Marvel Comics Presents: Wolverine # 1 page 4 art by John Buscema &Klaus Janson (1988) - 1st Lowtown / 1st Princess Bar / 1st O'Donnell

Marvel Comics Presents: Wolverine # 1 page 4
Art by John Buscema & Klaus Janson
Written by Chris Claremont
Marvel Comics - May 1988

With the excitement of the Klaus Janson exhibit opening in NYC at the Philippe Labaune Gallery I wanted to share a page that's very special to me from John Buscema and Klaus Janson.

In the early nineties as a pre-teen, I discovered Buscema's Wolverine comics and the debut Marvel Comics Presents stories. MCP issue 1 gave us the first 8 pages of the 80 page "Tyger Tiger" story that would later crossover into the main Wolverine title. It opened with a bold splash image of Wolvie in his classic brown suit on top of a building -- see Phoenix’s Galactic Gallery CAF for that beauty. It was something familiar, but at the time the world thought the X-men were dead so something new was just around the corner. Pages 2 and 3 brought the scene change with a sprawling two page image of Madripoor, which was a place that had only been mentioned briefly in New Mutants 32 a couple years prior.

We turned the page and land here on page 4! This page set the scene and tone for this arc giving us the first close up look at Lowtown and the Princess Bar, which would become a common stomping ground in Marvel Comics Presents and the Wolverine series written by Claremont, as well as, other modern stories including the classic Uncanny X-Men #268 issue two years later and other modern runs. We also got O'Donnell's first appearance panel at the bottom.

I have to send a HUGE THANK YOU to Klaus and Jason at Essential for making this possible. It’s amazing to think about this being in Klaus’ drawer for the past 38 years. I cherish it. I also want to send a big thank you to Andre for getting this signed by Chris Claremont at Heroes Con in Charlotte, NC on June 22, 2025, while I was working my table.

Sharing a fun look at this issue by Comics Bazaar: