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    A Tribute Anthology to Deadworld and Comic Publisher Gary Reed
    A Tribute Anthology to Deadworld and Comic Publisher Gary Reed
    A Tribute Anthology to Deadworld and Comic Publisher Gary Reed
    Ebook137 pages1 hour

    A Tribute Anthology to Deadworld and Comic Publisher Gary Reed

    By Lori Perkins

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    About this ebook

    Welcome to Deadworld!

    In this tribute anthology to Deadworld, and its publisher Gary Reed, we’ve collected stories that take place in the Deadworld universe.

    Deadworld is a graphic novel series that started in 1986 (and continues till this day) that follows survivors in a post-apocalyptic world brought on by zombie attacks led by the King Zombie, an intelligent zombie. The Deadworld universe has so much more to offer than just humans slaughtering zombies.

    A Tribute to Deadworld features stories and articles by Kevin VanHook, Thomas Monteleone, Jason Henderson, Andrew Robertson, Jennifer Williams, Ken Haigh, Sarah Stegall, Jamie K. Schmidt, George Ivanoff and Jeremy Wagner.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRiverdale Avenue Books
    Release dateOct 31, 2017
    ISBN9781626014152
    A Tribute Anthology to Deadworld and Comic Publisher Gary Reed

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      Book preview

      A Tribute Anthology to Deadworld and Comic Publisher Gary Reed - Lori Perkins

      A Tribute Anthology to Deadworld and Comic Publisher Gary Reed© 2017 edited by Lori Perkins

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes:

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without permission in writing from the publisher.

      This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

      For more information contact:

      Riverdale Avenue Books

      5676 Riverdale Avenue

      Riverdale, NY 10471

      www.riverdaleavebooks.com

      Design by www.formatting4U.com

      Cover by Scott Carpenter, artwork used with permission

      Cover art and Deadworld licensing used with permission from Caliber Entertainment LLC and the estate of Gary Reed

      Digital ISBN: 978-1-62601-415-2

      Print ISBN: 978-1-62601-414-5

      First Edition October 2017

      Table of Contents

      Introduction by Lori Perkins

      Remembering Gary Reed by Kevin VanHook

      Foreword by Thomas Monteleone

      The Guitar Girl by Jason Henderson

      Small Town Gay Bar by Andrew Robertson

      The Girl by Jennifer Williams

      Home on the Range by Ken Haigh

      Rearguard by Sarah Stegall

      Gonna Get Close to You by Jamie K. Schmidt

      Another Man’s Skin by George Ivanoff

      Pit Stop by Jeremy Wagner

      Introduction

      I know, you’re thinking, do we really need another book of zombie tales? But Deadworld is an important piece of American zombie history.

      Deadworld is a graphic novel series that started in 1986 (and continues to this day) that follows survivors in a post-apocalyptic world brought on by a zombie outbreak and subsequent attacks led by the King Zombie, an intelligent zombie who may have other supernatural powers. The Deadworld universe has so much more than just humans slaughtering zombies.

      I remembered the Deadworld graphic novels from my youth—their wild, frenetic zombie art bursting from the pages in my local comic store in the midst of another attempt to resurrect the Marvel and DC superheroes. They were gory and splatter-filled and so very much of their time, yet the Deadworld universe managed to re-invent itself and keep pace with cultural changes in each incarnation over the years (which is why you’ll find stories set in the 80’s post-apocalyptic wasteland devoid of cell phones to an zombie outbreak that feels like it happened just last week.) So, I was thrilled when Riverdale Avenue Books was able to pair up with Gary Reed, the creative mind behind the resurrection and re-animation of this classic zombie comic book series.

      As the zombie queen that I have become since editing the first zombie romance anthology in 2008 (Hungry for Your Love, St. Martin’s Press), I knew the history.

      I wanted to make sure this new generation of rabid zombie-lovers watching their televised gore every Sunday night knew that before The Walking Dead (TWD), iZombie or Z Nation, Deadworld pioneered the way for serialized zombie apocalypse fiction. Before sword-wielding heroines and post-apocalyptic psychos with knives for hands became old hat, they thrilled the readers of Deadworld back in the 80’s.

      Just as we all know there would be no TWD without Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, I believe there would be no TWD without Deadworld. Deadworld is the missing link between Romero’s Night of the Living Dead and the shows of our current zombie renaissance.

      Each of these zombie universes reflect their creators—there’s that old writer’s adage write what you know. George Romero set his zombies in his hometown of Pittsburgh; Gary Reed’s Deadworld reeks of urban Michigan, and Robert Kirkman’s Walking Dead is so southern that it’s no surprise to anyone that he grew up in Kentucky.

