Night Of The Living Dead DVD Retrospective

[JohnIan101]

PART IV: BOOKS - A5 P2b

THREE...

Before we continue with the breakdown of the zombie anthology, "Nights Of The Living Dead", we are taking a hard tangent.

As readers of this forum know (what few of you there are), I had been covering and investigating the lost George A. Romero novel - which was to suppose to finally give the cause. What caused the dead to rise and an expanded vision of the world coming undone?



That novel was "The Living Dead", below was the official press release from the publisher, Headline (United Kingdom)...

[Zombies are] one of the new buzz words in publishing. I think that the world is ready to re-embrace the zombie culture - after the massive amount of vampire novels that have been published, it's time for a change of antagonist. We are very aware that there is going to be an explosion of zombie novels being published over the next year, but we absolutely believe that we have the definitive novel from the one author whom every fan of the genre will want to read. There is no one more qualified to write a zombie novel. You just have to look on the internet and around the world at the enthusiasm with which Romero, and zombies, are greeted, to see that there's a huge amount of potential for these books.

- Headline publisher, Vicki Mellor

The back cover...

In San Diego, an autopsy seems routine until the corpse sits up and begins to walk - after all of his organs have been removed. Suddenly, the rules of this world have been rewritten and the dead now walk the earth. In Atlanta, a reporter covers the epidemic, showing viewers glimpses of increasing chaos from across the globe. Nowhere, it seems, is safe. The captain of an aircraft carrier hopes to save his crew from the disease by remaining at sea, but seemingly within moments zombies are wreaking havoc on the ship. THE LIVING DEAD follows different groups of people as they react to the crisis, working together or, for some, using their limited knowledge of zombies to try to survive. But is survival even possible? Or desirable?

- book description

This happened in Fall of 2009 (man, it's been decade I've been following this) with the book set to be released on July 2010 - then nothing happened. Not going to recap all the research I uncovered in those years. You can read about them here and here.

Learned, publishing rights shifted to Grand Central Publishing in December 2011 with a book date of July 1st, 2012. This also failed to materialize. There was some talk coming from Romero himself on the book topic Within the special features for the DVD release of "George A. Romero's Survival Of The Dead: Two-Disc Ultimate Undead Edition" (2010). Saying it was BS, no such thing.

BUT... at one point Amazon had an entry for Headline, then removed it. This was replaced with a book (same name by Romero) "Unknown Binding", one copy - then going for $74.99. Don't know - sold or pulled.

This drifted into lore - the lost/aborted novel.

Reading the Romero short (anthology), things clicked into focus. The fifth story "John Doe" is in fact an excerpt from "The Living Dead". Both are set at the beginning; in San Diego, CA at an autopsy. The short has no ending, it just closes as the body rises on the coroner's table.

Refueled, I restarted my investigation...

And found it.

We were tricked - the book does exist, but not in the way we imagined. It was rumored that Romero was paid $300,000 in advance to pen the book for Headline.

The news came out on February 14th, 2018 with next to no fanfare.

This novel was never completed. What was sold on Amazon was the uncompleted manuscript ("Unknown Binding"). I do know know if there as a legal battle with Headline who lost or sold the rights to Grand Central Publishing - as in, he would not finish until he knew who had the rights or tried to gain the rights back himself.

OR that he had trouble coming up with a proper finale. Whatever the reason was - he passed and the book was set down...

That is until his manager, Chris Roe and wife, Suzanne Desrocher Romero decided to get it out. For the writer to finish the book, they choose author, Daniel Kraus.

Only half the job I’m doing is finishing this book. The other half is putting George back together, in a sense - not just from reading his every obscure interview and analyzing his every obscure work, but also immersing myself in the art that he loved. I'm studying his favorite movies, watching his favorite operas, listening to his favorite music, all in an attempt to find in them the inspirations he might have found. I’m taking thematic and structural cues from these works and working them into the book. It's not like having George next to me, but it’s what I have, and I’m treasuring every moment of it.

