John Dolmayan is the drummer of System of a Down, a metal band with hit songs including “Chop Suey,” “Toxicity,” and “B.Y.O.B.” When he’s not performing on the stage, he’s enjoying the world of comic book to the point of owning an actual comic book store called Torpedo Comics and collaborating with top artists such as Jim Lee. Dolmayan has a new comic book series titled Dead Samurai, marking the second comic book series he has written after Ascencia.

Set in eighteenth-century feudal Japan, Dead Samurai follows a half-Japanese, half-Portuguese samurai named Shinzu, an outcast who fails to save his lord and family. However, he finds out that the youngest daughter is still alive, and he must escort her to safety from bandits, rogue ronin samurai, and cannibalistic zombie-like humans infected by a leprosy-based disease.

Working with Dolmayan are artist Ryan Benjamin and cover artist Bill Sienkiewicz.

“I met him through my good friend Jim Lee, years ago at WildStorm,” Dolmayan said of artist Ryan Benjamin. “And, you know, we’ve been looking for a way to work together. He’s so into this era of Japan as well. So it worked out perfectly, you know, like, I’ve been kind of trying to get him to do stuff for me for a long time, but great artists are always sought after and busy. It’s tough to get them. Marvel and DC snatches him up pretty, pretty readily. But when I told him the concept, he was like, 100% in right away. He got excited, which is always what you want to hear.”

Dolmayan has plans to write at least six issues with variant covers from top artists.

“So this is only going to be six or seven issues, maybe eight in total, depending on how long it takes me to tell the story,” he said. “Bill’s going to do all the main covers. Then I got a bunch of friends – Jim Lee, Frank Cho, Arthur Adams – they’re all going to do variants, which should be really cool.”

Dolmayan wanted to create something that he would enjoy reading and is hoping that it will be picked up as a live-action film.

“I want it to be live-action,” he explained. “There’s some really cool animation already done, you know, so I don’t want to take away from that. This needs to be a live-action. It could be practical effects. It could be shot mostly in forests and small villages and stuff like that. And it can be done. I can get a decent budget. But, you know, we don’t need big CGI. We don’t need anything. It’s a lot of dialog, a lot of introspection, and character development is important to me. So it’s a lot about the characters, and I want people to be able to relate to them because I’ve taken different personality traits I have and close friends, and put them into these characters. So it should be relatable for most people.”

About Dead Samurai

In 16th-century feudal Japan, a leprosy-based infection that penetrates the brain has turned millions of humans into cannibalistic creatures devoid of morality or memory. A half-Japanese, half-Portuguese Samurai named Shinzu has failed to defend his Daimyo and his family from danger. Shamed beyond redemption, he resigns himself to seppuku (ritual suicide). Before he has a chance, he discovers the Daimyo’s youngest daughter has survived!

With a regained sense of purpose and a way to regain his honor, he sets off on a quest to find a safe haven for his ward. Dead Samurai is a Three Musketeers-esque story of duty and honor, as well as personal sacrifice and friendship.

Dead Samurai will be released on October 9, 2024. Pre-orders are available at Torpedo Comics.