You know, in hindsight, it’s a little surprising that it took us all the way until October 2014 for some enterprising television executive to kick the tires on a show about President Barack Obama and a 10-year-old with cancer battling a menagerie of murderous zombie animals in the Louisiana bayou. Lotta people gotta be kicking themselves today.
From EW:
Animal Planet is developing a scripted live-action zombie animal saga based on the graphic novel The Other Dead.
From IDW publishing, the graphic novel is set in Louisiana during the “next Hurricane Katrina,” and tells the story of an eclectic cast of characters thrown together into a nightmarish world of undead animals and unrelenting storms.
More. Tell me more. I’m talking to you, Other Dead creator Joshua Ortega.
As far as the story goes, a monstrous hurricane — even worse than Katrina — is about to hit southern Louisiana just as the Vice President is killed during an outbreak of a mysterious infection that’s turning all animals into ravenous, cold-blooded killers.
Into this mix is thrown our eclectic cast of characters: Tommy Romero, a 10-year old cancer survivor who’s struggling with his faith and belief in life; Azrael, Tommy’s older brother and a member of the Norwegian-like death metal band, Decapitated; Justina Abelinda Cortez, Az’s girlfriend who’s an exotic dancer and a Puerto Rican bruja/witch; Chet Wayne, a racist ex-Army Ranger who’s been preparing for the apocalypse for years; and Barack Obama — yes, the actual president of the United States — who ends up in the eye of the storm, dealing not only with the hurricane but the zombie animal outbreak as well. [Comic Book Resources]
Yes, but what about the zombie animals?
The other aspect of the cast is the vast array of zombie animals that get increasingly wilder as the comic progresses, like new monsters or bosses appearing on each level of a video game. Ortega teases a zombie manatee in The Other Dead No. 4: “What would be so weird in Louisiana? Oh, a manatee. They’re already kinda ugly and scary, and as a zombie they would be really weird.” [USA Today]
To recap: At some point in the near-ish future, you may be able to watch a cancer-stricken child and a gun-toting fictionalized version of Barack Obama fight a zombie manatee during a hurricane on a channel best known for puppies playing football. The scholars are right. This truly is the Golden Age of Television.
