An early, “for position only” cover for Punisher #43 (left), and Bradstreet’s final cover

On his blog, artist Tim Bradstreet sets the record straight on the cover to Punisher #43, and provides a look at the finished product. Back in October, when Marvel released solicitations for January, it used a “for position only” version that featured an image of actress Patricia Heaton because, as Bradstreet explains, “I didn’t have time to schedule photoshoots with my models before the catalogue deadline so I used ‘other reference’ to complete a quick version”:

We simply needed something to place in the catalogue where the cover art is printed very small on newsprint. At that size you wouldn’t be able to scrutinize the subjects to any great degree, dot gain would eliminate all the details. In the meantime the plan all along was that these shots would be replaced with my own models and photography by the time we went to print.

However, the solicitation image made its way into Rich Johnston’s “Swipe File”:

I was like “Whoa, wait a minute!” I emailed Rich right away to let him know what the real scoop was. Rich was cool and asked me if he could publish the email I wrote to him so people could hear the straight dope concerning the matter. I declined figuring that folks already had their minds made up and anything I might have said , true or not, would only sound like I was trying to cover my ass. It needed to blow over a bit before I felt I should address the matter publicly. To Wit, you now know what really transpired.

And now you know … the rest of the story.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 18th, 2006 at 8:17 am and is filed under Art and Design, Creators, Marvel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.