that I had only watched once and only for this update did I dust it off and watch again. Even after watching it for a second time, I had the same opinion about it just being okay. The best thing about the film is actress Selma Blair, who played DJ Stevie Wayne as she does a great job with what she is given and as always she is just beautiful on the screen. The other thing that I can praise is the effects of the Fog Ghosts are pretty cool for an early CGI PG-13 Horror Movie, and while in some shots they seem a little off, they still are pretty cool and can deliver some fright to younger viewers. Over all this remake of a classic is unnecessary and adds nothing to the folklore of the characters and only really seems to tame them down. It’s not a terrible movie and not one of the worst remakes, made but it’s up there.

So now that you know about The Ghosts Of The Fog and why & how they kill as well as have chatted about the remake Horror Movie that houses their nightmarish killing spree. Now let’s take a look at this prequel graphic novel that was released by Dark Horse Comics in order to help promote the film. I want to remind you that I grade these comics on a scale of 1 to 4 and am looking for how well the comic stays to the source material, the entertainment value and its art and story. So if you’re ready, let’s find a safe place away from the fog and gather around an old oil lamp and chat about the ghost pirates of The Fog!

The Fog # 1 *1/2
Released in 2005 Cover Price $6.95 Dark Horse # 1 of 1

A thick fog is rolling in and is worrying the poor and the rich, as it seems like a bad omen for those who live on the island. Richard is the town’s richest man, and his brother Francis is a penniless loser who seems to have a nasty infection on his hand that he claims he got by moving a log in the fireplace. Meanwhile the Chinese workers are being paid very little and are being disrespected by the uneducated white farmers around the town. Richard dislikes his brother, as, after his visit, he finds the same raw rash has now appeared on his shoulder. Francis has kidnapped and murdered a Chinese man as he is a man who is sick in the mind and enjoys the pain death brings. Whatever the skin sickness Francis has starts to spread throughout the island infecting everyone, besides the Chinese who have their own worries as they are upset about their missing loved one that has really been murdered, and worse they are the ones who have brought the fog and the sickness as they have been cursed by a Monk and this curse follows them all over! The Chinese set sail to leave the island as the sickness spreads even more, and Richard, the island’s main authority, is slipping into madness over the stress of the illness and his perfect island society crumbling down all around him! In the end the leader of the Chinese workers is killed when the town is at war with themselves over the pain, and with that the curse stays on the island with the locals as the Chinese workers sail away to San Francisco. Richard and Elizabeth along with the rest of the folks on the island have their skin rotten, and they decide that it’s the island that is making them sick and that they will make a new home on another island.

The Fog is a great story that has some great spooky elements, but sadly this comic prequel is just kind of boring and lackluster and lacks any real chills or thrills. The plot of this Horror Comic is about how a group of Chinese workers who have been cursed land on an American island as cheap labor, but soon the curse of the fog catches up to them and the white people of the island become very ill with a plague that is bringing down their normal ways of life and causing them all to have fits of anger and rage plus it’s slowly and painfully killing them all! The graphic novel’s main stars are Richard and his wife Elizabeth, who are the town’s wealthiest citizens and the ones who have the dream of making this island a perfect home for all who live on it! Richard Blake is a man who had it all and now is facing the fact his skin is rotting off his body and everyone around him is also infected. He is also a visionary who wants to create a perfect place to live for not only himself but for all those infected on the island. Elizabeth Blake is a kind woman who tries to keep peace between her husband and his scumbag brother. She as well is sick and fights through the itchy pain of her sickness. There is one ghost in the comic of the Chinese worker who was killed, as he comes back for his revenge as well as to save his one time wife from drowning…or is it he tries to drown her? But the issue’s main bad guy is Francis Blake, who is a real nut who not only enjoys murder but also hurting himself, plus his act of murder is what unleashes the curse on his fellow islanders! This graphic novel downplays the ghosts of the fog and shows more about how fast a cursed sickness spreads and how it affects all the people in a small island town. The Horror element really is lost here, but I should say you do get some blood, gross skin and even a zombie ghost of a murder victim. The cover of this graphic novel is pretty cool and eye catching; the interior art is done by Todd Herman is pretty great and has that Dark Horse Comics charm. Over all this is nothing groundbreaking when it comes to a Horror Comic based on a movie, it did entertain me and the last few pages of the comic are pretty good. I would say skip this one over all unless you are a mega fan of the 2005 remake of The Fog. Check out the artwork below to see the style of Herman.

So while The Fog remake was neither a great movie nor a great graphic novel, it did make its mark on both mediums. I think that the worst thing about this graphic novel is the fact the pacing is so slow and it doesn’t deliver any real horror. But maybe our next update countdown to Halloween will bring the chills and lots more blood as we take a look at Jeepers Creepers and the Dynamite Comics based on the films. So stay out of the fog, watch out for ghost pirates and be ready for more Horror Comics out next update! Until next time, read a Horror Comic or three, watch a Horror Movie or two and as always support your local Horror Host. See you next time for a bloody good time with The Creeper!

