How long can one man keep a dying man’s promise? Especially when that dying man was a former Marine and brother-in-arms. McQuade was once a straight-arrow Marine, and a combat veteran of the Iraq war, but that was a lifetime ago, before he changed, before that ill fated mission, before the loss of his buddy, Hooper, before that damn discovery of Iraqi gold, before he and his unit faked their own deaths to live out the rest of their days with their stolen fortune.


Eleven years have passed and McQuade’s promise is about to be put to the test. A flame from his past, Hooper’s wife, Sarah, is being terrorized by a faction of the Mexican cartel. They intend to use her farm to springboard their drug distribution across the border into the States. Sarah is fast running out of options.  Even the local police are powerless, or unwilling, to help. She can’t go toe-to-toe with a criminal organization like the cartel, and she doesn’t have the experience or firepower even if she could. In desperation she turns to the one man she promised herself she would never contact again: James McQuade.


McQuade knows he can’t do this alone.  He needs the right men for the job, and they need to be baddest of the bad, professional killers and just desperate enough to help. Fortunately, he knows the perfect candidates for the job: his old unit from Iraq. One by one he tracks them down, traveling across the country from state-to-state. In true Magnificent Seven-style, each team member has his/her own special trait: the sniper, the blood-hungry fighter, the wannabe soldier, the PTSD sufferer, and the guilt-ridden Chaplin. All of them bear scars of the war they survived, and the fortune they stole. Each of them have something to prove to themselves as well as the memory of Hooper, the brother they left behind. Only then will they have a chance of healing and regaining some sense of purpose, and peace, in their lives.


The old unit has to plan their strategy carefully--all pieces need to be in place before they can rid the cartel from Sarah’s life. The more time the McQuade’s team spend helping Sarah and the workforce, the more they find the path to redemption. Some find their courage, while others find a way to move on from the ghosts of the past. But their peace is cut-short when the cartel attack. It’s a vicious and bloody last stand as the cartel bring in more and more men to take on McQuade’s ‘six’. Nothing will deter their leader, Señor Martinez, from his goal of taking the farm from Sarah… not even six former Marines with a promise to keep.


Most of them won’t survive, but all will achieve the kind of blood redemption and honor that can only be gained with sacrifice and defiance.

Created by: George Pelecanos
Written by: Andi Ewington

Illustrator: Mack Chater

Editor-in-Chief: David Forrest


Has done sequential work for ASHES, EARP: SAINTS FOR SINNERS, THE FUSE andSMOKE/ASHES. He is also known for his character design work


Is known for his acclaimed crime writing, including successful runs on shows such as THE WIRE and THE PACIFIC, the upcoming film SHOEDOG and producing TREME(Television) and THE CONFIDENTIAL INFORMANT (Short)


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