George Romero, the father of the zombie genre, is writing a comic book in which zombies take over New York City.

The series will be entitled Empire of the Dead and have 15 issues. It will debut this coming January.

Romero is setting the new zombie tale in New York City because he “could never afford to shoot [a movie] there,” so setting his comic there is the next best thing, according to USA Today.

Since the work isn’t in Romero’s usual on-screen format, he says, “You can let your imagination run wild and do pretty much anything you want, assuming it's within the bounds of decency."

In Romero’s post-apocalyptic New York, the zombies are going to have an emotional appeal and “show sparks of real care and concern for each other.”

The 73-year-old writer and director became famous from his iconic horror film, Night of the Living Dead in 1968. He later returned to the zombie genre with Dawn of the Dead in 1978, according to his IMDb biography.

Romero’s latest zombie story will be published by Marvel. Marvel’s editor in chief admitted that it’s going to be a huge deal for them.

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