The Fifteenth Co(s)mic Comic Book Broadcast: The Further Adventures of the Holy Grail.

The Co(s)mic Comic Book Broadcast is back, in my previous posts I talked about my Holy Grail, it’s a list of comics that I would love to buy to complete my collection, over the years this short list has become a long shopping list of comics I want to get my hands on, it’s a list that I’ve compiled for a long time.  For the 15th broadcast, here’s the next item…or rather items, a set in fact.  This is one for all the Punisher Fans out there.  Here it is:

The Punisher Limited series.  It was released in January of 1986.  Written by Steven Grant and penciled by Mike Zeck, Inks by John Beatty.  This limited series came about due to the efforts of Steven Grant and Mike Zeck.  It wasn’t an easy process but it finally happened thanks to an editor.  A new Marvel editor by the name of Carl Potts was looking for projects, so Steven Grant and Mike Zeck pitched a Punisher miniseries to him, and Potts accepted it, over much objection from Marvel management, who told him that he bore full responsibility for it.  The miniseries premiered with a January 1986 cover date. It was bannered on the cover as the first of four; however, the series had always been intended to be five issues long, and the banner was an error that recurred throughout the entire run. The basic concept changed from Grant’s initial story, though the basic concept remained the same.

 

Here we see the mistake about the series, on the cover of Issue #2, it’s a five issue limited series and on Issue #3, it’s a four issue limited series.  It was a little confusing but that was a small detail.  oh wait the other thing about this limited series was the fact that Mike Zeck only penciled four out of the five issues of this series.  Mike Vosburg took over the pencils for issue #5. 

Now why is this series in my Holy Grail?  Well just look at the covers, spectacular artwork by Mike Zeck made even more spectacular thanks to Phil Zimmelman.  It’s too bad Zeck didnt do the artwork for issue #5 but you can't have everything I guess.  The storyline in this limited series was really good, Steven Grant really hit a chord with readers in the 80′s and some how made the Punisher Cool and I guess you can say he is the first Anti Hero.  Some call him a murderer, some call him a vigilante.  Thanks to this limited series Marvel released an ongoing series. 

The series bannered as #1 in an UNLIMITED SERIES was also titled The Punisher, premiered the next year. Initially by writer Mike Baron and artist Klaus Janson, it eventually ran 104 issues (July 1987 – July 1995) and spun off two additional ongoing series — The Punisher War Journal (80 issues, November 1988 – July 1995) and The Punisher War Zone (41 issues, March 1992 – July 1995).  

I hope one day to find all five issue of the Punisher limited series.  That way my collection will be complete……until the next item pops up.  So what’s on your holy grail?  Thanks for reading.

marvel comics punisher steven grant mike zeck john beatty phil zimmelman mike vosburg