To some, it may seem unusual to find Max Brooks, the author of the very popular novels The Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z at a convention devoted mostly to comic books. But really, it isn’t that hard to understand. Both of Brooks’ books deal with zombies, a very popular creature among comics and pop culture fans.
Recently, Brooks’ novel World War Z was optioned by Paramount Pictures for actor Brad Pitt’s company Plan B to produce. He’s also hard at work writing the graphic novel adaptation of the historical zombie attacks featured in The Zombie Survival Guide — which is being packaged by Avatar Press.
I sat down with Brooks on Saturday to talk about zombies, his love of history, his latest project and why translating his work into a graphic novel was one of the hardest things he’s ever done.
COMICMIX: So Max, you’re a writer of two successful novels. What are you doing at a comic book convention?
MAX BROOKS: I have my first comic book, a graphic novel based on the reported attacks in the Zombie Survival Guide, that I’m doing with Avatar. That’s what I’m doing here at this convention.
CMix: How did you hook up with Avatar Press?
MB: i was stalked by William Christensen, who heads Avatar Press. He cornered me at another show and said he really wanted to work with me and i said "i would really love to work with you, too. Who are you?" But then we talked and he gave me some samples of artists and i really liked what i saw and thought we could work together.
I ended up going with this one artist because i liked his work the most and i thought it looked the most realistic, which was important for me.
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