Eisner Award-nominated creators Tate Brombal (House of Slaughter) and Jacob Phillips (That Texas Blood) team up for an all-new horror/western genre-bender in the upcoming Everything Dead & Dying. This five-issue miniseries, described as The Last of Us meets Yellowstone, is set to launch in September from Image Comics in collaboration with Tiny Onion.
Everything Dead & Dying follows Jack Chandler, the sole survivor of the zombie apocalypse, hunkered down in his rural farming community. But rather than eliminate them, Jack has chosen to continue living alongside the undead, including the husband and adopted daughter he fought so hard to have. But when his town is discovered by outsiders, Jack suddenly becomes the one thing standing in the way of those who hope to kill his family for good.
“Everything Dead & Dying has been in my brain marinating and rotting since the summer of 2020; now, five years later, it is finally emerging in all of its undead glory,” said Brombal. “I had never read a zombie story like this, so I pushed up my sleeves and decided to write it myself. I’m so excited to be working with my good friend, Jacob Phillips, who has never been better, and I’m incredibly proud that this story will be published by Image Comics—the publisher that revitalized zombie stories for an entire generation. This comic is an ode to everything that came before—and everything that refuses to die.”
In honor of the upcoming release, we have an exclusive look (and commentary) at the comic-making process for the first few pages of Everything Dead & Dying. From script to final page, get a peek behind the curtain at what it takes to craft a comic.
SCRIPTS
It all starts with the script, and while lots will change from script to the final product, Brombal always knew this is how he would start this story. He told Dread Central:
[Everything Dead & Dying] has existed in my brain for a very, very long time, and this scene in particular was always a part of its opening. I wanted Daisy to be Jack’s alarm clock that wakes him up every single morning, jumpstarting his daily routine. We then follow Jack on a little tour of his world, meeting its major players and the events that fill his everyday. This opening sequence was meant to feel like a big, warm hug, and we knew that the warmer we made it, the more the horror would stand out later. This is the life that Jack can’t let go of, and can you blame him?
Brombal also foreshadows the changes to come, telling Dread Central:
It’s also fun to look back at the original script and see what changed at the lettering stage. I love reacting to and building upon the artist’s work, and Jake’s artwork definitely inspired me. We played with it until we found the best flow and impact, which I think works great here. It’s also a testament to Aditya’s abilities as a letterer, whose work also often inspires me. And that’s the goal! Working with a team that is constantly inspiring each other to be better and to tell the best story possible.
Brombal also added, “Stu is PROBABLY my favourite character in this entire book, hahaha. He was such a joy to write in his brief appearance, and Jake drew him with so much personality. This book is going to be quite, QUITE sad, but I love adding moments of levity in characters and dialogue like this.“
Next up: it’s time for Phillips to take Brombal’s words and give them visuals.
SKETCHES
But to get to the final pages, there are quite a few steps that Phillips has to go through. He showed us some of his earlier sketches and said, “I start out as many artists do, with the layouts. But this stage is so rough that it is nearly indecipherable to myself, let alone you, so we’ll skip over that and go straight to the pencils. By this point, I’ve laid out the panels on the page in Adobe Illustrator and taken and gathered any photo references I may need.”
He added, “For this book, I’ve been using a lot of models that I had built. This allows me to drop them straight into the pencils and saves hours of figuring out each panel when we change angles. I pencil digitally in Clip Studio using a blue line, which I can then print out for inking.“
From there, Phillips gets physical. “I print the pencils onto two sheets of A3 paper which I then tape up to my lightbox and ink over that onto one sheet of A2 paper,” he explained. “These are the biggest story pages I’ve ever drawn and I’m loving it. After inks, the pages are shrunk down and printed!“
With the layouts done and the sketches approved, now it’s time for NAME to ink the pages and start adding colors, shadows, and shading.
INKED PAGES
But how exactly to you figure out what to ink versus color? Phillips explained:
“To help show what is a flashback scene, we decided to use these greyscale washes in the inks, which Pip then colours. It creates this soft, dreamlike look to these pages, which juxtapose nicely with the much harsher pure black and white ink work of the present day pages. When making comics, we are always looking for ways to make everything as clear to the reader as possible. So, yes, the wash (hopefully) looks nice, but it is a story-telling technique first.“
For Brombal, “A major revelation for us was Jake’s ink wash and Pip then building upon them with her colors. We knew that we needed these pages to stand apart from later pages. Like I said, we wanted it to feel like a warm hug and Jake adding that extra dimension and texture really nailed it!“
Brombal added:
“The slow drip of horror throughout this opening sequence is another piece of the puzzle that Jake killed! We wanted it to be abrupt and disorienting, just as it is for Jack in the comic. He has these warm, fuzzy blinders on, but he can’t escape reality. Jack surrounded by his living family in this disgusting, rundown kitchen is another image that I’ve had in my head for a very long time. Jake and Pip, once again, really hit it out of the park.“
Now, finally, check out the completed pages and get an exclusive preview at what’s to come in Everything Dead & Dying!
Everything Dead & Dying #1 will be available at comic book shops on September 3, 2025.
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