Rome wasn't built in a day... but it may crumble in one. Titans battle in the arena. A thumb turns down. A sword comes down. A dead man... stands up? Racing through dark, narrow tunnels beneath the Colosseum, two heroes and a child join together to escape their pursuers. Pursuers who were once men. Hungry men. Undead men. Rombies. Friends, Romans, Countrymen... Lend me your brains!

We caught up with the creative team of Skye Ogden and Tom Taylor to talk about Rombies.

Decapitated Dan: Alright guys first of all thanks for taking the time to talk about Rombies. So lets start off simple who are you guys and what do you do?

Skye Ogden: I'm a freelance artist and Gestalt Publishings Art Director based in Tokyo , Japan . I animate, illustrate and design for the commercial world and of course, I draw comic books.

Tom Taylor: As well as writing for theatre, TV, film and musicals, I write comics.  In addition to Rombies and a few other books for Gestalt I'm also currently the writer of The Authority for DC comics and several Star Wars titles for Dark Horse, including the ongoing Star Wars: Invasion series.  I also used to be a professional juggler and fire eater... this isn't important.
 
Decapitated Dan: How did you find yourselves getting into making comics?

Skye Ogden: I'd always loved comics and was illustrating and making things from a very young age. I've never imagined myself doing any work that wasn't creative and to be honest never lasted long in anything that wasn't. The two things finally meshed when I was studying Design and I revisited one of my old sketchy folded foolscap comic books -'Vowels' and inked it (chapter 'e') up. It was Wolfgang Bylsma who I had just met at the time who urged me to complete the entire book and then work on other stories and we got to the point where we just decided to go all out for our love of all things sequential. We founded Gestalt Publishing together and have not looked back (Actually, I do look back sometimes, helps to recall how far we've come).

Tom Taylor: Dogged persistence, mainly.  I actually got into comics after the superstar artist, Colin Wilson, agreed to illustrate one of my plays.  This became 'The Example' which was published by Gestalt and is actually available through Diamond in August.  It's good.  I've read it.
From here, Colin and I began working on Star Wars and I haven't looked back since.
 
Decapitated Dan: So how did you all come together to work on this project?

Skye Ogden: It was Wolfgang who had begun speaking with Star Wars/The Authority writer Tom Taylor and he mentioned this project I had been fiddling with. It involved Zombies in Ancient Rome and He heard this, thought nothing of it, had a dream about the Colloseum being flooded with undead- gladiators, tigers... All sorts of oddness. He called Wolf back and asked 'Please please please let me write it' >From that point on I passed all writing duties onto Tom and I now can't imagine Rombies without him penning it. He is doing absolutely Kickass work.

Tom Taylor: Wolfgang is persuasive and, yeah, I woke up wanting to see zombie-lions one morning.  Once you have zombie-lions in your head, there's no stopping them.

Decapitated Dan: So what can you tell me about Rombies?

Skye Ogden: Ancient Rome invaded by a horde of undead, set amongst actual historical events and figures with a never before seen take on the birth of the first Zombie. The Roman empire battling the undead from within. What more to tell? It's Awesome!

Tom Taylor: Rombies tells the story of the birth of the first zombie.

Tying to real-life historical events and crossing the paths of real-life historical figures, our story weaves its way through theologies and empires and leaves no one unscathed, be they citizen, soldier or Senator.

The first zombie will become a prize to be fought over and a source of power that could cause the collapse of the Roman empire or, properly harnessed, bring about a new world order, but how do you control death itself?
Friends. Romans.  Lend me your brains!

Decapitated Dan:  What is it all about?

Skye Ogden: It's about 22 pages an issue. (Other than that see the above comment)

Decapitated Dan:  Who are the main characters?

Tom Taylor: Our main characters are probably two soldiers and friends from the 15th Legion, but this book has a lot of characters and storylines weaving through it.  We also have Titus (he who becomes Emperor Titus), the first Zombie, senators, some shadowy religious people with dodgy motives, a prostitute or two... this is starting to sound like a party that's gotten out of hand.    

Decapitated Dan: Where did the idea for this book come from?

Skye Ogden: Possibly (and unofficially) spun off from jokes about a Zombie Jesus. The story is absolutely not that, but it was those early blasphemous doodles that inspired me to think about the world circa 0AD. I love history and research in my work and I soon found events in history around that period that just clicked with me. Adding Zombies made sense to me. Adding Zombies ALWAYS makes sense.

Tom Taylor: While I have researched my ass off, and brought a whole lot of ideas to the table, I will still blame Skye.

