I’m not really a big fan of horror movies, so I had no idea that there were two zombie movies released at about the same time in 1985 – both of them related to Romero’s original zombie film Night of the Living Dead. 

The director on the left page is Dan O’Bannon, who wrote Alien and hadn’t had much of an opportunity to direct anything, which is why he took this movie when it was offered. This movie is called The Return of the Living Dead and came to O’Bannon as a result of a third party deal with Romero’s original writing partner John Russo.

Romero’s film, Day of the Dead, has a much cleaner lineage and is an easier to explain sequel to the zombie films that Romero’s directed to date.

On an aesthetic note, this whole interview looks like something that was made in the 80s. In subsequent pages, there’s even a bright pink stripe running diagonally across the spread, which is awful.

(Heavy Metal issue #99, June 1985 – Pages 46&47 Dueling Zombies)