Bruce Campbell teams with Eduardo Risso for DC Horror Presents: Sgt. Rock vs. The Army of the Dead.
That’s it. That’s the tweet.
Or an even shorter version: Nazi zombies.
Sgt. Rock is an iconic DC character created back in 1959 by Robert Kanigher and Joe Kubert in the pages of Our Army at War #83. As the leader of “Easy Company,” he became one of the most famous war comics characters of all time. Sgt. Rock had a long run as one of the very last non-superhero holdovers from the 50s and has been revived a few times in recent years, while making occasional continuity based appearances in things like Flashpoint.
This time out, he’s back in a 6 issue mini series written by horror icon Bruce Campbell with art by the great Eduardo Risso…and a bunch of cool variant covers of course.
Campbell recently made a triumphant return to the MCU with his cameo in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness…and some hoped me might become the new “Stan Lee” with a series of cameos…but he’s already ankled Marvel for DC it seems.
The story in the mini series is simple: Sgt Rock vs Nazi Zombies.
The story begins in Berlin, 1944. The Nazis are flanked on all fronts by the combined Allied forces, and defeat seems inevitable. In a last-ditch effort to turn the tide of the war, Hitler and his team of evil scientists create a serum that resurrects their dead soldiers, creating an army of the dead even stronger than they were in life.
Sgt. Rock, hero of the European Theatre, and his Easy Company find themselves dispatched into enemy territory to face off against the strangest, most horrific enemies they’ve encountered yet: Nazi Zombies.
Although you might say the story writes itself, it was actually written by Campbell – and it’s not his first dance with comics. He adapted his (very strange) film The Man with the Screaming Brain for Dark Horse some years back and has dabbled here and there.
In fact, Campbell mentioned a comics project a few months back.
“I’m writing a comic book for a major comic book company right now,” he told Bloody disgusting. “And it’s six issues that you’ve gotta plot out. And I cannot just sit there with a pen in my mouth… looking at a blank page… I want to figure it out scene by scene and know where the story’s going.”
The first issue goes on sale on September 27, and the variants include many fan favorites, including a Duffel Bag Gore variant cover drawn by Frank Quitely (The Authority) too gruesome to even show you, we’re told.
Charlie Adlard (The Walking Dead) is back drawing zombies for the first time since he wrapped up his run on The Walking Dead in a 1:25 variant.
Issue #1 will also have a variant cover drawn by Francesco Francavilla (Batman: Black Mirror),
A 1:100 variant by Pia Guerra (Y: The Last Man).
And ALSO, a 1:50 variant drawn by Chris Mooneyham (Joker Presents: A Puzzlebox), and a main cover by Gary Frank (Supergirl).
And insides by Eduardo Risso. Did we mention Eduardo Risso? Sgt. Rock in a horror movie. What’s not to love?