Decapitated Dan:  If you were to give this book a movie style rating (G, PG, PG-13, R,  X) what would it get, and why would you say that?

Skye Ogden: Hmmm I guess we either toe the line of PG-13 mostly, however at times it will be outright R.

Tom Taylor: G!  Share it with your children.  It can teach them anatomy.

Decapitated Dan: What are you hoping readers can take away from this story?

Skye Ogden: First and foremost an enjoyable read. We've created an awesome story and if people enjoy this even half as much as we did making it then... well, I'll just say that if you read it, you'll enjoy it.

Tom Taylor: While this book is based in history, like all history, it draws some very modern-day comparisons.  I'm hoping this book will encourage all readers to take an interest in history, for history teaches us to learn from the mistakes of the past and... ah, ha, ha!  Nah, it's a Zombie book.  I hope people take away a fear of Zombie lions or a hunger for human flesh. 

Decapitated Dan:  Is this a mini. maxi or ongoing series?

Tom Taylor: We began with a one-shot (now affectionately referred to as issue #0), featuring Zombie Lions and gladiators, which we figure happens about half way through our first story arc.  We're working on the first six issues with a view to it continuing if people buy it and like it.  But what's not to like?  If people don't like zombies chomping into legions of Roman soldiers, then I don't know people and I don't want to know people.
  
Decapitated Dan:  Can you talk a bit about your experiences so far working with Gestalt Publishing?

Skye Ogden: Having been there from the start, having worked on all of Gestalts books, I can say that we put a lot of effort into what we are doing. We try our best to put out good material, both in content and production values. Stuff that we ourselves would want to read and recommend to others.  Our most recent title, Changing Ways by Justin Randall, is a great example of this.  Wolf is a great Editor and really knows his stuff. Everyone involved with Gestalt is passionate about what they do making the experience a great one.

Tom Taylor:  I've been so sycophantic about this company, it makes me sick.  They are so committed and passionate and enthusiastic, and the work they produce is of such a high quality, that you actually WANT to work for them. I want them to have all of my best ideas.  The fact that they're Australian... well, being Australian is all about being embarrassed about everything, you're supposed to want to make it anywhere else, but I'm actually not ashamed to be working for this Australian Comics company.  And that's about the highest praise that can be given.

Decapitated Dan:  Were you guys into any horror titles growing up that may have led to wanting to create a book like this?

Skye Ogden: Growing up I had those small squarish Commando comics passed down to me. I collected and loved the SCI-FI Starblazers comics and 2000ADs leading to various European comics (Valerian, Asterix etc) and only started on the Superhero stuff just before the Claremont/ Lee XMen run, stayed on Marvel, Picked up Image titles and migrated over to DC's Batman and finally to the Vertigo titles which remain unquestioningly my kind of favorite comics. I think that all of them have influenced me along the way. I think it was in fact a combination of Horror films, all these comics and good friend Terry Dowling (International Horror Guild Award winner) that led to this kind of work.

Tom Taylor:  Yeah, actually.  I read a lot of the old creepy comics and all of The Nightmare on Elm Street comics when I was about eleven, as well as a heap of superhero, war, and 2000AD stuff, before graduating through Hitman, Hellblazer, Sandman, Preacher and all of the other great Vertigo horror titles.

Decapitated Dan:  What comics are you currently reading?

Skye Ogden: Changing Ways, the Akira books (in Japanese), 風の谷のナウシカ (yup, in Japanese), The Authority (I hear its awesome lately), re-reading the Preacher trades and next I'll be starting the Walking Dead (I know I know, I should have ages ago).

Tom Taylor: Umbrella Academy, Scott Pilgrim, Buffy, Invincible, Ex Machina, Fables, Powers, Changing Ways, most of what Warren Ellis writes, a bunch of Superhero stuff and, of course, The Authority and Star Wars: Invasion (heh).    

Decapitated Dan:  So where can readers find out more about this book?

Tom Taylor: www.rombies.com www.tomtaylormade.com and on its facebook page.

Decapitated Dan: So, in summary, give me a quick recap on Rombies and why fans should give it a try.

Tom Taylor: Violence.  Religion.  Blasphemy.  Violence.   Death.  Nudity.  Sorrow.  Loss.  Violence.  Zombies.  Alcohol.  War.  Fire.  Violence.  Emperors.  Soldiers.  Braaaiiinns. 

The dead will walk again... in sandals!

Decapitated Dan: Thanks for taking the time to talk about Rombies.

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