The Punisher Magazine #1 - Marvel

Marvel's b/w magazines in the eighties were always aimed at the tough(er) guy market, publications like Savage Sword of Conan, The 'Nam, and Savage Tales(mk.2) were all designed to capture this rapidly-shrinking share of the comic reading audience.

So of course, a magazine devoted to the Punisher made total sense--there really wasn't any meaner or nastier member of the Marvel Universe. And like The 'Nam, Marvel had some perfectly good material lying around, so this series started off reprinting a Punisher color comic, in this case the 1986 mini-series by Steven Grant, Mike Zeck, and John Beatty, which opened with the gangbuster premise of the Punisher in federal prison.

As a kid I was never into the Punisher that much--he seemed like an odd fit in the Marvel Universe, and I never really bought into the premise that heroes like Spider-Man and Captain America would work with him knowing his methods.

But I absolutely loved the Grant/Zeck mini-series, because it seemed Marvel allowed them to ramp up the Punisher, and take him to the extremes that someone who does what he does would experience. While Frank Castle is the obstensible hero, he's presented as just this side of nuts, and he is just as scary the bad guys he's locked up with. Amid all the bone-crunching, kicking, and punching, I think the scariest panel just has the Punisher eating a meal:
...brr!

The Punisher runs into the supervillian the Jigsaw while in prison, who of course takes this moment to exact revenge. But Grant writes his as almost comically inept, and while Jigsaw talks tough, the minute he's faced with any danger he starts blubbering for his life. It felt like Grant and Zeck were showing us a skeezy, dirtier corner of the Marvel Universe.

It ends with the Punisher throwing in with a group known as The Trust who tell him that they share the same goals he does. The last, full-page panel shows Frank Castle dumping his prison greys and reassuming his death's-head uniform.

There's also this uncredited pin-up, and a foreword and afterword about the mini-series.

The Punisher Magazine didn't last too long--sixteen issues--even though it had this superb start. This was around the time that Marvel made the decision that if people wanted more Punisher, they'd get him, and he was headlining something like three titles at a time.

I think, in the end, the Punisher is a character people don't want to spend that much time with, and he was under the control of too many creators who just thought all you had to do was have him shoot lots of bad guys. Eventually, all his titles were cancelled and he layed low for a while. But of course you can't keep Frank Castle down forever...