Mike Richardson writes to say, "Despite the similarities, LIVING WITH THE DEAD was created with no help from the creators of LIVING WITH ZOMBIES. We are not in the business of stealing the ideas of others. Here is the e-mail I sent to the creators of the other strip:

I understand from Jeremy that you are concerned that my comic, LIVING WITH THE DEAD, may have somehow been derivative of your LIVING WITH ZOMBIES. I can see why you might jump to that conclusion when considering the similarity of subject matter, but I can assure you that your concerns are unfounded.

My only exposure to your creation came when I was approached by one of my editors some time back about a possible resemblance to an on-line comic he was interested in publishing in comic form. Because of the possible similarities, I passed on the project and purposely have not EVER looked at it.

LIVING WITH THE DEAD came about this way:

Years ago, one of the LIVING DEAD movies took place in a mall. When I saw it, It occurred to me that all the stuff in that mall was there for the taking. In fact, the whole post-apocalyptic world was full of stuff . . . buildings electronics, wine, cars, etc., waiting for the survivors. As I fashioned the actual story, it seemed that if two buddies survived, they could make lemonade out of the lemon they were handed. First, they find that they can move freely by wearing zombie disguises (zombies aren't too smart.) Their success at blending in allows them build their own paradise. The best of friends. Buddies forever. Pals to the end . . . until a girl shows up. The recent Shawn movie got me thinking about the idea again and as a result, I wrote the comic series. Writer Andy Cosby gave me the title. He thought it would be a good idea to somehow get LIVING DEAD into the title, thus LIVING with the DEAD.

Dark Horse is a company that supports creator's rights. I would never consider ripping off another creator of his/her idea. To the contrary, we have spent our own money to restore content rights to their rightful owners. Since I started Dark Horse, I have continually created stories and characters for our publications. I have plenty of ideas of my own and have no desire or need to steal content from another creator.

I hope your project does well for you, and feel free to call me anytime if you'd like to discuss.

Best,

Mike