‘Sgt. Rock vs. The Army of the Dead’ continues DC Comics’ “weird war” genre tradition
The first issue of the six-issue DC Comics series DC Horror Presents: Sgt. Rock vs. The Army of the Dead features DC’s popular war genre character Sgt. Rock of Easy Company, leading his troops against an army of Nazi zombies. The comic — written by celebrated actor Bruce Campbell, and illustrated by acclaimed artist Eduardo Risso (with colorist Kristian Rossi and letterer Rob Leigh) — mixes fantasy elements with historical events and figures, continuing DC’s rich “weird war” genre publishing tradition.
Set in 1944 as the Allies close in on Berlin during World War II, Sgt. Rock vs. The Army of the Dead opens with a furious Adolf Hitler commanding his physician Theodor Morell to create more soldiers via Morell’s “regeneration plan”; shortly afterwards, Allied forces are attacked by dead German soldiers, reanimated as hard-to-kill zombies. Rock and Easy Company are tasked with finding Morell and stopping Hitler’s zombie production efforts.
The series continues DC’s long-running history of publishing war comics; in 1952, in response to the genre’s popularity amid the then-ongoing Korean War, DC issued several war titles, including Our Army at War. While these titles were generally anthologies featuring non-recurring characters in various combat tales, the Sgt. Rock character first appeared in Our Army at War #81 (April 1959); Rock and the distinctive soldiers of Easy Company became popular recurring characters, and Our Army at War was retitled Sgt. Rock beginning with issue 302 (March 1977).
Although Rock’s exploits were initially written by Bob Haney and illustrated by Ross Andru and Mike Esposito (Our Army at War #81) and Mort Drucker (Our Army at War #82), the collaboration between writer/editor Robert Kanigher and artist Joe Kubert (Our Army at War #83) made Rock an enduring character. Kubert later became an editor of Rock’s adventures in the late 1960s as the societally divisive Vietnam War raged, and Rock’s stories began to feature anti-war themes.
Sgt. Rock would run until its cancellation in 1988; Rock appears later in the 2003 graphic novel Sgt. Rock: Between Hell and a Hard Place (written by Brian Azzarello and illustrated by Kubert), the 2006 six-issue series Sgt. Rock: The Prophecy (written and illustrated by Kubert), and the 2008 six-issue series Sgt. Rock: The Lost Battalion (written and illustrated by Billy Tucci).
With Sgt. Rock vs. The Army of the Dead, the creative team has the challenge of producing a story in the context of Rock’s long publication history, and the acclaim of the character’s previous creators. Risso is an excellent choice to illustrate Rock’s adventures, given the character’s association with Kubert’s artistry.
In DC Comics: Sixty Years of the World’s Favorite Comic Book Heroes, author Les Daniels notes that “Kubert’s bold, gritty, angular style helped define Sgt. Rock”; Risso’s art style renders this required grittiness. The characters are unshaven and weathered, while their faces and mannerisms are expressive. Risso captures the historical period details (realistic weaponry and destroyed buildings) and provides the horror (gruesome zombie monsters).
Risso’s artwork makes good use of shadows, which contributes visually to the story’s dramatic tension. Colorist Rossi utilizes darker, subdued colors to amplify the horror tone, but also uses brighter colors in selective panels to spotlight the characters and key story moments.
Leigh’s word balloons are rectangular rather than the traditional circular shape; for dramatic exclamations, these rectangular word balloons distort into an angular zig-zag pattern, highlighting the emotional impact of the words. It is a notable lettering effect that adds to the comic’s visual presentation.
Campbell writes a fast-paced comic that provides gore and horror, but he also makes the characters compelling. The banter between the characters as they try to understand the strange details of their mission is funny and plausible, providing a grounding realism that counterbalances the story’s fantasy elements.
Campbell’s ghoulish presentation of Hitler — masterfully rendered by Risso and Rossi — is chilling, and the writer’s use of Morell as a mad scientist is an apt choice. The historical Morell, an incompetent quack Nazi doctor tasked with treating Hitler’s chronic gastrointestinal issues (including uncontrollable flatulence), provided the dictator with steady injections of amphetamines, along with anti-gas tablets that contained poisonous strychnine. These medicinal treatments negatively impacted Hitler’s health and judgment, and may have prompted many of Hitler’s irrational decisions that were disastrous for Germany’s war effort.
