During the 2024 Halloween season, Storm King Comics announced that they, along with John Carpenter, would be debuting a graphic novel adaptation of George A. Romero’s long-thought-to-be-lost film, “The Amusement Park.” On Thursday, the comic book publisher released a sneak peek at the new graphic novel, which is slated to hit comic shops and bookstores on June 10, 2025.
The George A. Romero Foundation and its artist-in-residence, illustrator Ryan Carr, along with writer Jeff Whitehead, have done more than adapt Romero’s 1975 film, the graphic novel is also a tribute to Romero’s enduring influence on horror, as Whitehead and Carr have reconsidered the nearly 50-year-old film in ways that will resonate with new generations.
“The Amusement Park” tells of an impatient businessman in his 20s who meets an elderly man who spins a fantastic tale about a long-gone amusement park. As the conversation continues, the younger man is disturbed to learn the story of an elderly man eager to recapture the memories of his youth. Instead of pleasant memories, however, this trip to the amusement park becomes a surreal microcosm of aging and its inherent challenges as bodies and minds begin to break down. The old man finds himself abused and pushed into a horrifying series of attractions that mimic the later stages of life. Increasingly battered both mentally and physically, the man realizes he is trapped in a loop, forced to relive the harrowing experience over and over. The young man, William Lincoln, soon discovers that he and the old man have much more in common than they suspect.
“John Carpenter Presents George A. Romero’s The Amusement Park” will be available for purchase online, at comic book stores, and at book sellers on June 10, 2025.
George A. Romero’s “The Amusement Park” was initially conceived as a public service announcement and premiered at the American Film Festival in New York in June 1975. The film was then shelved and believed to have been lost to time. A 16mm print of the film was rediscovered in 2017 and restored in 4K by the George A. Romero Foundation shortly after. The restored version premiered in Pittsburgh in October 2019 and was laterย made available to stream on the horror streaming service Shudder.
