All this year I'll be posting Punisher comics. Most of them will be from the pre-Ennis era, but there'll be an Ennis era story or two at some point. Expect at least 1 storytime per week.
Over the last several weeks I've been covering the aftermath of "Suicide Run", an "event" that ran in all 3 Punisher ongoings in the early 90s, the consequences of which played out in The Punisher's main series as well as The Punisher War Journal.
While those 2 books covered the then-current continuity from the perspective of The Punisher and Lynn Michaels, respectively, The Punisher War Zone was turned into a sort of "Untold Tales of The Punisher" book, featuring stories that took place after Chuck Dixon's first run on the series, but before "Suicide Run".
Launched in 1992 as a 3rd Punisher ongoing, War Zone's basic concept was, in a nutshell, "big name writers and artists on long form story arcs". It famously started with a top notch arc by Chuck Dixon and John Romita Jr. and continued with other arcs by guys like Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning or Larry Hama.
Today's storytime sees he return of Chuck Dixon to the book, along with the INCREDIBLE artwork of comics industry legend John Buscema, who had worked with Dixon before on a sort of " Marvel Elseworlds" story called A Man Named Frank, about a cowboy version of The Punisher, as well as also having done a few other issues of various Punisher comics. No joke, this is probably one of the best writer/artist teams on The Punisher EVER and really a must read.
The story in question is named "Conan With A Gun", which is apparently a reference to Chuck Dixon's belief that The Punisher was a modern day equivalent of Conan the Barbarian. It was later collected in TPB form as "Barbarian With A Gun", presumably to avoid copyright issues. There's a scan of the TPB, but I always post the floppies whenever possible, so we'll be reading each chapter as originally released.
Reading bump, thanks for your effort OP, as always. Your storytimes actually made me want to read all Punisher comics and reminded me that Punisher was one of my first comic book experiences. JRJR's first issues of War Zone in colour will never not feel weird to me. #1-6 were first published in my country in black and white, and it looked cool as hell.
Brody Harris
ISSUE #28
Brody Nelson
Thanks op. I notice that there has been a jihad declared on Chuck Dixon at Marvel. In the most recent Punisher issue, there's no way the writer could have forgotten Dixon in his acknowledgement of past writers if he managed to recall Jo Duffy, then it happens again in the credits for Netflix Punisher. I don't think it's coincidence, think the Marvel hit squad will target me and my family for noticing this? I just don't believe that one of the three kings of old School Punisher can be forgotten like that. I'm not saying Dixon's great, but it seems he nuked the bridge with Marvel.
Wyatt Davis
That's actually the reason why they were sparsely colored, because the Marvel staffers thought the inked versions were awesome and wanted to retain as much of the feel in the colored version as possible.
Sebastian Robinson
I hadn't heard about that, but that's very clearly NOT a coincidence.
Jaxson Butler
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Cooper Nguyen
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Jason Russell
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John Hall
Yeah, I prefer B&W version as well, but I take into account that it may be nostalgia speaking.
Elijah Russell
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Caleb Parker
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Lincoln Roberts
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Jose Wilson
Being a vocal republican lies outside of Marvel's Overton window currently. Not giving him credit for his Punisher work is downright disrespectful though.
