Time-Traveling Tales: The Purple Zombie in Public Domain Comics

Zombies are everywhere today. They shuffle slowly and decay before our eyes. Honestly, it gets kind of old. I remember zombies in movies and TV shows as far back as I can recall.

A recent pleasant surprise was the discovery of The Purple Zombie comic by Tarpé Mills. His name was Zoro. His flesh was bulletproof and intact, quite a contrast to the typical zombie. His appearance reminds me of Glenn Lanagan from The Amazing Colossal Man. However, The Purple Zombie predates the 1957 movie by 17 years.

Zoro appeared in 12 issues of Reg'lar Fellers Heroic Comics, beginning with issue #1, which also provided the origin story of Hydroman. We don’t know much about the process used to create this zombie. In the first panel, Zoro is already reanimated, standing in the corner. His creators argue about making more, and the lab assistant is shot. Assuming the assistant is dead, Zoro avenges him by killing the scientist. He then tracks down the men who supported the scientist.

Zoro is arrested, sentenced to the electric chair, and turns purple as a result of a failed electrocution. Kim (a man), the lab assistant, still alive, exonerates the zombie and takes him home.

I have to wonder: did this inspire shows like My Favorite Martian, Mr. Ed, and ALF? Perhaps if the premise had focused more on the strange visitor who stays and causes problems, it might have had more influence. Sadly, it did not.

From there, the story quickly moves beyond the house. Zoro and Kim encounter a scientist with remote-controlled skeletons, which leads them overseas to the war front to fight for democracy. Zoro commands an army of skeletons, aided by the scientist.

They win a battle against an evil death ray, fly fighter planes, and encounter another scientist with a time machine.

Zoro and Kim are accidentally swept into the past, dragged through 64 AD Rome, 1190 AD during the Crusades, the 16th century with Sir Francis Drake, the French Revolution, and finally into prehistoric times before returning home.

Upon their return, Zoro reveals that he wasn’t dead when they turned him into a zombie. He had been hiding in the morgue and was only pretending to be dead.

Now, here’s another question: who would hide in a morgue and pretend to be dead the entire time while being experimented on? What was he hiding from? Was it worse than potential death from the experimentation?

Most superhero origins are based on 90% luck. Where a normal person would be dead, this lucky individual survives and ends up endowed with amazing powers and abilities.

How does it end?

Tarpe Mills only created 12 chapters to the story of the Purple Zombie.

Rangerhouse Archives #3 collects those chapters and includes what I first thought to be the final appearance. Upon closer observation It is an altered war comic with a bald commander. Text and colors have been changed to make it a Purple Zombie story.

Zoro decides to join the military, where he becomes a ship commander and goes down in battle—only to appear in 2012 as a hand emerging from his watery grave.

That’s it. As far as I know, no other modern adventures of this character exist.

Have you heard of The Purple Zombie? Do you know of any new adventures? Do you know anything about the extra adventure? Share your thoughts—I’d love to hear them.

• Learn more about Tarpe Mills
• Read the first appearance of Zoro the Purple Zombie in Reg'lar Fellers Heroic Comics #1
• Read The Complete Purple Zombie- with added adventure