Posted By Dan Greenfield on May 8, 2024 | 2 comments

Winterworld, the Punisher and MORE…

By PETER STONE

Jorge Zaffino was a brilliant, visceral kind of artist. His work was stylistic, but well drawn. It was masculine and intense, but there was also a real attraction to the way he handled the storytelling. He didn’t play around with foreshortening or angled panels. He put the camera down, showing the action as clearly as he possibly could. When the Argentinian met Chuck Dixon on a trip to the U.S., it was a match made in heaven. Dixon gave Zaffino the hardcore stories that he obviously loved. Guns, explosions and criminals everywhere.

Together, they made Winterworld in 1987-88 for Eclipse, a post-apocalyptic series about a man and his badger (that’s right, his badger) surviving in the cold, harsh climate of the future. One of the wonderful things about Zaffino was his basic understanding and drawings of handguns. They had this obvious power and heft to them. Many American artists don’t understand the true, deadly power of a handgun, but Zaffino definitely got it. When a character pulls out a .357 Magnum, it looked like something that could kill someone. It was black and heavy, dark and almost evil. That was one of the wonderful things about Zaffino’s art. The lethal power of a gun. As a fan, I loved it.

Winterworld was first printed during the independent comics boom of the 1980s, when there was an explosion of talent in the United States. Yet Zaffino was a special artist who was so vastly different than anyone working in America. The action throughout the series is brutal and intense. The faces are full of emotion and feral anger. It’s a great series!

After Winterworld, Zaffino moved on to the Punisher in a softcover called Assassin’s Guild, written by Jo Duffy. A ferocious graphic novel set in New York City, Frank Castle becomes more… human. He has a relationship with a young woman, fights corruption against Asian-Americans and kills the bad guys. Another great story about a character who kills criminals but seems to have a heart inside his cold morality. It was based on the original Punisher character, not the later “terminator of justice and war” that Garth Ennis created.

We, as fans, loved the Punisher because he was like Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry: “When a naked man is chasing a woman through a dark alley with a butcher knife and a hard-on, I figure he isn’t out collecting for the Red Cross.” So, of course, Harry shoots him. That was our Punisher. That was Duffy and Zaffino’s Punisher.

Then there was the Conan: The Horned God, again with Dixon, in 1989. Another brutal character that was the polar opposite of John Buscema’s far more commercial vision of Robert E. Howard’s greatest hero. Zaffino’s Conan was animalistic, not a good-looking man with a pleasant haircut. A high point in the Savage Sword of Conan magazine.

A year later, he worked with Dixon on the Punisher hardcover graphic novel Kingdom Gone, a story about a South American drug dealer and a precursor to the brilliant stories by Ennis a good 25 years later. The Punisher channeled his Vietnam past and Zaffino drew with absolute ferocity.

Zaffino illustrated a Marvel series called Terror Inc. Then a Batman: Black and White story. There were others, but these were the highlights. He was a unique artistic talent whose life was unfortunately cut short at 43 by a heart attack, in 2002.

Dixon and Zaffino

Sadly, we at Continuity Comics had finally managed to get him to agree to draw a 48-page Megalith/Werewolf story. (Because it was Neal Adams, he signed on.) He drew eight pages before he passed away. I remember being devastated. His savage, completely undomesticated style was perfect for the piece. Fate, however, had other plans.

Jorge’s son, Gerardo Zaffino, followed in his father’s footsteps. He drew a series for Marvel called Karnak, a martial-arts character from the Inhumans. It was solid and interesting, but not as intense as his father. Then, he made a spectacular leap forward, channeling his father’s art style. His covers became exponentially better. He drew Conan, Hellboy, Wolverine, Batman and even standard heroes from the DC Universe. He drew variant covers and commissions that are a joy to see. I will personally buy any cover Gerardo Zaffino draws. They are that damn good. I’d love to see him draw more interiors, but that is certainly up to him. It’s a lot of work for not a lot of money.

In the end, Winterworld is Jorge Zaffino’s masterpiece. There is a collection available from IDW and I highly recommend it (at the very least for the badger). Well-written, well-drawn and fueled by an art style that we may never see again.

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MORE

— BURIED TREASURE: Alex Nino and Neal Adams’ SHAMAN. Click here.

— BURIED TREASURE: Carlos Meglia’s SUPERMAN Stories. Click here.

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Peter Stone is a writer and son-in-law of the late Neal Adams. Be sure to check out the family’s twice-weekly online Facebook auctions, as well as the NealAdamsStore.com, and their Burbank, California, comics shop Crusty Bunkers Comics and Toys.