Your 101st Co(s)mic ComicBook B'Cast

Hey there Comic Fans, welcome to your 101st Co(s)mic ComicBook B'Cast.
As usual, thanks for dropping by. Hope you're doing alright.
Now, for this edition of the B'Cast, I'm going to talk about one of my favorite Marvel Comics characters.
He is none other than The Punisher!

The first time I read about Frank Castle was in this issue.  The Punisher Limited Series # 1 featuring a cover by Mike Zeck and Phil Zimelman. Mike Zeck also did the interior art with inker John Beatty.  I became a Punisher fan almost instantly. This comic blew me away and introduced to me a character I knew but never really followed.  Then came Issue # 2 of the Punisher.

After this issue, I was hooked instantly. I became a fan. Another great cover by Mike Zeck and Phil Zimelman.
Now I won't be giving you any new insight into this character or ananything like that.  There are other sites and blogs who do that sort of thing better than me. I am going to say that I don't like what Marvel did to the Punisher.
From the Frankencastle storyline to the cosmic Ghost Rider thing, I lost track of what the Punisher has become. Marvel no longer knows how to depict Frank Castle, in my opinion, they just throw whatever they have at him and hope and pray something works. Oh well.  I can grumble and moan about how crappy Marvel treats their characters but the powers that be won't listen to a lowly comicbook fan.
Anyway, what I intend to do here is to share the artwork featuring The Punisher by certain artists.
These are my favorites, like the covers by Mike Zeck and Phil Zimelman.
So, I hope you'll like the art I'm going to share for this edition of the B'Cast. Enjoy.

The Punisher Limited Series # 3 by Zeck and Zimelman.

The Punisher Limited Series # 4 by Zeck and Zimelman.

The Punisher Limited Series # 5 by Zeck and Zimelman.
And right here, we have a beautiful piece by Mike Zeck and John Beatty who both did the art for the Punisher Limited Series.  Issue # 5 featured pencils by Mike Vossburg.

Here's another artist who had drew The Punisher. Another favorite of mine. Bill Reinhold. 

Another artist who put his unique stamp on Frank Castle was Timothy Bradstreet.

John Romita Jr and Klaus Janson gave us their rendition of the Punisher in The Punisher War Zone. I remember reading that John Romita Jr drew Frank a little differently than other artists. He made me look grittier and patterned Frank's overall look after one of his uncles.

 John Romita Jr and Klaus Janson's Punisher.

I'm also a big fan of Joe Jusko's rendition of The Punisher as seem here in the covers to the Punisher Magazine issue # 6 and # 8.

But my all time favorite has got to be this cover to The Punisher Magazine # 10.

Here's another artist that drew Marvel's antihero.  His name is Michael Golden.

 The cover to The Punisher # 50 by Michael Golden.

The cover to The Punisher Armory # 10 also by Michael Golden. Awesome! 

 Take a look at this cover by Michael Golden from The Punisher # 100.

 The Punisher War Zone # 23 by Michael Golden.

The Punisher # 86 by Michael Golden. 

Well, I hope you enjoyed the covers and artwork featuring The Punisher. 

I wonder who else worked on The Punisher as well?  Yeah, well that's a question for another day and another edition of the B'Cast.

Again I hope you enjoyed seeing the amazing artwork by these amazing artists. 

Drop by again soon for another edition of the B'Cast..I'll see you again soon. 

Take care Comic Fan! 

Your 94th Co(s)mic ComicBook B'Cast.

When I was growing up many many many moons ago, one of the things I always looked forward to was the school breaks, especially the year end school breaks. After the final exams, it would be a couple months of relative freedom and I had a ritual the day after final exams whether I passed or not. More often than not I failed.  Anyway, the ritual.
I would sit down and look over a catalog from a comicbook shop and start writing down what titles and what issues I wanted. Those days, we didn't have the Internet, so all orders were done by hand and sent via snail mail.
This whole process would take almost 6 months.  Those days comics were not delivered via airmail, no air.  Comics were shipped from the United States to overseas destinations via sea mail. Let that sink in for a while.
Sea. Mail.
Yep and it took a long time for comics to be shipped anywhere in the world. It isn't as expensive as the airmail of today but it meant having a lot of patience. A lot of patience and there's always that chance they would lose your package of comics.
Since I did this once a year, I would save up some cash for the comics and of course for the shipping costs. It would take me a while to save up the money but to me, it was worth it.
So I've write to stores in the United States and ask if they sell and ship comics overseas, some said no, a few said yeah, sure.
And I'd buy in BULK. I mmean a number of titles and issues. Comics I couldn't get locally, favorite issues and just titles I really wanted to read.
Up until this point, I had been a fan of the Uncanny X-Men and the artist at the time, John Romita Jr.
I loved his work.  Followed the issues he drew religiously.
I was disappointed when he left The Uncanny X-Men. I followed him as he started drawing Star Brand and other titles.
Now, it was nearing time for me to buy my comics and I wrote everything down in great detail. I had read through news letters than John Romita Jr was now drawing Daredevil. Up to that point, I had only read a few issues of DD but now that Jr. Jr is the regular artist, I decided it is the perfect jumping on point. So I found out which issue he drew and ordered them. Remember I bought comics in bulk so I could read all these issues.
Well, sometimes these stores ran out on the issues I wanted and I'd miss out on getting a complete run of a particular title.  It was disappointing.
Well, I ordered Jr. Jr's issues of Daredevil and unfortunately I only got a few issues of Daredevil. I remember reading each issue voraciously. I loved the artwork.  Jr. Jr collaborated with veteran artist and inker Al Williamson on Daredevil and the result was something I loved.
One issue that always stood out for me was Daredevil # 252. It was a double sized issue and it was also a Fall of the Mutants tie in. I loved the issue.  I read that issue from cover to cover.

Here's the cover. Beautiful artwork by John Romita Jr and Al Williamson.

There was a sense of realism to the artwork that really stood out to me.  Here's the splash page from issue # 252.

This issue also featured an appearance by the Black Widow. Here's a few pages from this issue.

One thing I love about Jr. Jr's art is how good he is at drawing battle scenes. I guess after drawing the X-Men for so long, he can draw pretty much anything.

Daredevil # 252 was and still is a favorite issue of mine. I believe my copy of this issue is still in my collection. Hope it's still okay.
Now because the store didn't have all the DD issues I wanted, I missed out on a few issues of Daredevil and that was very disappointing.
I was lucky that there were other issues which were available. Like this one.

Daredevil # 259 where Typhoid Mary and the Kingpin gathered a bunch of Daredevil's "friends" and attacked him. Which brings us to another favorite of mine.

The final triumph of Typhoid Mary.  This was Daredevil # 260. Another beautifuly drawn issue. The more I read Daredevil, the more I loved the art of John Romita Jr and Al Williamson.
I could get issue # 261 though. The store didn't have that issue in stock. Never knew what happened in issue # 261. Don't tell me.  I don't wanna know. I figure I'll read it. One day I'll buy a copy. Somehow.

Here's another issue I couldn't get.  Issue # 257 guest starred the Punisher. It was rare in those days to have a guest star and whenever that happened, it was special.

So I didn't get to read this issue. One day.
Thanks for spending your time on the Co(s)mic ComicBook B'Cast. Appreciate any feedback you might have or comments.
I haven't been updating my blog on a regular basis But I'm trying my best to update this site as often as possible.
Thanks for dropping by, see you next time comic fan!