Sneak Preview: Punisher MAX #70

CBR has posted a seven-page preview of Punisher MAX #70, the final issue of "Six Hours to Kill," my story arc with Michel Lacombe. The trade paperback isn't out until late summer, so if you want to see Frank crackin' skulls all over the City of Brotherly Love, snap up the single issues (#66-70) while you can.

Next month, my buddy Victor "Go-Go" Gischler pulls the skull t-shirt over his manly frame and heads down south for his Punisher MAX arc, "Welcome to the Bayou." I can't wait.

It's Always Punishing in Philadelphia

There's a particularly violent five-page preview of this week's Punisher MAX: Frank Castle #69 at the CBR.com website. Sharp-eyed Philadelphians will note the use of the iconic PNB building in the right panel above. There's also a sequence set in one of my favorite Philly bars in this one. Too bad that Frank completely des-... well, you'll see. Hope you'll check it out this Wednesday.

Peace, Bullets and Deadlines

Sorry for the lack of posts lately; it's been a crazy week for deadlines. And I do have a new Punisher MAX annotation brewing (for #67)... but in the meantime, how about some sneak preview type-stuff?

Comics Bulletin has the first seven pages of Punisher MAX #68, due out next week.

And CBR has the first seven pages of Immortal Iron Fist #23 (also out next week).

Finally, Timothy Stevens at Marvel.com talked to me about the upcoming Immortal Iron Fist #24, a stand alone story featuring the only (as far as we know) pacifist Fist. And there are some amazing black and white preview pages from this issue's guest artist, Kano. Enjoy. Be back soon.

Swierczy Annotates: Punisher MAX #66

Yes, I completely dropped the ball on my Iron Fist annotations. I'm hoping to get back to those soon... but in the meantime, let me give you some page-by-page thoughts on the first issue of my current Punisher arc, "Six Hours to Kill."

(Obligatory Spoiler Warning: This annotation might give away some plot points. So read the issue first. Seriously. It'll make this so much cooler.)

Page 1
Splash recap page.
I wasn't sure Axel Alonso (my editor) would go for this, to be honest. But I wanted a mood-setter, as well as something to bring non-Punisher readers up to speed quick. Luckily, Axel agreed, and it became a running feature for the rest of the arc.

Page 3, Panel 5
Frank Castle takes out a guard.
I once accidentally elbowed the Bride in the mouth. Don't look at me that way—it was totally an accident. We were watching TV, and I sat up just as she was leaning down and... pow. This was before we were even married, just dating for maybe a few months—if that. To make matters worse, we were at her mother's house. One minute the woman's washing her hair, the next minute she sees her daughter come rushing into the bathroom, blood dripping from her mouth. Yeah. You can imagine the rest. So to this day I'm extra-cautious when moving my limbs around any of my loved ones, and one of my worst fears is accidentally elbowing someone in the face again. However, you can see that the Punisher has no such fears.

Page 5
Frank shoots the guards.
When it comes to exploding heads, Michel Lacombe has no peers.

Page 6, Panel 6
Frank kills a fleeing guard.
Another one of my bodily fears: tripping and accidentally slamming my eye on the sharp corner of a desk. (An absurd number of my fears find their way into my novels/comics.)

Page 7
Frank walks through the kiddie jail.
For years, there really was a jail for children situated on Philly's Ben Franklin Parkway—which is known to all Rocky fans as the tree-lined, manicured road to the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum. Technically name was the "Youth Study Center," but I always thought the Parkway was a strange place for such a facility. I tucked this fact away, knowing it would come in handy for a story someday.

Page 8, Panel 1
Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
I think the guy in the lower right hand corner is me. (Thanks, Michel.)

Page 8, Panel 4
Frank meets Louis.
Two things about this panel. One: the guy in the gas mask (Louis) was a tip of the hat to Dead Man's Shoes, an excellent revenge movie that Axel recommended to me when we first started kicking around story ideas. Two: I love the little detail Michel included that implies Frank keeps a bunch of extra skull t-shirts in a special compartment in his battle van.

