Don’t Call Them Zombies: Chatting With `Almost Dead’ Writer Galaxy

Stop if you’ve heard this one before: The main character wakes up after being knocked unconscious for days only to find the world overrun by the nearly dead. No, it’s not the zombie story you’re thinking of. In fact, it isn’t a zombie tale at all, according to Almost Dead’s writer Galaxy. In this interview with Comicon, Galaxy discusses working with artist Ryan Benjamin and why these antagonists are not quite zombies.

Tom Smithyman: With so many zombie stories out there, how do you differentiate Almost Dead?

Galaxy: Well, that’s the thing, we don’t consider our antagonists as zombies. They are not the undead rising. They are almost dead! The virus has taken over their mind, body, etc. and made them vicious and taken away their inhibitions, making them into a monster that wants to kill, eat, destroy. They are alive but… they feel no pain, they are deteriorating, and they are looking “zombie like.“

They can have no limbs and still push forward. When a human loses that part of their humanity, they become a monster. By issue #3, we name them Almost Dead humans. I can’t give a sneak peek to that yet. Don’t want to ruin the story. Ha ha!

Smithyman: Did you consider a different kind of threat beyond zombies or Almost Dead humans?

Galaxy: The story has twists and turns and all sorts of threats. Book #1 is the starting point, it’s the beginning of the journey, it’s just the tip.

But, beyond the almost dead humans there’s many other threats, because when an apocalyptic situation happens like this, of course you have to fear the Almost Dead humans. But it’s the non-infected that you have to be most afraid of, because that’s when the true monster comes out.

Smithyman: There’s a definite Walking Dead vibe going on in the first issue with the main character regaining consciousness and waking up to a world infested with zombies. How did that series influence your creative decisions when writing and illustrating Almost Dead?

Galaxy: Almost Dead is very different. Yes, she is waking up from having an accident at the airport to the world being in this condition, but this is not the first time this has happened. It’s happened throughout history. Many of the prominent historical situations that are in our books are actually edited to hide an outbreak or a near-apocalyptic situation. So you have to keep reading the story and have an open mind to what is going to happen. This is Sara’s journey, and who she meets along the way and so forth.

To answer your question, every series that is apocalyptic in this way may share some similarities because of the situation and so forth. It’s the journey that’s most important.

Smithyman: How did the Covid pandemic factor into your storytelling?

Galaxy: I wrote the story pre-Covid. Actually a few years before, but during Covid is when we started laying down the art. Covid didn’t affect the story. It did affect humanity because we saw that the world from different lens. That it can get upside down really quick and maybe situations like this can really happen. Of course, not exactly like Almost Dead, but you get what I’m saying. It frightens many people, so in a way it should give the story some more possibilities, because shit can happen and it can happen quick.

Smithyman: What are your plans for the series? Is it ongoing or a limited run?

Galaxy: We are on schedule to release eight issues for the first season, and the goal is for the comic book series to go on for as long as readers want to read it and fans love it.

Smithyman: What is the creative process like between two and artist Ryan Benjamin? Is it linear or is there more back and forth?

Galaxy: Well, when I wrote the story, I already created the storyboard, and the ideas of how everything should look like. I am very detail oriented and very meticulous in that process. With any artist that I work with, I give them extreme detail from character bios to character layouts to pictures of actual real-life people that I would like the character to resemble and so forth.

But when me and Ryan got to work, it was smooth. He is a master at what he does, and everything I gave him he took, and he created the art exactly how I wanted. We went back and forth like any project does but very smooth.

Smithyman: If you had to die during the zombie apocalypse, how would you want to go?

Galaxy: First of all, I don’t wanna die during a zombie apocalypse because I don’t want to become a zombie.

But if I had to die during a zombie apocalypse, I would like to die of old age, about 120 years old, with a fortress and everyone that I love around me, plus many many more. And that’s how I would like to go.

Smithyman: Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that! Good luck with the new series.