Punisher War Zone 12 page 20 by Mike Mckone & Mark Mckenna

This is the second page of a 3 pages sequence I was lucky to win recently during a C-Link auction.

To be clear, nobody can touch Ennis’s take on the Punisher in my book. Best ever in intensity and sophistication, it remains unsurpassed, even by its creators or historic writers.

But from time to time, there have been excellent efforts and one of them was Psychoville, an arc that ran from Punisher War Zone 12 to 16 during the 90s (1993 to be precise). Expertly written by Dan Abnett, it tells a sort of What if story that’s so different from the usual gang or warfare violence, it was burned in my teen mind. I reread it recently upon seeing the pages for sale and it still holds up nicely. If you have even a moderate interest in the character or simply like good stories with good art, I would recommend it.

And good art it was, Mike Mckone super realistic approach worked so well to ground the story in the day to day context it needed. Nothing flashy but super solid and detailed art.

Without disclosing too much, basic premise was putting the character as a regular joe, a regular citizen, in a regular average small town. Or is it?

The first panel is excellent. The choice of placing the camera from above allowed Mike to draw a full muscular Frank dodging the shot from the gun. And tons of debris. Again Frank’s pose seems realistic as you can tell he is crouching both from the impact of jumping and avoiding the shot.

Then in panels 2 to 4, we have a somehow awkward fight. Should the Punisher be in his right state of mind, he would dispose of the big belly husband without effort. But in the context of the story, I find that Mike did a great job showing us a fight-clumsy Frank struggling through the whole scene (lots of grinding teeth here).

And it goes downhill as the beer belly husband manages to get the best of Frank in the last panel which prompts you to quickly turn the page.

Another great action page and staging within a small room from Mike.

Please see my other two posts for the other 2 pages as it made sense to upload all 3 together.