Posted By Dan Greenfield on Nov 17, 2024 | 1 comment

13 PAGES…

By KEVEN GARDNER

Jason Pearson’s Body Bags Artist’s Edition, from 12-Gauge Comics and Act 4 Publishing, is wrapping up on Thursday, Nov. 21 on Kickstarter. It collects all of Jason’s published works on the series, including covers and short stories. Additionally, 33 pages of Body Bags II are included, the first time these pages have been published. The campaign can be found here.

If all stretch goals are achieved (we are close!) the book will be 240 pages. As with all Artist’s Editions, every page has been scanned from Pearson’s original art and printed at the same size.

Here are 13 PAGES — just a small sample of what the 12″ x 17″ hardcover will include:

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Body Bags: Father’s Day, Issue #1, Page 12. The action/movement and attention to detail on this page announced to everyone that Jason had taken the “next step” with his art. This issue was a real coming-out party for Pearson, and this was one of the pages that put his fans and peers on notice that this series was going to be something special.

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Body Bags: Father’s Day, Issue #1, Page 24. This is an iconic page from the series; the moment when the 14-year-old Panda reunites with her estranged father, whom she hasn’t seen in over a decade.

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Body Bags: Father’s Day, Issue #3, Page 20. So much emotion and despair on this page, as Panda’s ‘love-hate’ relationship with Mack goes full hate. You can almost hear the screams of anger through the emotion showing on Panda’s face (and the physical pain Mack feels when taking the impact of the bullet, even though his armor kept the bullet from drawing blood).

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Body Bags: Father’s Day, Issue #3, Page 22. Beautiful storytelling, motion — and those shoes in Panel 1! So much detail.

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The official debut of the Body Bags characters, Clownface (aka Mack) and Panda as a part of Dynamic Forces’ 1993 “Creator’s Universe” card set. As you can see, Panda was originally meant to be of Japanese descent, and not Mack’s daughter. Jason later changed the story to be about the father/daughter dynamic that fans of the series loved.

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The cover to the original collection of Body Bags: Father’s Day. Well-designed, although the cover as printed was in widescreen and the top and bottom of the cover were cropped off.

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This is a penciled page from Issue #1 of the abandoned Body Bags II sequel series, circa 1998. You’ll notice that Jason was drawing this series in a more animated style. Jason had penciled and/or inked 33 pages of the series.

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Another penciled page from Issue #1 of Body Bags II. Here we see Mack making his grand entrance. Even with the more open style, Jason was still bringing the heat.

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The cover to the 2005 reprint of Body Bags: Father’s Day #2. The best part of this cover is Panda’s gun on the left, as she’s flying through the air, ready to attack her father, and then you’ll notice her reflection on Mack’s knife. After inking the figures, Jason did not fill in the blacks by hand, choosing to do this on his computer in an effort to save time. As he never intended to sell any Body Bags pages, he wasn’t concerned with needing to fully ink it for resale value.

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A Panda pin-up/promo piece illustrated in 1995, prior to the release of the series in 1996.

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The front half of the wrap-around cover to Body Bags: One Shot from 2008. At this point, Jason had started designing backgrounds on his computer, then printing those backgrounds out on his pages in blue line, then drawing and inking the figures on the board.

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Body Bags: One Shot, Page 42.

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Cover to Dark Horse Presents Annual 1997, with the 12-page story World Destroyer.

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Keven Gardner is the president and publisher of 12-Gauge Comics. Act 4 Publishing is owned by Scott Dunbier, the creator of the Artist’s Edition concept. Jason Pearson died of a stroke in 2022, at the age of 52. Body Bags was originally published in the 1990s by Dark Horse and, later, Image.