From Horror Movie To Horror Comic: Dawn Of The Dead (2004)

Posted on February 21, 2017 by bloodlinematt

Back in 1978, there was no more room in Hell so the dead walked the earth and attacked a group of survivors who were living in a shopping mall…in 2004, it happened again! You see, Hollywood loves to remake classic horror films, and besides Dawn Of The Dead, many other classic series have gotten this treatment like Halloween, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Amityville Horror, Prom Night, A Nightmare On Elm Street, Night Of The Living Dead, The Hills Have Eyes, The Fly, Carrie, Black Christmas, Psycho, Friday The 13^th, Evil Dead, The Wolf Man and my god, so many more showing that instead of making sequels or original horror films they would rather just modernize the classics. But that’s not to say that all remakes are bad. While many are pure garbage like Psycho and A Nightmare On Elm Street, many are good like The Hills Have Eyes and Dawn of the Dead, which is the topic of todays update, another in our From Horror Movie To Horror Comic series. So let’s get ready to shop till we drop and spend our time dodging the undead as we once more hit the mall of the living dead! Are you ready for Dawn Of The Dead 2004 Remake…The Comic!!

In order to move on, we must first come to understand what this film is bringing to the table in the killer/monster department so let’s take a moment to break it down. The film’s main villains are zombies, and in this remake, there is thousands of them in the parking lot of the mall, all who want to eat our heroes and are growing in numbers as the living keep dying. Why the dead are back and eating the living is a hot topic during this outbreak, and many have theories that range from God being upset to a new virus, man made or even nature made. The zombies are fast moving and can run as fast as a normal human with their undead advantage being that they do not get tired and can give chase long after a living person tires out. Besides being fast, they also have in their arsenal of killing the fact they are in large packs and can overwhelm their targets. They will use their teeth and hands to shred and rip flesh, and they can infect living humans and cause them to die painfully and later turn into a undead being for their ever growing army. Also their rotting appearance is something that scares the living and causes them to panic as well as leave themselves open for an attack. The zombies do have weaknesses as they are not very bright and are consumed with the need to feed, making it easy for humans to outsmart them. They can be “killed” again with fire and gunshots to the head. They can also be slowed down when cut in half. But even with their weaknesses, The Zombies are a force to be reckoned with as they will not stop until the world belongs to them and the living are no more.

So as you can see, The Zombies made the lives of the Mall survivors very miserable. Now that you know how they kill, I think we should take a look at the film that spawned this promo comic. Once more the write up will be taken from our pals at IMDB, plus we will look at the stars and makers of the film, and afterward I will share some of my thoughts on this remake film as well as the first time I watched it. So let’s aim for the head and take a moment to break down this 2004 film.

Dawn Of The Dead (2004)

“Ana goes home to her peaceful suburban residence, but she is unpleasantly surprised the morning that follows when her husband is brutally attacked by her zombified neighbor. In the chaos of her once picturesque neighborhood, Ana flees and stumbles upon a police officer named Kenneth, along with more survivors who decide that their best chances of survival would be found in the deserted Crossroads Shopping Mall. When supplies begin running low and other trapped survivors need help, the group comes to the realization that they cannot stay put forever at the Shopping Mall, and devise a plan to escape.”

When I first heard that a remake of Dawn Of The Dead was coming to theaters in 2004, I was in doubt that they could make a modern version of this classic zombie film work and with a then-unknown director named Zack Snyder heading it, I decided not to watch it in the theater as I felt this was just a bad idea and told all my friends that I was not going to be seeing this one and would just wait for DVD. But when I found out the screenplay writer was James Gunn, who was responsible for writing the film “Tromeo And Juliet” for Troma, along with lots of solid actors like Ving Rhames who plays police cop Kenneth Hall, Sarah Polley as Nurse Ana Clark, Mekhi Phifer as soon to be dad Andre, Ty Burrell as Stephen, Jake Weber as good guy Michael, Kim Poirier as the sexy blonde Monica and Lindy Booth as sweet young teenager Nicole, it made me break my grand stand of horror movie remake hate and head to the theaters with friends to watch this film on the silver screen. All of us loved it as did the rest of the movie goers as the theater was somewhat packed! The film had a nice mix of horror, action, drama and comedy, and all the actors nailed their parts. The score by Tyler Bates was moody and fitting. The best part was that this film didn’t try to be the original and added its own touch to the survivors in a mall during a zombie outbreak. This is what made this movie shine as each character was their own person and had their own personalities with none borrowing from the 1978’s base characters. The zombies were treated as being scary, and they even have a baby zombie showing that this film was sticking to twisted and scary, meaning no pie fights between bikers and the undead. When the film was released on DVD, I ended up buying it and still to this day alongside a small amount of other remakes will praise it and say this is how a remake is done right. The film when released was # 51 at the US box office brining in a total of $59,020,957.00 on a $26 million dollar budget. In 2004, Dawn of The Dead was joined by other horror films like “Saw”, “Seed of Chucky”, “Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed”, “Secret Window”, “Shaun of The Dead”, “Tremors 4: The Legend Begins” and “The Card Player” to name a few showing that fans had lots of great stuff to chill their bones that year. While not as good as the original, this remake packs a bite and helped spark the rebirth of the zombie doom that is still going strong till this day.

