Batman and Mister Miracle writer Tom King apparently pitched a Sgt. Rock story to DC Comics — and while there is no indication that the company has actually approved the pitch yet, there are already numerous fan-favorite artists are vying to draw it.
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The outpouring of support also seemed to suggest that there are at least dozens of fans who immediately saw the Sheriff of Babylon writer as the perfect fit for a revival of DC’s greatest wartime hero.
“Just pitched a Sgt. Rock story,” King tweeted earlier today. “Somehow find myself in the mood to write about heroes fighting Nazis.”
The tweet was retweeted over 200 times in the three hours that followed, and quickly drew the attention of artists Mitch Gerads (who has partnered with King on Sheriff of Babylon and Mister Miracle), Patch Zircher (currently an artist on Action Comics) and Chris Samnee (Daredevil).
Other artists to pitch in and offer their services included Francesco Francavilla, Tom Fowler, and Juan Ferreyra. Fans came into the thread to offer their own takes, with Andy and Adam Kubert, whose father Joe was famous for his work on the original Sgt. Rock comics in the Golden Age, being a popular choice.
War comics were once big business for Marvel and DC but have struggled to keep any kind of foothold since the comics industry’s boom of the ’80s and bust of the ’90s.
When DC launched their The New 52 publishing initiative in 2011, one of the things they tried to do was diversify the content beyond just superheroes; they launched Men of War, Blackhawks, All-Star Western, and other titles that were a bit more off-the-beaten-path, and most of them did not last very long.
Men of War featured Joe Rock, the grandson of Frank, who was enlisted in the modern army and struggled to live up to his famous grandfather’s legacy.
King gained critical acclaim working on Sheriff of Babylon, a murder mystery set against wartime Iraq. The series drew heavily from his pre-comics career as a CIA officer, which took him abroad during the height of the Iraq war.
