Q&A with Cullen Bunn & Brian Hurtt on THE SIXTH GUN’s Return with the DELUXE OMNIBUS LIBRARY on Kickstarter

“After nearly 15 years, more than 60 issues, and a landslide of critical acclaim, the longest running creator-owned series in the history of Oni Press lives again on Kickstarter with a brand-new pre-order campaign setting the stage for the return of THE SIXTH GUN from co-creators Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt in 2025!

It all begins with THE SIXTH GUN DELUXE OMNIBUS LIBRARY – debuting today exclusively on Kickstarter with four, deluxe hardcover volumes collecting the totality of the bullet-riddled action epic… plus, over the course of this campaign, up to three ALL-NEW prelude one-shots setting the stage for Bunn and Hurtt’s upcoming return to the world of THE SIXTH GUN in 2025, just in time for the series’ 15th anniversary!”

In conjunction with today’s exciting announcement about The Sixth Gun Deluxe Omnibus Library, I had a chance to catch up with Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt, who talked about revisiting the original series new omnibus library, what goodies they’ve worked on for the campaign, and their creative partnership:

I’m so excited to hear about THE SIXTH GUN DELUXE OMNIBUS LIBRARY and I know our readers will be too! How did this project come together and what was it like to revisit your work on The Sixth Gun in preparation for this deluxe omnibus release?

CULLEN: We have been talking about bringing a new version of THE SIXTH GUN to readers for some time. I love the single issues, the trades, and the Gunslinger Editions, but I’ve always wanted a meatier omnibus edition, too. I know there are readers out there who haven’t had the chance to experience the world of THE SIXTH GUN. I feel so bad for them. And I want to help them find a great path into these stories. When we started talking to Oni about omnibus editions, we decided to offer something really, really special, and these gorgeous hardcovers were born.

At the same time, Brian and I knew we wanted to tell new stories connected to THE SIXTH GUN. Not stories that took place before or during the series we created. We wanted to continue the adventure. We got a little of that with SHADOW ROADS, but it wasn’t as definitive as we really wanted. So, with the book’s anniversary looming, we devised something amazing, a new epic weird western, that returns to the world in a huge way.

And what better time to announce that coming series than when we launch the campaign for the omnibus editions?

BRIAN: It really was a confluence of events that brought us here. The omnibus editions have been planned for years now but we only started having serious conversations about the shape they’d take over these past few months. At the same time, we became aware that the fifteen year anniversary was coming up so Cullen and I started talking a little more seriously about doing something to mark the occasion. We started throwing around ideas–like we always do–but nothing felt consequential enough. But the conversations continued because our excitement about coming back to the world had not abated. The more we talked, the more we realized we wanted to return in a big way and I think it was that decision to let our imaginations “go big” that really unlocked some ideas for us. From that point on, the idea of this new series took on a life of its own and just started revealing itself to us. I haven’t felt this creatively invigorated since the inception of the original THE SIXTH GUN series! I can’t wait to share it with everyone!

Even for those that own all of the current The Sixth Gun comics, it sounds like there is plenty being offered via the project’s Kickstarter campaign to interest fans of the series, including all-new prelude stories ahead of the brand new The Sixth Gun comic book series coming in 2025. What can you tease about the new prelude stories?

CULLEN: I can’t say a lot. We’re keeping our secrets! I will tell you that these stories will serve as the first steps across a bridge between the stories that came before (in THE SIXTH GUN and SHADOW ROADS) and the stories that will be unfolding when Brian and I return to the world we created in 2025.

BRIAN: These stories will offer hints to the reader as to where we might be heading in 2025. We’ll be dropping seeds that will start to grow and bear fruit in this next iteration of THE SIXTH GUN universe. Our aim with these shorter pieces is to surprise and excite readers old and new and to tell stories that will have bearing on the future of THE SIXTH GUN.

I also think it’s really cool that there’s gonna be The Sixth Gun prose story, based on the wild west dime novels. What can you tell us about the new story? Were there any dime novels that served as inspiration or that you’d recommend to someone that wants to get into reading wild west pulp?