Along with the film’ release, in 2004 the Atari 2600 Homebrew game makers decided that the world needed a game based on this remake film, a game that has you driving a vehicle and fighting off zombies and collecting gas to keep your escape dream alive. The game is just a hack of “Worm War I” and can be found as a rom on the net as well as put on a Atari cart, which is how I own the game! While fun for a short while, it does get repetitive and like all Atari 2600 games it has simple game play and cheesy graphics. So if you like old school video games, this is one you might want to check out if you enjoy your games based on Horror Films.

The 2004 version of Dawn Of The Dead was a perfect film to make into a comic book, and around the time of this film’s release IDW put out a comic adaptation mini series based on the original 1978 film. So I am sure you’re wondering why the newer movie only got a promo comic given away free in the DVD release, right? Well around this time MiG.Biz was working on a magazine size adaptation of this film and this promo comic was just a small part of the over all bigger release that sadly never saw the light of day as it appears they went out of business before it could make it to comic shop shelves. It’s a shame as I would have loved to cover the whole comic for this update and not just the promo, but it was just not meant to be. I want to thank Game Swap Kettering for not only having this comic in stock but also for alerting me to the fact this comic was even made. So let’s enter the mall and see how this batch of survivors deals with the zombie apocalypse, but before I do I can hear this on the overhead speakers: “I grade this issue on a star scale of 1 to 4 and am looking for how well the comic stays to the source material, its entertainment value and its art and story.” Now they are playing Richard Cheese covering Disturbed so I think it’s time to enter the mall!

Dawn Of The Dead **
Released in 2004 Cover Price $0.00 Mig Biz # 1 of 1

At St. George Hospital things are getting odd as a man with a bite on his arm from a bar fight is now at death’s door, and poor nurse Ana is already an hour late leaving work before she can go home to her husband Luis. Once home and spending date night together, Vivian, the young girl from the neighborhood shows up in their house dead, and as a zombie she bites and infects Luis who is now hungry for flesh. Ana knowing something is wrong tries to call 911 only to find the line down and decides to jump in her car to get her man help. But while driving she crashes and wakes up to find a police man holding a shotgun to her face. Once he figures out she is alive, the pair run into three more survivors who warn them that the road up ahead is littered with zombies and a decision is made to make it to the nearby mall, and so ends this promo comic adventure.

This promo comic is just the adaptation of the film’s opening and is done with black and white art that cuts out much of the openings gore and blood. Yes you heard me right the comic is very light on the red stuff as the whole scene of the zombies attacking the neighborhood is gone as is the scene of zombie Luis attacking Ana who has to hide in the bathroom to escape his chopping teeth! Those two scenes are very iconic for the movie and for some reason MiG.Biz decided that they didn’t need to be added to this promo comic. The comics story is this Ana is a nurse who after a long shift at work goes home for date night with her husband who in the morning is bitten by a little zombie girl and is turned into a flesh eater himself! While getting away she has a car wreck that leads her to joining a small group of survivors that have a plan to hide out in a near by mall. They throw in some news broadcast pages and you have this very basic and not scary promo comic. Ana is a character who clearly is a hard worker as she stays after work to be helpful as well as a loving wife as she clearly loves her man. Luis seems like a man who is in love with his wife and just enjoys being who he is, but as a zombie he is filled with rage and hunger and clearly wants to eat his wife alive! Vivian is a young girl who likes to roller skate around the block and clearly is liked by the Clarks, but once turned into a zombie she don’t care about friendship as she wants bloody flesh! The Police Cop and the other survivors we don’t get to know much about but we do know they want to live and have seen some terrible stuff while trying to do so. The downside to this comic is the fact we only see two zombies, one bite attack, the characters don’t get to flushed out and we really don’t get to the meat of the story as this seems just like we get a nibble on the free bread at the table. I have a feeling or at least I would hope that the full comic would have had some amazing zombie attacks complete with blood and guts, as this teaser was pretty tame and was very weak on the red stuff. But while this comic does have flaws I would say it was enjoyable and the art done by Miguel A. Insignares is pretty great stuff and holds a 2000’s zombie comic appeal. The cover for this issue is a little lame and has a zombie in shadow on a white background, pretty bland and for some reason reminds me of Image Comics from the 90’s. Over all this review was longer than the comic and it’s a shame that the full comic was never released as I would have loved to seen the comic version of actress Kim Poirier and seen how they would have handled the rest of the movies gore moments and key scenes. Check out the artwork below to see the style of Miguel’s.

So once again we have made it out of the mall and are safe from the dead. While this promo comic might not have been amazing and a must read for horror comic fans, I will say I am glad I found out about it cause it made for a great From Horror Movie To Horror Comic update. For our next update, we are walking away from the world of horror and into the world of Archie Comics, and we will be taking a look at a NES Game turned comic with “The Adventures Of Bayou Billy”! So until we meet again, avoid being eaten by a zombie, watch a horror movie or two, read a horror comic or three and as always support your local Horror Host! See you in the bayou readers and friends!