A Punisher-Inspired Comic Without the Marvel Baggage

Queen City News spoke with artist David Vandyke, who created a comic titled Mercer. What’s interesting for starters is that: In an era of digital art, he works by hand. “I like the tactility of it, like I like feeling the paper,” Van Dyke said. He’s got a great idea there. While it’s always possible to turn out good art with computers, old-fashioned techniques still matter, and can still result in something to appreciate. He draws a comic book series called Mercer, which he co-created with Jason Seibel. “It’s basically if the Punisher was a demon hunter type thing,” he says. Whatever one thinks of the premise of Mercer, what Vandyke says here does seem to indicate he has respect for what the Punisher was created for, certainly far more than some of the leftists who messed up Frank Castle since the turn of the century, not the least being the late Gerry Conway himself. Vandyke had a very terrible misfortune in the past 2 decades that influenced his decision to become an artist: He has come far from the chilling conversation he had 21 years ago. “The doctor literally came into the room and said, ‘Your life as you know it is over,’” he remembers vividly. Vandyke broke his back in 2005...