CULLEN: Years ago, I read a Space & Time edition of Joe Lansdale’s novella DEAD IN THE WEST, and it became one of my favorite reading experiences. I still return to that now dog-eared copy of the book year after year. I’m drawing a lot of inspiration for the dime novel I’m writing from that. When I first started submitting my own fiction out into the world, the first short story I sold was an homage to Joe’s story. It was even sold to the same magazine that originally published DEAD IN THE WEST. Sadly, the magazine folded (because it was an amazing magazine) before the story saw print. I don’t think it was my best short story, so I’m not too upset that it didn’t appear in the pages of the otherwise awesome publication. The new story, though, it’s gonna be a banger.

What are some of the other campaign’s offerings that you’re especially excited about?

CULLEN: I back a lot of Kickstarters, and there are always “crunchy bits” that I’m looking for. This campaign has plenty of them! Print sets! Enamel pins! That really cool hip flask! But if I were to say there’s one thing I’m most excited about, it’s the Chris Samnee variant cover for issue 1. I’ve seen the cover. It’s a knockout.

BRIAN: I’m partial to the hip flask, myself!

Between the prelude, prose story, and putting together this wonderful omnibus and campaign, it seems like you two have been incredibly busy behind-the-scenes working on all things The Sixth Gun! Can you tell me a little about your process working together and diving back into this world you created?

BRIAN: Our creative partnership has never taken time off. Cullen and I have been batting stories around from a time before either of us was even in comics up to today! It doesn’t matter that we might be off working on separate things, we’re always in that creative kitchen trying to cook up something new. So this new project is just a continuation of that process–the inevitable offspring of all these years of creative collaboration.

The most rewarding part of all of this process has been that our conversations of late have actually had me take THE SIXTH GUN off the shelf and revisit it with new eyes. I’ve lived with this series for years, intensely focused on every script page, every panel. But I’ve never had the opportunity to take it in objectively–to experience it as just a reader. Time and distance has allowed for that now and I’ve been surprised at how much I love it! It’s so good, I forget that I worked on it! I’ve always been proud of the work we did but I’m now even more proud of the quality of the story we told. It only makes me more determined to live up to–and to honor–that work as we move forward!

CULLEN: In so, so many ways, we’ve never left the world of THE SIXTH GUN. Even when we are working together on other projects, we almost always drift back to the Weird West and start kicking around ideas for what we might do in that world. We haven’t rushed back into it, because we didn’t want to do anything that took steam away from the story we had already told. We only wanted to tell a story that mattered in the grand scheme of the world, that honored and enhanced the original story. And we’ve finally found that story.

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For more info, we’ve included the official press release below. To support the project, visit Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/onipress/the-sixth-gun?ref=3b8g4j

Press Release: After nearly 15 years, more than 60 issues, and a landslide of critical acclaim, the longest running creator-owned series in the history of Oni Press lives again on Kickstarter with a brand-new pre-order campaign setting the stage for the return of THE SIXTH GUN from co-creators Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt in 2025!

It all begins with THE SIXTH GUN DELUXE OMNIBUS LIBRARY – debuting today exclusively on Kickstarter with four, deluxe hardcover volumes collecting the totality of the bullet-riddled action epic that CBR calls “a modern comic book classic”…plus, over the course of this campaign, up to three ALL-NEW prelude one-shots setting the stage for Bunn and Hurtt’s upcoming return to the world of THE SIXTH GUN in 2025, just in time for the series’ 15th anniversary!

Featuring the entirety of the series’ groundbreaking, 50-issue run from THE SIXTH GUN #1–50 – plus the companion THE SIXTH GUN: SONS OF THE GUN #1-5, THE SIXTH GUN: DAYS OF THE DEAD #1-5, THE SIXTH GUN: DUST TO DUST #1-3, and THE SIXTH GUN: VALLEY OF DEATH #1-3 series, alongside the standalone spin-off series, SHADOW ROADS #1-10 – across four hardcover volumes spanning more than 1,500 pages, THE SIXTH GUN DELUXE OMNIBUS LIBRARY is the ultimate opportunity to experience Bunn and Hurtt’s occult odyssey through the Old West for long-time fans and first-time readers alike.

