The Hungry Dead

Night of the Living Dead co-writer Russo continues with infectious enthusiasm what he started in company with George Romero. This volume opens with "Escape from the Living Dead," a novelization of the 2005 Avatar Comics series, now inexplicably set in the present day. Sheriff's deputy Jeff Sanders, survivor of the original undead onslaught, is sent undercover to expose the malevolent Dr. Harold Melrose, whose research into the undead necessitates both creating and feeding new zombies. Soon he meets fellow survivor Sally Brinkman, and they and a bizarrely anachronistic satanic biker gang barricade themselves against Melrose's escaped zombies. Russo tends to drop characters and bring in new ones at random until a tissue-thin story emerges to connect rapturously rendered scenes of zombie attacks. Also included is "Midnight," Russo's 1980 kids-meet-Satan-worshippers novel. Despite Russo's exasperating fondness for stereotypical B-movie characters and dialog, his giddy enthusiasm and affection for the genre is hard to resist. (Oct.)