James Mulholland’s utterly wonderful webcomic Proud was recently included in our list of the Best Digital Comics of 2014. Well James is about to make a move into a completely different genre with his new indie zombie comic The Disease. With so many other undead tales on the market thanks to The Walking Dead, we got in touch with James to find out why his zombie tale is different from the rest of the horde.

Can you give us a quick summary of your new indie zombie comic The Disease and why should fans check it out?

JM: The Disease follows an elderly man called GERRY as he awakes in a post-apocalyptic world where he has no recollection of how everything has occurred. Gerry wanders out into the unknown in search for his one purpose in living, his family but what he comes to find out is something that is unimaginable to him. This book, for me, is an original take on the zombie genre from a different perspective. This isn’t a soldier, or a fit healthy human being, or cop. This is an old Irish man, in a zombie living world.

Tell us a bit about what made you choose to to write a zombie book and where did you get the inspiration from for the Disease?

JM: At the moment I am trying to be as diverse as possible, so I’ve written stories in the crime, science fiction, fantasy, superhero genre’s, so I felt it was time for a zombie comic. The idea came from personal experience in a way, and fictionalizing what I was seeing happening in front of me. A zombie comic felt the right way to pull this story off as the zombies themselves can be metaphors for a lot of different things, just like the title of the book. When I write something though it has to feel to me as original as possible and I certainly feel this is as original as a zombie story as people are going to read at the moment.

There are a lot of Walking Dead wannabes out there, what makes The Disease stand out from the rest?
JM: I love The Walking Dead, both the comic and TV show. For all the things they’ve done in the comics and all the angles they’ve covered, I don’t think they’ve covered what’s in my story. The type of character Gerry is and what’s going on with him is what makes my story original and it’s something I’ve yet to see in any sort of zombie story so I think that’s the main draw. Looking at the critical response to the book, it seems to be the case that everyone enjoys the spin I’ve taken, and that’s always pleasing.

The book reminds me a lot of the film Memento with its amnesia twist to it, was that the first part of the story you put together or was it the zombie elements?

JM: Hmm to be honest Memento wasn’t in my head. In fact it was another movie, a comedy, which I won’t name because I think it’s too on the nose to spoil what’s going on. But I basically looked at the comedy and thought, what if I put that character in a zombie story. From there the story grew and I put my personal touches into it from there. But I can see now that Memento could be looked upon as an inspiration for the story, but if so it was done subconsciously.

What is it about zombies that make for such versatile villains? And we’re there any rules or generic conventions you were keen to adhere to and/or avoid?
JM: I love zombies, but what is happening these days are the zombies are never truly the real villains in their own movies, it’s usually humans v humans, or cannibalism. I thought 28 Days Later did a great job of making the zombies scary, just by making them raging animals that run fast. They can be used to represent a lot of things, and I’d like to see writers push the boundaries of their imaginations when writing future zombie stories and think outside the box. As for this story, as you can probably see, the first 8 pages or so is really cliched stuff, but that’s intentional. I want to drop peoples expectations and kind of have them going against me before I hit them with the first few beats in the middle of the book that changes everything. Luckily for me, it seems that’s exactly whats happening. I feel there is a way to embrace cliches but still keep something fresh or give something new. I feel and hope THE DISEASE does that.

Where can fans get the book from and what are you working on next?
They can buy the book digitally from Gumroad.com and Sellfy.com for €2.50. The book will also be out in PRINT from March / April and you’ll be able to buy a copy from my Facebook page.

Next up for me is a graphic novel called ‘Jorund: Honor Bound’ which is a small scale viking story about a young norseman who is tasked by his mother to kill the viking that murdered his father. Currently, I’m outlining my next graphic novel which will be a western, and then doing up some pitches to submit to publishers.