Ascension Of The Blind Dead stalks again! Several years ago I was working with Brian Lueth of Indie Gods Publishing and was really excited to put together a Blind Dead comic book series. If you don't know, these creatures are one of the greatest creations in horror history. Sure, you think I'm kidding or just rambling, but I'm not. Amando de Ossorio used the premise of undead Templar Knights in four very unique (and different!) films...these are zombies that start off as evil bastards and come back from the dead even worse. Your garden variety shambler just devours because it is what they do. This is the VENGEFUL DEAD! You can't go wrong with that...and for more information check out Dan Taylor's excellent Blind Dead article that includes some quotes from your humble Mr. Z and includes some discussion of Ascension Of The Blind Dead.I thought it would be fun to publish a "secret origin" of my first addition to the Blind Dead saga by giving them a Queen to run them around and guide them to Total "mwah hah!" Domination of the world. Sad to say...the chapbook was the only part of the story that was published, and in rather small numbers. But this story has hung around in my head, especially the mwah hah bits that were in the plans. If you want to read the tale...well, here it is!
This particular tale also stuck around because I was particularly pleased to meet an artist by the name of Billy George. The man is a huge talent, be it working with a certain mouse house or working as a designer for Space Time studios. Check out his work at his blog or on his groovy website. Billy and I had chatted those years ago and had bantered around doing a project of an "ahem" adult nature-but real life and real work kept schedules tight to say the least. It was a huge compliment that Billy enjoyed Ascension so much that after all these years the Templars shamble again-and in a way I could NEVER have imagined. It is so much fun to look at the image at the top of the post because it takes my ideas and goes utterly berserk. I love it. So, the Templars ride again and I'm heading back to the notebooks to enjoy the apocalypse!
I hope you are ready... unless you can stop your heartbeat, they can find you!
And as a special bonus... the amazing artwork of Neil Vokes and the original cover art for ASCENSION OF THE BLIND DEAD. The sifu knows his werewolves and Templars!
Don't trade your pistol for a coffin!
-David Z