- Kraus

And the final clue that "Joe Doe" is an excerpt - the new official synopsis:

On October 24th, John Doe rises from the dead. Assistant Medical Examiner Luis Acocella and his assistant Charlene Rutkowksi are vivisecting him when it happens, and so begins a global nightmare beyond comprehension.

Greer Morgan is a teenager living in a trailer park, and when the dead begin their assault, the true natures of her neighbors are revealed. Chuck Chaplin is a pretty-boy cable-news anchor, and the plague brings sudden purpose to his empty life.

Karl Nishimura is the helmsman of the U.S.S. Vindicator, a nuclear submarine, and he battles against a complete zombie takeover of his city upon the sea. And meanwhile, a mysterious woman named Etta Hoffmann records the progress of the epidemic from a bunker in D.C., as well as the broken dreams and stubborn hopes of a nation not ready to give up.

Mystery solved.

I WAS right!!! There was a book. Just in an incomplete form.

Another quote:

The state [of the manuscript] varied. Some of it was in tremendous, publish-ready state. Other parts, near of the end of what he wrote, were sketchier, clearly intended to be fleshed out later.

- Kraus

As it stands "The Living Dead" will be released in the Fall of 2019, published by Tor Books. And yes, I will be getting that when it comes out. A future entry for this Retrospective. *nods*

Okay, back to the anthology.

I was right!

- - -

7) "Mercy Kill" by Ryan Brown. This is a period tale told in first person from pages of Marvin Whatley, his experiences written down in an abandoned motel with his girlfriend, Pam. Whatley is a Vietnam vet who got home the day before. Back home to find the dead have risen.

Inside their trailer home, finds who he thought was his girlfriend (body was so mutilated) undead - around town, various people he knew, now like a lifetime ago also zombies. His rage is centered on Assistant Under-Deputy Shane Garrett. He was dumped into county jail by Garrett for allegedly speeding. But wasn't behind bars at all at the station.

As Garrett took him inside the police station - a car came crashing through the south wall, fires and chaos - Whatley escaped and rushed home. But in the mess it took over twenty-four hours to get there, dodging zombies and police. All that mess had taken time from going home to be with his beloved; saving her from the dead. Garrett is person who killed his girl. Whatley is quite confident that he could've saved her.

Garrett hated Marvin since Pam picked him. He was being a prick and this went into high gear when Marvin got drafted and went overseas. He made moves on her and when she didn't accept his advances. Assistant Under-Deputy got physical, beating her. She wrote to him about what had happened. Marvin was going to check on Pam first then go after Garrett, badge or not.

Seeking Garrett for revenge he had found the town's safe zone on the property of the local hustlers, Lenny and Delroy Slocum. Ready to pounce, he hears her voice; Pam had taken shelter there and was looking for Garrett too, demanding to know where Marvin is, she knew he was coming home.

The dead woman in the trailer was her co-worker, Bekcy Lynn from their work, "Cuteicle". At this point, Garrett thought his rival was killed in the car impact. Whatley goes into full rescue mission mode. Get into the compound as it were - save Pam and kill Garrett. Things get complicated with his plan and Pam shoots him thinking he was a zombie (a mercy kill as Marvin was masquerading as a ghoul)... or so it would appear.

She took a gamble that he wasn't really dead - trying to get inside to save her - shot him in the mouth, an open mouth. From a distance it looked like she had given a head shot when she just shot him in the cheek. Once reunited, they plan to escape, but not before justice.

Marvin snuck into Shane's one room home, did some damage and using the deputy's own handcuffs, secure him to his recliner. No bullet - just an open door and some zombie which were tossed out from the flatbed their pickup; racing away as the dead feasted on bastard.

"He was begging me for a mercy kill. I'd run plumb out of mercy."

End in the motel room; Pam sleeping (having a nightmare) and Whatley thinking about what might be waiting for them come dawn, but at least they'll fight whatever that may be - together. It was a solid story.



More? Yes, please. See you back here on December 13th, 2018 as the review continues with a tale set in... space... space... space.