''Dead Corps'', subtitled Dead Corpse, is a four-issue comic book

mini-series A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. "Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries format h ...

published in

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

by Helix, a short-lived imprint of American company DC Comics. Written by

Christopher Hinz Christopher Hinz (born March 10, 1951) is an American writer best known for the Paratwa science fiction trilogy. Hinz has also written comic books 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 ( ;) is a British comic book artist who has worked for American and British comic producers including DC Comics, DC, Marvel Comics, Marvel, Dark Horse Comics, Dark Horse and ''2000 AD (comic), 2000 AD''. He broke into the industry in ...

, 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. 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.

Notes

References

* *
''Dead Corps(e)''
at the Big Comic Book DataBase 1998 comics debuts {{DC-Comics-stub