Rodney Barnes Takes Ash To A Groovy Place In ‘Army Of Darkness: 1979’
by Erik Amaya
It’s time for Ash Williams to finally go somewhere groovy.
Taking him there is Killadelphia‘s Rodney Barnes in Army of Darkness: 1979, a new series from Dynamite Entertainment about the Evil Dead hero due to launch this September. In the new comic book, Ash finds himself in late 1970s New York. The city is in an advanced state of decay with gangs fighting for every block in the South Bronx. But unlike the groups who would serve as a models for the gangs in The Warriors, these gangs model themselves after zombies and vampires. Also: they find the Necronomicon. And being an Army of Darkness book, you know Ash’s journey across New York will be filled with laughs, scares, and at least one reference to some really bad late-stage disco.
No, seriously, some of it is great — the stuff that survived into the present day, anyway — but some of it was really, really bad.
“I relished the opportunity to take on Army of Darkness,” Barnes said. “The tone is different from everything I’ve done to date, so there’s that challenge. I loved the film and the graphic novels based on the film, so it’s an honor to add my name to the great folks that have done the books prior to this one.”
Artist Tom Garcia joins Barnes, as do colorist Dinei Ribero and letterer Troy Peteri. Cover artists for the first issue include Barnes’s Killadelphia collaborator, Jason Shawn Alexander, Arthur Suydam, Junggeun Yoon, and Stuart Sayger.
Army of Darkness: 1979 is scheduled for release in September.