THE END: Zombies, epics, final novels, and the last issue of The Last Zombie

THE LAST ZOMBIE: THE END #5 is on sale in comic shops today. If your local store doesn’t carry it, buy it here!

Last issue! The final chapter reaches its horrific conclusion as the surviving team members at long last reach their destination, only to face threats from within and without their ranks. The fate of Ian’s fiancée and the bunker staff is finally revealed, but will Ian live long enough to find them?

Two of the questions I am asked most often are “When are you going to write about zombies again?” and “When are you going to write a really long epic-length novel?” Well, I just did. Several years and twenty-five issues later, THE LAST ZOMBIE is definitely the longest thing I’ve ever written. It is also my final word on zombies — the one remaining new thing I could think to do with them after nearly twenty years of making a living thinking of new things to do with them.

While we never exactly set the sales charts on fire (occasionally placing low in Diamond’s Top 300) critics loved the series, and it certainly garnered an enthusiastic readership. My sincere thanks to both of those groups for your support. Thanks, as well, to everyone at Antarctic Press and the artists who’ve worked on the book.

I’ll be taking a break from comics for a bit. As reported elsewhere, I was supposed to take part in several projects for DC Comics next year, but when it became clear to me that I would not be a good fit with DC’s current editorial team, I walked away before any of the series were announced. (Since I was paid a kill fee, professional decorum requires that I say no more, so please don’t ask). That, and the fact that time seems to be speeding up in my mid-40s, have convinced me that I should focus instead on finishing up this last group of novels — The Lost Level, Hole In The World, With Teeth, Suburban Gothic, Invisible Monsters, Bad Ground, and the Labyrinth series (tentatively titled The Seven, Submerged, Scattered, Ob Rules, and Dying of the Light). Once those are finished, or nearing completion, and I have time to focus my energies elsewhere again, I’ll stick my head back in comics and see how things look. That’s the plan right now, at any rate.

Again, thanks to all of you who’ve supported The Last Zombie. And while the series may be over, the story hasn’t ended. We saw Frankie (from The Rising and City of the Dead) crossover into The Last Zombie, so it’s reasonable to expect that you’ll see some of The Last Zombie’s characters appear elsewhere.

In fact, I can guarantee you that Planters has a pretty big part to play in at least one of the novels mentioned above…