The Punisher War Journal

The Punisher War Journal is title of two comic book series, both published by Marvel Comics. Both series were spin-offs of the self-titled series starring the vigilante character known as the Punisher.

Publication history
The first volume of The Punisher War Journal ran 80 issues, cover-dated November 1988 to July 1995, after running for 80 issues. Originally written and pencilled by Carl Potts, and inked by Jim Lee, who soon became series penciler, it changed creative team withn issue #25 (Dec. 1990) to writer Mike Baron and penciler-inker Mark Texeira. Chuck Dixon (credited as "Charles Dixon") took over as writer with #38 (Jan. 1992), continuing with it to the final issue except for #65-74 (April 1994 - Jan. 1995), written by Steven Grant. Others associated with the title include multi-issue pencilers Tod Smith, Ron Wagner, John Hebert, Hugh Haynes, Melvin Rubi, and penciler-inker Gary Kwapisz.

The series was relaunched the following decade, titled simply Punisher War Journal, beginning with a new #1 (Jan. 2007). The initial creative team was writer Matt Fraction and artist Ariel Olivetti, with subsequent artists including Cory Walker, Scott Wegener and Howard Chaykin.

Unlike the current adjectiveless "Punisher" series that is published monthly as part of the Marvel Max line, the second incarnation of "Punisher War Journal" has overt ties with the Marvel Universe, with the series itself being launched out of the 2006 "Civil War" mini-series. Furthermore, unlike other Punisher comics of the past, the new incarnation routinely pits the Punisher almost exclusively against super-villains, as well as features Punisher actually killing and maiming said super-villains, instead of allowing them to live. This in turn has led to several issues that focus upon villains such as Princess Python (blinded by Punisher as well as widowed, due to Punisher murdering her husband Stilt-Man), The Tinkerer (spine severed by Punisher, leaving him paralyzed from the waste down), and the Gibbon (disfigured) who have been singled out for death at the hands of the Punisher.