Page 11
The Lizard Kings' Lair.
I based this location on the offices of Red Tettemer, an ad agency located at the top of Philly's iconic PNB Building. Back when I was editor of the Philadelphia City Paper, we had an editorial retreat at Red Tettemer, and I tucked away as many details as I could, knowing I had to use this location in a story someday. (As Alfred Bester once said, writers are magpies.) Anyway, it's a gorgeous space.

Page 12
Frank wakes up.
I'm a huge, huge HUGE fan of those classic Punisher scenes where Frank Castle is strapped to a table and about to be tortured. Of course I had to include such a scene in my own story.

Pages 14-15
Louis gives Frank the lowdown.
In my novels I tend to base at least one loser-ish character on myself. It's no coincidence that "Louis" is my middle name.

Page 17
The Mayor hears the news.
Since the Marvel editorial budget doesn't include travel expenses for its writers and/or artists, I snapped a bunch of photos for Michel Lacombe to use as reference. The shot in panel one was taken by the Bride as we were stopped at a red light near 13th and Market. (By then, she'd clearly forgiven me for the elbow in the face incident.) Also: KYW is the real all-news radio station in town, but "The Glitz" is a made-up nightclub. I had the name of a real nightclub, but apparently featuring real places of business is a Marvel no-no. (Sorry, unamed nightclub!)

Page 20
Frank receives his assignment.
The idea to have Louis wear the Punisher's t-shirt was all Michel's. Absolutely brilliant.

Page 21, Panel 4
Frank leaves the warehouse.
That's a real warehouse near Delaware Avenue you see there. The same joint makes a cameo appearance in issue #1 of Dead of Night: Werewolf By Night, also set (in the beginning, at least) in Philadelphia. I liked the idea that these two MAX universe characters would have something in common... even if it's just a broken-down building somewhere in the City of Brotherly Love.

One more note: The idea from this arc sprang, in part, from an online piece I read about the so-called "Golden Hour," which refers to the 60 minutes immediately following severe trauma. If you receive serious medical care within that first hour, the theory goes, your odds of survival are greatly increased. I thought: what if Frank Castle were given a golden hour? What would he do with it? Later, after I realized that my run on Punisher would start with issue #66, I changed it to six hours. And away we went...

A Punishing Week

I meant to link to Steven Wells' Philadelphia Weekly piece on The Punisher coming to Philly a few days ago (um, when it appeared), but deadlines and a nasty case of Fanboy Flu have been dogging me all week. Anyway, it's a very fun piece, even if it does make me sound a bit like an over-sized lunatic. (Who feeds his kids breakfast every morning.) I've never been described as almost as pretty as a horse before... thanks, Mr. Wells!

And speaking of Frank Castle, the first seven pages of Punisher: Frank Castle MAX #67 are up at CBR.com, featuring some nice finger-popping action by Michel Lacombe, as well as a Russian valet cursing in broken English.

Six Hours in Five Days

Next week brings Punisher: Frank Castle #66, the first issue of my arc, "Six Hours to Kill" (with superstud Canadian artist Michel Lacombe). You can read me yapping about it with CBR's Dave Richards.

Two Months Until Six Hours

Wizard Universe.com just posted some sneak peeks at Michel Lacombe's art for Punisher: Frank Castle #66, the first issue of our story arc, "Six Hours to Kill." You'll be able to read the whole darn thing January 21, 2009.

Your January '09 Nerdery Preview

Somehow, I have four comics... yes, four... appearing in January 2009, and the preview blurbs were just released.

The first two are my usual monthy titles. One's the conclusion of a story arc, the other, the beginning of a new story arc:

CABLE #10
Written by DUANE SWIERCZYNSKI
Pencils & Cover by ARIEL OLIVETTI
“WAITING FOR THE END OF THE WORLD,”CONCLUSION
In the present, Cyclops, Emma and Beast have been ambushed by Bishop and a nasty little surprise he’s smuggled into the X-Men HQ. Meanwhile, hundreds of years in the future, Cable realizes what the former X-Man has done to the planet -- all in an effort to make sure Cable and the four-year-old mutant messiah never, ever return to the present. Once again, the rules of the hunt have been completely rewritten, and the future of mutantkind has never looked more uncertain.
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$2.99

