Garth Ennis’ & Steve Dillon’s nine-year run on Punisher broke every rule you could break in comics…

When Garth Ennis took the reigns on Hellblazer back in 1991, the proverbial imp came out of the bottle and it’s never gone back inside. In the second half of that run, he began a collaboration with artist (and fellow Irishman) Steve Dillonthat forever blurred the lines between “mature” and “over the top.” Their landmark series Preacher paved the way for their future collaboration on Marvel’s tentpole anti-hero, The Punisher.

Editor-in-chief Joe Quesada lured the fan-fave scribe by offering him free reign on the character under the newly christened Marvel Knights imprint (and the soon-to-be launched “for mature audiences” imprint MAX) for as long as he cared to write it. The team created a 12-issue mini-series, followed by a 37-issue unlimited series with a handful of one-shots, specials, mini-series and crossovers continuing Ennis’ creative guidance of the character. Ennis used the freedom of the MAX imprint to write more realistic and hard-edged stories than had previously been seen, and when he departed the title following the 65th issue, the series was renamed.

This is an early character model sheet by Sean Chen (drawn on the back of a blank Marvel Comics original comic art blue-line illustration board) done very much in the style of Steve Dillon for a proposed action figure toy. Chen has since become a fan favorite penciler for his work on X-O Manowar, Iron Man, Elektra, and Nova.