Posted in: Comics, Marvel Comics | Tagged: black lives matter, Gerry Conway, marvel, Marvel Comics, punisher

Punisher Creator Gerry Conway Looks to Reclaim Punisher Skull Logo

Bleeding Cool has seen a lot of traffic recently on our story looking at the Punisher's reaction to police offers using his Skull logo as a motif. It's a topic that Bleeding Cool has covered a lot over the years, with soldiers, police and QAnon conspiracy theorists choosing to use the logo of Marvel's most popular serial killer, as some kind of extra-legal solutions to the problems that they face. The Punisher wasn't having any of it.

Now with the Punisher skull has re-emerged with pictures of two Detroit PD officers wearing special operations badges emblazoned with the skull, in the light of anti-racism and police brutality protests, as well as on the lapel of Fox News' Sean Hannity, the character's original creator has a plan to reclaim it.

Gerry Conway, co-creator of The Punisher and writer of the characters first stories, depicted as a Spider-Man villain, has a different play. Previously he has spoken out about the use of Punisher imagery in this way. Yesterday, he tweeted out 

I'm looking for young comic book artists of color who'd like to participate in a small fundraising project for #BLM to reclaim the Punisher skull as a symbol of justice rather than lawless police oppression. Respond and follow so we can DM.

And followed up saying,

To be clear, this little project is open to anyone who wants to contribute their time and effort. It's not a paying gig, it's intended to raise funds to support BLM. I hope to use multiple artists with a variety of styles and artistic approaches. As to the debate over whether the Punisher symbol can ever be a symbol for justice — I agree that's an open question. What it must *not* be is a symbol of oppression. I want to deny police the use of the symbol by claiming it for BLM. Call it irony. I hope the results will speak for themselves.

You can see a few fine folk who have offered their services in the responses,

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