The Punisher War Journal is an American comic book series published from 1988 to 1995 by Marvel Comics featuring the character Frank Castle, also known as the vigilante the Punisher.[1] It was the first ever spin-off for the character and the first series of the title The Punisher War Journal. It lasted for 80[2] issues and featured varying artists, including early works of Jim Lee[3][4][5] and writers, most notably Carl Potts who had worked as an editor on the main Punisher series before.[6]
The series was made due to the character's immense popularity at the time. Marvel had previously used the character in guest appearances to boost the sales of other titles, but decided to publish a second ongoing title for the Punisher which became this series. Mike Baron, the series' editor and one of the writers, expressed in a 1988 interview that the character's popularity came at a time when American citizens were especially angry with society's failure to punish evil.[7]
The series consists of several story arcs, including "An Eye For An Eye", "Firepower Among The Ruins", "The Sicilian Saga", "The Kamchatkan Konspiracy", "Pariah!" and "Last Entry" which were confined within the series itself and other arcs such as "Acts of Vengeance", "Dead Man's Hand" and "Suicide Run" which were part of larger Marvel events. The final arc, "Countdown", was a crossover between all the ongoing Punisher series at the time.
The series was hugely popular upon its original release. Because of the series success Marvel put together a promo tour for the creators of the books. They visited numerous comic book stores in California and Hawaii and interacted with the fans there.[8] Its popularity also prompted Marvel to publish a third ongoing Punisher series named The Punisher War Zone. Though the popularity fell later in the run as it did with the two other Punisher titles at the time, The Punisher and The Punisher War Zone[9] due to extensive overexposure of the character at the time.[10] The series greatly contributed to the characters independent success outside of being a supporting character.[11] The series, especially Potts' writing, influenced Charles Forsman's series Revenger.[12] The series featured the first meeting of Wolverine and the Punisher in issue 6, named "On the Track of Unknown Animals", which was described by Blair Marnell of Comingsoon.net as a memorable meeting,[13] and was voted as the 75th greatest issue of any Marvel series ever in 2001. Greg Burgas of Comic Book Resources praised Lee's artwork.[14]
While still under the Comics Code Authority the series featured bodily violence which had not been previously used in Marvel comics publications. The series also featured more guns, explosions and highly sexualized women.[15]
The Punisher War Journal.