Zombies and superheroes have stolen pop culture’s collective imagination. Marvel, DC, The Walking Dead, and Game of Thrones have blessed fans with some of the most rewarding stories in zombie and superhero history. Andy “TJ” Walker is a local comic creator from Tacoma who wondered what would happen if zombies… had superpowers? The idea resulted in a critically acclaimed and award-winning independent web series titled Phoenix Run.
Phoenix Run started as a digital comic book read through a smartphone app and was developed into a Dustx web series. Dustx is a popular science fiction channel on YouTube and Roku with over 2 million subscribers. The series’s successful film festival and comic convention run garnered 24 different awards and somewhat of a cult following. The web series’s success has garnered Walker a development deal with Gunpowder & Sky studios to bring Phoenix Run the silver screen.
His other visions include Green Fiction which is a cannabis-infused science fiction anthology and Invisible Intelligence – a fictional historical take on Harriet Tubman and the underground railroad.
Walker has been creating and printing his own comics since he was in high school. Walker and his friends made copies of their homemade creations and would sell them to their classmates. From late nights at Kinkos to financed movie deal, Walker’s career rise is just as amazing as a reanimated corpse with superpowers.
