“During the darkest days of the Civil War, wicked cutthroats came into possession of six pistols of otherworldly power. In time, the Sixth Gun, the most dangerous of the weapons, vanished. When the gun surfaces in the hands of an innocent girl, dark forces reawaken. Vile men thought long dead set their sights on retrieving the gun and killing the girl. Only Drake Sinclair, a gunfighter with a shadowy past, stands in their way.”
The Sixth Gun is a graphic novel that takes place in the Old West, shortly after the end of the Civil War. The story centers around a set of six pistols, each imbued with dark powers. The wielder of each pistol gains an ability unique to that weapon, and is tied to the pistol until his or her death. The guns are numbered, with the titular Sixth Gun belonging to Becky Montcrief , one of the story’s protagonists. The other main protagonist is Drake Sinclair, a gunfighter who begins the story searching for the Hanging Tree—an oracle that can tell him how to access Confederate General Oliander Bedford Hume’s vault, and the untold riches lying within. The villains of the series include recurring antagonist General Hume, the Knights of Solomon, the Sword of Abraham, and others vying for control of the guns.
In the vein of Weird Western Stories comics of the past, The Sixth Gun combines werewolves , vampires, zombies and undead cowboys, along with a necromancer from the Civil War that wants to get back to the living. Despite the artwork being fairly mainstream, it manages to tell an interesting story and keeps it dark at most times.
In 2013 NBC ordered a pilot based on The Sixth Gun, and Laura Ramsey, W. Earl Brown, Graham McTavish and Aldis Hodge were cast. Additional cast included Michiel Huisman as Drake Sinclair, Pedro Pascal as Agent Ortega and Elena Satine as Missy Hume. On May 8, 2013, The Hollywood Reporter reported that NBC had passed on the series.
