Michael Golden Draws The Punisher Armory

Pretend you are an artist working for Marvel Comics.  An editor tells you about a great new mini-series titled The Punisher Armory, a Marvel Handbook style index to every weapon Frank Castle ever fondled.  Your artistic challenge: draw a cover for this title, featuring the Punisher and his toys.  Your mission: get the devoted Punisher fans so excited about all this hardware that they'll buy the book.

A difficult task?  Not if your name is Michael Golden.

Golden provided the last two covers for this title, the first one appearing in issue #9 (1994), with the Punisher drawn in silhouette and adorned enough weaponry to take on an army.  It's really impressive--if you overlook the fact that there's no way the Punisher could run for his life with all that shit weighing him down.  I still love the cover though.  I can't possibly back this up, but I would assume that Golden drew weapons that really existed.  That machine gun in his right hand with the laser-sight looks particularly lethal.

The cover to issue #10 features the Punisher bearing down on the viewer, as if you were the one responsible for killing Frank Castle's family.  Look at all the pockets and pouches on this outfit.  I hope he's carrying a Cliff Bar in there for when hunger strikes.

Can you believe The Punisher Armory had enough material for 10 issues?  It was all due to Eliot Brown, the Marvel staffer who researched every single weapon.  Visit Eliot's website for some material on the Armory and other work.  Nuff Said!