For immediate release - April 1st, 2011: Monsters Comics, Inc. today announced the upcoming release of their new book, “The Walking Chickens”. Written and penciled by comic legend Nyles Kirkland with a cover by Barbara Casey, the book is described as a survival horror comic centered on a chicken apocalypse, or more simply, “The Chickalypse”. The official description is below:

“A poultry epidemic of apocalyptic proportions has swept the globe, causing the chickens to rise and feed on the humans. In a matter of months, society has crumbled: There is no government, no chicken in grocery stores, no mail delivery, and no Chick-fil-A ads on cable TV. Mick Heinz finds himself one of the few survivors in this terrifying future. A couple months ago he was a small town poultry farmer who had never even killed a chicken himself and only ever saw one dead body. Separated from his family and his farm, he must now sort through all the death, confusion, and chickens to try and find his wife and son. In a world ruled by the chickens, we are forced to finally eat vegetables.”

ComicMonsters.com staffer Stephanie Shamblin Gray caught up with Kirkland to discuss the upcoming book.

Stephanie Shamblin Gray: We are all very excited to hear about your upcoming book, but I can’t help but think that the concept seems a little too familiar.

Nyles Kirkland: Have you read any stories about chickens? Maybe you are referring to stories describing the horror and drama of an apocalypse? These types of stories are very “in” right now, and I figured, “What’s more dramatic and horrifying than chickens”!?

SSG: Well, zombies, maybe…

NK: Zombies comics are over-rated and completely flooding the horror comics market right now. I wanted to do something truly original, and I believe that I have found that in chicken horror comics.

SSG: You don’t think that this book will be compared to “The Walking Dead”? Or that you may be sued?

NK: No, this book is very different. “The Walking Dead” is a book about zombies and the main character is a policeman. This book is about a poultry farmer’s quest for survival after the Chickalypse. Just imagine the tragedy! Never being able to eat chicken or eggs again! How will people survive? What kind of nuggets would be served? And for comparison, remember the whole ’28 days later’ thing when "The Walking Dead" was originally released? Over

time, you will see that the story is very different and initial similarities do not matter. If any similarities are noticed, consider it homage.

SSG: Is this really some kind of statement about eating vegan?

NK: No, of course not. In fact, I was eating a chicken sandwich when I came up with the concept of the book. As I sat there enjoying all that crispy, deep-fried goodness, I realized that it would be horrific if chickens were eating us, instead of us eating them. Although I’m not sure they could ever operate a deep-fryer.

SSG: When will this book be available?

NK: April 1st, also known as April Fool’s Day.

SSG: Ok, well, thank you for your time and best of luck on your new book! Comment on this interview on our forum.