IMMORTAL IRON FIST #22
Written by DUANE SWIERCZYNSKi
Penciled by TRAVEL FOREMAN
Cover by PATRICK ZIRCHER
Iron Fist and the Immortal Weapons kick off another dimension-spanning adventure! Think you know everything there is to know about the Seven Capital Cities of Heaven? Well, maybe you do. But a couple of arcs ago we did tease there being an EIGHTH city...oh that’s right...Duane Swierczynski and Travel Foreman are taking it there!
32 PGS./Rated T+ ...$2.99

And the new titles are the first issues of two mini-series... both long in the making, and both under the MAX imprint:

PUNISHER: FRANK CASTLE #66
Written by DUANE SWIERCZYNSKI
Penciled by MICHEL LACOMBE
Cover by DAVE JOHNSON
“SIX HOURS TO KILL," PART 1
The Punisher always knew he’d die on the job. But he didn’t know he’d have an expiration date. After busting up a slave ring in downtown Philadelphia, Frank Castle has been tricked, trapped, gassed, strapped to a table and injected with a serum that will turn him into a 220-pound corpse by dawn -- six hours from now. The people who grabbed him want him to do a simple little job and then they’ll give him the antidote -- simple, right? Guess again. The Punisher is nobody’s errand boy. There’s only one thing he wants to do before he dies: Take as many bastards as he can with him.
32 PGS./Explicit Content ...$3.99

DEAD OF NIGHT FEATURING WEREWOLF BY NIGHT #1 (of 4)
Written by DUANE SWIERCZYNSKI
Pencils and Cover by MICO SUAYAN
For 28 days of the month, Jack Russell leads a normal life. He’s got a beautiful wife and a baby on the way. He’s the picture of happiness. On day 29, however, he turns into an uncontrollable, bloodthirsty monster. But as the saying goes, the best-laid plans of wolves and men...
32 PGS./Cardstock Cover/Parental Advisory ...$3.99

The Punisher series you already know about; I'm one of three crime novelists tackling Frank Castle in the wake of Garth Ennis. Right now Gregg Hurwitz is kicking ass with the title, and after my five issue run (#66-70), Victor Gischler will be donning the black t-shirt with the white skull. My story's called "Six Hours to Kill," and it's set on the mean streets of Philadelphia.

Werewolf By Night, however, is the "secret horror project with Warren Simons" that's had me almost severing my tongue for over a year now as I struggled to keep my mouth shut. This was (I think) the very first character I pitched when Warren approached me to write for Marvel. It's appropriate, because Werewolf By Night (a.k.a. Jack Russell) was the first Marvel character I ever met, in the form of a book-and-record set (at left) I received one Christmas. It scared the living fuck out of me, and probably kick-started my love of horror. One image, in particular, never left my brain: that of the werewolf, leaping over a fence, as a bullet shred his furry bicep. It was the real world smacking into the horror world, and it was the launchig pad for this new story.

I'll blog more about it when we're closer to the pub date, but it's finally nice to be able to talk about it.

The Coast Guard Cocktail

The medicine man behind Polite Dissent talks a bit about the so-called "Coast Guard Cocktail," as seen in Punisher: Force of Nature. This post made my day.

NY ComicCon Hangover: A Punishing Weekend

The Bride and I spent the weekend at the New York ComicCon (or Comic Con or Comic-Con); in fact we're still here at the hotel, enjoying the relative quiet of Manhattan on a Sunday morning. (That would be relative to our two kids, who are usually up and singing and screaming by this time.) There's a lot to report, and a lot of photos to share, thanks to the Bride.

Also, two bits of news were announced this weekend: one, that I'll be writing an arc of Punisher MAX, right between arcs by Gregg Hurwitz and the one and only Victor Gischler. My story's called "Six Hours to Kill," and kicks off early in 2009. You can read more about this right here.

And two: I'm now an exclusive Marvel writer. Which, goddamn, feels so good to type.

Anyway, stay tuned for more later today, after we make it back to Philly and upload a bunch of photos. Including some with actual celebrities! And (I say this for David Hale Smith's benefit) ass crack!