It’s October, and you know that that means? Time to take on some undead Nazi soldiers with the help of Sgt. Rock and the boys of Easy Company.

Last week, Rock’s latest adventure, Sgt. Rock vs. Army of the Dead hit the racks. Written by Bruce Campbell, it features art by Eduardo Risso, with colors by Kristian Rossi.

I’m one of those gals who loves me some old school military comics. What can I say? I like those rugged dude shoot-em-ups. It’s my “chick lit.” I also love the mix of supernatural and war stories like Weird War Tales and The Haunted Tank. If you want a peek at some of my favorites, check out the post I did back in August on High-Action Classic War Comics.

I’m also a sucker for anything Groovy Bruce contributes to the world of entertainment. This includes his books. His past work in comics include co-writing (with David Goodman) a four part adaptation for his film Man with the Screaming Brain for Dark Horse Comics. He also penned an issue of the comic adaptations BMW Film’s short film series The Hire (remember those)?

But, can he do a good, original story based on one of toughest, coolest military comic series in DC’s history?

As of the first issue, yes, he can.

Keep in mind, this first issue is pretty much setting up the scene. Based in Word War II Germany, we get to see some intense brutality on the part of Adolf Hitler. We also see a little behind the making of these undead soldiers. Are these your run-of-the mill “zombies”? Nope. There’s something a little more diabolical behind their creation. I won’t tell you any more about them, for the sake of spoilers, but I can say you won’t be disappointed in Sgt. Rock and crew. He’s ready to kick some butt. For those fearing the preachiness of today’s comics more than any undead Nazi, no modern morality message is hidden in a story that takes place in 1944. At least not so far.

There’a little bit of humor as the boys get a look at some new high-tech items like “handie-talkies”, some chilling drama as we find out what goes in the regeneration ward, and of course, monster-movie carnage.

Campbell’s writing is complemented well by Risso’s thick-lined shadow-heavy art, but one of the elements I was most excited about were the variant cover choices. Normally, I tend to settle for just one choice. There is always an overabundance of variants. For Sgt. Rock, I made an exception. I picked up three covers (so far) for Issue One: the main guns-a-blazin’ Rock in all his undead Nazi killing glory by Gary Frank and Brad Anderson, and the primary variant propaganda style cover by Frank Francavilla. I also grabbed the “Duffel Bag Gore” polybagged variant by Frank Quitely, which I carefully opened. It is aptly named. Horror movie fans will love it. There are some harder-to-get variants by Charlie Adlard, Chris Mooneyham, and Pia Guerra, if you can find them.

Campbell and the entire artistic team did a fantastic job on maintaining the nostalgic feel to Golden and Silver Age war comics, while not holding back on the splatter-worthy story you’d expect from a horror comic. Whether or not they maintain that pace is still to be seen, but I can’t wait to find out.

Whatever you think of the state of today’s mainstream comics, I can recommended at least one new series. Pick up the first issue of Sgt. Rock vs. the Army of the Dead, and catch up before Issue Two drops Oct. 26.