Dead Corps
Encyclopedia
Dead Corps, subtitled Dead Corpse is a four-issue comic book
mini-series
published in 1998
under the short-lived DC Comics
imprint
, Helix
. Written by Christopher Hinz
and illustrated by Steve Pugh
, the story is set in a near-future earth where medical technology has opened the possibility for the re-animation of human beings and the dead play an active but sometimes unwilling role in everyday society. The title met with little success commercially as it was published by Helix some time after the cancellation of the entire imprint had been announced.
Detective Sergeant CJ Rataan is the senior officer in a squad of the Paladin Dead Corps an elite but poorly respected team of mixed expired and vital police officers based out of North Nome, Alaska
.
CJ himself is an Expired, having been murdered and then revived several years prior to the narrative owing to his role thwarting the operations of a gangland syndicate of body-poachers and killing the leader's brother. As the tale develops, CJ and his rag-tag crew of Expireds (Detectives Cicatriz and 'Pappy') and Vitals (Detective Eldo Kway and Corporal Meep) are engaged to investigate the circumstances surrounding CJ's death. However in addition to robbing him of his first life, CJ has been targeted for PR....
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
mini-series
Limited series
A limited series is a comic book series with a set number of installments. A limited series differs from an ongoing series in that the number of issues is determined before production and it differs from a one shot in that it is composed of multiple issues....
published in 1998
1998 in comics
-Spring:* Gay Comix , with issue #25, publishes its final issue -October:* Toy Biz buys Marvel Comics* Excalibur is canceled by Marvel with issue #125.-November:...
under the short-lived DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
imprint
Imprint
In the publishing industry, an imprint can mean several different things:* As a piece of bibliographic information about a book, it refers to the name and address of the book's publisher and its date of publication as given at the foot or on the verso of its title page.* It can mean a trade name...
, Helix
Helix (comics)
Helix was a short-lived, science fiction and science fantasy imprint of DC Comics, launched in 1996 and discontinued in 1998. Helix was a short-lived, science fiction and science fantasy imprint of DC Comics, launched in 1996 and discontinued in 1998. Helix was a short-lived, science fiction and...
. Written by Christopher Hinz
Christopher Hinz
Christopher Hinz is an American writer best known for the Paratwa science fiction trilogy. Hinz has also written comic book for DC Comics and Marvel Comics. He won the Compton Crook Award in 1988 for his novel Liege-Killer....
and illustrated by Steve Pugh
Steve Pugh
Steve Pugh is a British comic book artist who has worked for most of the major comic producers on both sides of the Atlantic: DC, Marvel, Dark Horse and 2000 AD.-Biography:...
, the story is set in a near-future earth where medical technology has opened the possibility for the re-animation of human beings and the dead play an active but sometimes unwilling role in everyday society. The title met with little success commercially as it was published by Helix some time after the cancellation of the entire imprint had been announced.
Plot synopsis
The year is 2101 and thirty three years have passed since the first successful brain tissue remodulation and body reanimation of a human being. Vitals, ordinary living human beings, share their lives with Expireds, an underclass of once dead people who have been restored to life to perform a variety of specialist but unwanted tasks. Apart from the pallor of their skin and the putrid chemical unction which they are forced to consume as a food-substitute, the dead are otherwise indistinguishable from ordinary functioning human beings.Detective Sergeant CJ Rataan is the senior officer in a squad of the Paladin Dead Corps an elite but poorly respected team of mixed expired and vital police officers based out of North Nome, Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
.
CJ himself is an Expired, having been murdered and then revived several years prior to the narrative owing to his role thwarting the operations of a gangland syndicate of body-poachers and killing the leader's brother. As the tale develops, CJ and his rag-tag crew of Expireds (Detectives Cicatriz and 'Pappy') and Vitals (Detective Eldo Kway and Corporal Meep) are engaged to investigate the circumstances surrounding CJ's death. However in addition to robbing him of his first life, CJ has been targeted for PR....