Fans of The Sixth Gun, the supernatural Western by Cullen Bunn, Brian Hurtt and Bill Crabtree, know the set-up well: In the darkest days of the Civil War, some wicked cutthroats came to possess six pistols of unimaginable power. But then the most dangerous of all the weapons, the Sixth Gun, vanished, only to resurface in the hands of an innocent girl, reawakening dark forces. And when men long thought dead set out to retrieve the pistol and kill the girl, only shadowy gunfighter Drake Sinclair stands in their way.

Newcomers will have a chance to acquaint themselves with the story next week, when Oni Press releases The Sixth Gun, Vol. 1, an oversized hardcover edition collecting the first 11 issues of the series (there's plenty for longtime fans, too, including a cover gallery, never-before-seen pitch artwork, and the previously online-exclusive Christmas story "Them's What Ails Ya!").

To mark the premiere of the deluxe edition, ROBOT 6 is exclusively serializing a brand-new Sixth Gun story by Bunn, Hurtt and Crabtree over the next few weeks. Read the first installment below, and check back next Wednesday for the second.