Return of the Living Dead

On my list of favorite movies, "Return of the Living Dead" by Dan O'Bannon, is way, way, way up there at the top. This film came out in 1985. I was in the seventh grade and saw it at the theater. I went in with average expectations. Based on the TV commercials, it looked like it should be a decent zombie movie. Instead, what I got was a horror paradise.

Its incredible mix of genuine freaky scares, genuine good humor, exaggerated comic book style zombies, punk rockers, gory violence, shameless abundance of female nudity, great characters, memorable dialogue, excellent special effects, and true Midwestern American goofiness really, really hit me and charged my imagination into overdrive.

Since then I have seen it many, many times and over the years my love for this movie has only increased. I have often wondered if it might just be my number one favorite horror movie of all time. I hate to say any one horror film is my definite #1 favorite cause there are so many I love so much. But this film is certainly in my top three.

But one thing I am 100% positive about, without any doubt in my mind, is that The Tarman, (the star monster of Return of the Living Dead) is far and away my number one, all time favorite zombie in a movie ever.

So here is my drawing of him in action.

This illustration was done as a commission assignment for a guy who has bought a lot of my original artwork. He asked me to do an original illustration of The Tarman for him. Now that I've done this image I find myself wanting to do more illustrations of different scenes from the film. I will probably have to eventually...