      I was really looking forward to collaborating on this anthology with Gary Reed, but unfortunately Gary passed away suddenly in the midst of the project. He had loved the idea of seeing the Deadworld universe and characters expanded into prose, and I had promised him that I would bring him my zombie-loving writers, so we have come together in this venture to celebrate this next generation of zombie tales featuring stories as wild and eclectic as those in the comic book series that inspired them. You’ll find gay zombies, assassin ghouls, small town revenants and big city undead, all bursting through these pages on the heels of the Zombie King.

      Lori Perkins

      October, 2017

      Remembering Gary Reed

      By Kevin VanHook

      Gary Reed began his publishing company Caliber Press in an era where two large comic book companies dominated the marketplace to the exclusion of almost everyone else. There were a handful of small independent publishers, but they didn’t have a huge output. Image Comics, Valiant, Malibu (in the sense of the shared Universe of comics) and many other players who came around in the 1990’s were still yet to come. Dark Horse had some success, but most of the 1980’s companies were already gone. First, Pacific and Eclipse were all pretty much out of the business. Now and Comico would be gone shortly thereafter. Innovation was having some luck with licensed properties and Dark Horse was doing well enough with a mix of licensed material and original content.

      It was that Dark Horse model that Gary found himself emulating—consciously or not. He published Caliber Presents, which was an anthology title that allowed creators to showcase their ideas in short form or give a taste of a coming series. He also published The Realm and Deadworld, two titles he took over from Arrow Comics—another Michigan-based publishing house. James O’Barr’s The Crow was an early title for Gary and a popular one. Gary wrote the Fan Favorite Baker Street with artist Guy Davis and wrote lots of other stories, sometimes under a pseudonym.

      There was a perfect storm of talent in the Detroit area that Caliber was able to tap into. Vince Locke, James O’ Barr, Guy Davis, Mark Bloodworth and others were local and all had strong creative voices with stories they were interested in telling. Gary was smart enough to let them do just that. He didn’t stop at the local people though. He brought in dozens—possibly hundreds—of creators and showcased their work in the pages of books that he published. I was lucky enough to be one of them and to work with Gary directly on a day-to-day basis in the office as a Production Manager when I joined him about a year into his adventures in publishing.

      The Caliber ranks read like a Who’s Who of Comics for the coming decades.

      Jim Calafiore, Mike Allred, Philip Hester, Paul Tobin, Ed Brubaker, Patrick Zircher, David Mack, Stuart Immonen, and so many others did Caliber titles and with one over-arching reason; creative Freedom. For me, more than any other aspect of the man or the company, Gary’s willingness to just get out of the creators’ way and let them tell the stories they wanted to tell was the thing that made his company unique—there were no editorial edicts, no continuity to adhere to, no house style. From the zany to the macabre, to the surreal and just plain strange, Caliber published it all. A lover of history and art, Gary created Tome Press, a unique imprint to handle the more literary works that he wanted to adapt into comics. Where else could you see a comic book retelling of El Cid?

      Gary’s impact was also felt on the people inside the company who worked behind the scenes. Nathan Pride, Joe Pruett, Chester Jacques—people who shared Gary’s passion for comics and good storytelling—their lives were all changed by knowing and working with him.

      Gary’s efforts extended into the comic book convention arena as well, with extensive work running conventions in Detroit over the years. He spent time as the head of McFarlane Toys and working with his old friend Paul Burke from Stabur Graphics.

      The impact of Gary’s work on Deadworld with collaborator Vince Locke can’t be understated. Began by Stuart Kerr and Ralph Griffith along with Vince, Gary took over writing and publishing efforts and helped to build an audience for this post-apocalyptic zombie comic book—a comic that pre-dated the popular Walking Dead by more than a decade.

      Before Gary passed away in October of 2016, he had begun efforts to merchandise Deadworld Zombie Soda—something that has found success across the country.

      Gary had a lot of stories left to tell and a beautiful family that he left all too soon.

      If he were reading this right now, he’d probably tell me that it was OK, but it was a little too talky. Definitely too mushy.

      I’ll stop now before I agree with him, just adding that he was my mentor and my employer, my publisher and my friend.

      And I miss him.

      Kevin VanHook

      Los Angeles, California

      October, 2017

      Well, They’re Dead-ish…

      By Thomas F. Monteleone

      To get properly started, I’m going to need you to step along with me into the WayBack Machine. I’m rotating the

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