Also debuting exclusively as part of this campaign, Oni is giving fans the first look ahead at the long-awaited, much-anticipated return of THE SIXTH GUN – slated for release in 2025 in coincide with the series’ 15th anniversary – with three, all-new prelude stories that will unlock as the campaign reaches new milestones over the course of its 30-day run, and will be packaged as self-contained, 24-page issues in the standard comic book format to accompany THE SIXTH GUN DELUXE OMNIBUS LIBRARY’s multiple hardcover volumes.

Revealing the first new SIXTH GUN stories written by Bunn and illustrated by Hurtt since the series’ triple-sized finale with THE SIXTH GUN #50 in 2016, each self-contained tale will spotlight a new dimension to the world that has emerged in the aftermath of THE SIXTH GUN’s explosive conclusion…and lay the groundwork for the revelatory adventure yet to come when THE SIXTH GUN is REBORN anew in 2025. Plus: As an extra-added bonus, each standalone prelude will also include chapters of a brand-new SIXTH GUN prose story in the tradition of the great Western dime novels – written by Bunn with spot illustrations by Hurtt!

“From the moment we wrapped up THE SIXTH GUN, Brian and I have been discussing how we might return to that world,” said Cullen Bunn. “SHADOW ROADS was a successor to the original story, yes, but we intentionally distanced those stories from the original material. We were treading very carefully. We had poured our blood, sweat, and tears into this epic Old West fantasy, and we didn’t want to return too haphazardly. We wanted to make sure we had an amazing story to tell. Now, we’ve found that story. And it’s going to be something special. It fuses THE SIXTH GUN and SHADOW ROADS into a new supernatural epic. When we discuss this new story, this new direction, I get positively giddy. It’s the same feeling of excitement I experienced when we were cooking up THE SIXTH GUN in the first place.”

The year is 1866. The Confederacy has fallen, but evil still pervades a scarred nation. In the aftermath of the Civil War, rebel general Oliander Hume – mad with bloodlust and warped even further by the force of an impossibly dark magic – searches the frontier for six guns: ancient weapons of unspeakable occult power, believed to convey to otherworldly gifts to the unlucky souls who would possess them. Most important of all to Hume’s quest: THE SIXTH GUN, the last and most powerful of these cursed relics, and the key to unleashing Armageddon upon the world as we know it.

“There’s no better feeling than creative collaboration and there is no better collaborator than Cullen Bunn,” said Brian Hurtt. “Together, we built this world of THE SIXTH GUN—a sandbox full of endless possibilities and endless stories—and we played out our biggest tale there. We thought we’d said our peace. We thought we’d left it all on the field. But this universe we created had different plans for us. Now, we have a new story to tell—one we feel compelled to tell. A story that not only honors what came before but even enriches it. I feel like Dorothy returning to Oz and I can hardly wait to share this journey with readers!”

Created by Eisner Award-winning writer Cullen Bunn (Harrow County, X-Men: Blue) and illustrator Brian Hurtt (Hard Times), THE SIXTH GUN universe also features the talents of illustrators Tyler Crook (Harrow County), Mike Norton (Revival), Brian Churilla (Hellboy & the BPRD), and A.C. Zamudio (Death Follows), along with the masterful colors of Bill Crabtree (BRZRKR), rounding out an all-star cast of graphic storytellers.

Each of the print editions offered in this campaign features 6.625” x 10.1875” hardcovers newly redesigned by Scott Sugiuchi (Estrus: Shovelin’ the $@%& Since ’87) and specially formatted to showcase the entirety of THE SIXTH GUN saga in all of its gunslinging glory– plus exclusive and exceedingly limited upgrades available at every tier, including never-before-seen variant covers by comics master Chris Samnee (Daredevil), signed and remarqued editions, exclusive merchandise, and much, much more!

Before THE SIXTH GUN is reborn anew in 2025 with an all-new series coming soon to comic shops everywhere, relive each page of a true modern comics masterpiece with THE SIXTH GUN DELUXE OMNIBUS LIBRARY…and prepare for THE SIXTH GUN’s upcoming return with three brand-new, one-shot preludes that will lay the groundwork the stage for the series’ next stunning chapter – never to be released in this format ever again!”