Some readers may take issue with Rock’s depiction in a horror comic, given the character’s previous adventures in mostly realistic, thought-provoking war stories. However, DC has a rich history of publishing “weird war” comics that feature horror, science fiction, and fantasy.
In War Stories: A Graphic History, comics historian Mike Conroy observes that “Far more than any other comics publisher, DC had a proclivity for dropping wacky, weird, surreal, and downright bizarre elements into World War II settings.” With artists Andru and Esposito, Kanigher introduced Dinosaur Island — a remote Pacific Theatre island inhabited by dinosaurs — in Star Spangled War Stories #90 (May 1960); this strip, The War that Time Forgot, would run in the comic until 1968 (Star Spangled War Stories #137).
The Haunted Tank appeared in G.I. Combat #87 (May 1961) by Kanigher and artist Russ Heath; the strip featured a WWII American M3 tank crew guided by the ghost of Civil War Confederate general J. E. B. Stuart. The Haunted Tank became DC’s second longest running war series (after Sgt. Rock) and ran until G.I. Combat #288 (March 1987).
The anthology comic Weird War Tales debuted in September 1971 and featured a variety of war stories infused with fantasy, science fiction, and horror. The comic would run for 124 issues, concluding in 1983.
In February 1962, Kanigher, Andru, and Esposito introduced a WWII-era robot soldier nicknamed Joe (Star Spangled War Stories #101), followed by another robot nicknamed Mac, crafted by Kanigher and Kubert, in Star Spangled War Stories #125 (February 1966). Another G.I. Robot is J.A.K.E. 1, appearing in Weird War Tales #101 (July 1981) by Kanigher and artist Pepe Moreno, followed by J.A.K.E. 2 (by Kanigher with artist Fred Carrillo) in Weird War Tales #113 (July 1982).
Creature Commandos appeared in Weird War Tales #93 (November 1980); created by J. M. DeMatteis and artist Pat Broderick, the strip featured American combatants transformed via the science of Project M into iconic mythic creatures: a werewolf, a vampire, a snake-haired Medusa, and a Frankenstein’s Monster.
In Our Army at War #162–163 (January and February 1966), Rock teams up with the Viking Prince, a 10th-century Viking that was frozen in ice for centuries; revived, the Viking Prince desires death in battle so that he can be reunited in Valhalla with the Valkyrie he loves, although he has been cursed by the Norse god Odin with invulnerability to harm from metal, wood, fire, and water.
The Viking Commando is a similar character; debuting in All-Out War #1 (October 1979), by Kanigher and artist George Evans, the 12th-century Norseman Valoric— after being prematurely claimed by a Valkyrie — is hurled through a time warp to the battlefields of WWII, where he must fight the Germans so that he can die in battle and earn his place in Valhalla.
The usage of fantasy elements in DC’s war comics is well-established, and the creative team of DC Horror Presents: Sgt. Rock vs. The Army of the Dead deftly place DC’s popular war genre character Sgt. Rock into a horror comic, continuing DC’s rich tradition of publishing “weird war” stories.
NOTES AND FURTHER READING:
DISCLOSURE: The author of this article is a former DC Comics contributor. There are no current financial arrangements between the author and DC Comics.
DC Horror Presents: Sgt. Rock vs. The Army of the Dead #1 (Bruce Campbell, Eduardo Risso, Kristian Rossi, et al.; DC Comics, November 2022)
Creature Commandos (J. M. DeMatteis, Robert Kanigher, et al.; DC Comics, 2014)
War Stories: A Graphic History (Mike Conroy; Collins Design, 2009)
DC Comics: Sixty Years of the World’s Favorite Comic Book Heroes (Les Daniels; Bulfinch Press, 1995)
G.I. Combat #278 (Robert Kanigher, Sam Glanzman, et al.; DC Comics, July 1985)
Weird War Tales #70 (J. M. DeMatteis, Dick Ayers, Dan Adkins, et al.; DC Comics, December 1978)
“How Hitler’s Flatulence May Have Helped End WWII Earlier Than It Otherwise Would Have” (todayifoundout.com, July 18, 2016)
“Scent of a Führer” (Tony Perrottet; thesmartset.com, October 24, 2007)
Attention, Secret Dictionary Club members — use Code Thirteen to decipher the following message: BHE NTRAGF UNIR QRFGEBLRQ GUR INZCVER XVAT.
BONUS COMIC STRIP:
The text and images above are the property of their respective owner(s), and are presented here for not-for-profit, educational, and/or review purposes only under the fair use doctrine of the copyright laws of the United States of America.
