From The Punisher (Vol. 1) #1 (1986)
Though the Punisher had been around since 1974, he’d always been forced to appear in the pages of other characters’ comic books. When he appeared, he was a foil to the main character, an antihero to contrast against the more heroic nature of the titular character. After more than a decade in a supporting role, Frank Castle was finally headlining his own miniseries in 1986.
After having been thrown in jail thanks to his tendency to kill people, Frank was still coming to terms with his life in prison when the warden approached him, offering a way out of jail. All he had to do was to sign up with a group called the Trust. Their proposal was simple: they would fund his one-man war on organized crime as long as he kept on killing bad guys. Agreeing, Frank suited up and prepared to get back to work. This page, written by Steven Grant with art by Mike Zeck, shows the Punisher getting back to doing the thing that he does best.
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Easily my favorite Marvel character of all time.
Say what you want about him being limited within the scope of story you can tell but I generally feel he offers more chances with interpretation than a lot of others. Just in the last decade the runs written by Remender, Ennis and Rucka have all been excellent but completely unique from one another.
In many ways Deadpool started off like the Punisher, going from side-character to title character.
Zeck is so, SO good.
Hear hear! One of my favourite artists of all time. It’s a shame he doesn’t seem to do any interior work any more. Or any work beyond commission for that matter. Would love to see him on a high profile book again soon.
You are correct, sir — this was the best Zeck there ever was, perhaps.
I would pay all the moneyz for a recolored trade. I’m not even a Punisher fan, but the vulgar color tech and paper quality of the time mired the fantastic pencils and inks. It would be amazing to see the recolor treatment on that stuff.
I would go so far as to say he was the best Marvel artist of the 80’s.
Woah woah woah…John Byrne?
Does Frank mean “all right” as in, everything that is, is right…or is he just being generally agreeable, as in, “alright?”
Editors, do your jobs, you idiots.
Not really that great of a Warden to allow a murderer out of the prison.
This is just such a fantastic splash. Zeck’s line seems so much tighter than other artists from the era. Anyone know who colored this? The colors are great.