Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Image, Marvel Comics, Vintage Paper | Tagged: stan lee, walking dead, zombie

Marvel & Stan Lee Published "The Walking Dead" Zombie Comic in 1954

Welcome to "The Walking Dead", written by Stan Lee, from Marvel and featuring zombies - buried corpses rising from the grave - in 1954,

Once upon a time, Marvel Comics offered Robert Kirkman to bring his creator-owned comics to Marvel Comics in return for a lucrative exclusive writing contract on their superhero titles. That would have meant Marvel would have published The Walking Dead. Kirkman declined, stopped working for Marvel altogether, set up his own studio Skybound, became a partner of Image Comics, and is now far more wealthy, powerful, and likely creatively satisfied than he ever would have been if he, like Bendis, had taken the Marvel Comics shilling.

But has Marvel Comics published The Walking Dead anyway, if they've had but realized it? And I don't mean Marvel Zombies that Kirkman did co-create for Marvel on the back of Walking Dead's success at Image Comics. But back in 1954, when they were known as Atlas Comics, Marvel published pre-Code horror comics, such as the anthology series Menace. Which in issue 9 featured a new story, The Walking Dead.

Notably, The Walking Dead featured buried corpses rising from the grave and were known as zombies. Long before Night Of The Living Dead would make such things popular, this was published in the same year as Richard Matheson's novel I Am Legend and long before George Romero, let alone Robert Kirkman, got around to it. But neither I Am Legend nor Night Of The Living Dead used the word "zombie" for such a creature, the undead rising from graves, lurching out into the night to eat the living. This was a word initially used for revived and enslaved dead in the voodoo tradition. Here it is an early use of the word "zombie" in the way we traditionally use it today, in a story written by Stan Lee and drawn by John Forte. The comic has a Gene Colan cover with art from Bill Everett and Joe Maneely, and Heritage Auctions has a copy up for auction in CG 5.0 right now.

Previously, zombies were dead bodies reanimated in Haitian mythology using voodoo, enslaving the resultant creature to the magician who summoned him. This was popularised in horror tropes by George Romero, but he only used the word zombie in his sequel movie, Dawn Of The Dead.

This zombie talks, but in every other way, is very much like the zombie we know today. There are previous examples in comics, but this rotting corpse of a risen zombie is very close to the trope that we all know now. Did… did Stan Lee invent the modern zombie? No more ridiculous than other claims he made over the years.

Menace #9 (Atlas, 1954) CGC VG/FN 5.0 Off-white to white pages. Gene Colan cover. Bill Everett and Joe Maneely art. Overstreet 2022 VG 4.0 value = $580; FN 6.0 value = $870. CGC census 6/23: 2 in 5.0, 18 higher. CGC Grader Notes: Full Center Front Cover Subscription Crease, Spine Readers Crease, Whole Book Small Lite Multiple Stain

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!