The Punisher’s creator Gerry Conway shares a hilarious fan art mash-up of Frank Castle and Tintin. This interaction happened when Conway retweeted the art on Twitter. The awesome mash-up was illustrated by Eisner and Ringo-nominated creator Dan Schkade.
Originally a comic created by Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi, Tintin took off in popularity with its many adaptations. In particular, The Adventures of Tintin animated series ran for three seasons in the early 90’s and helped popularize the character in the states, where the show aired on HBO. The most recent Hollywood adaption was a Steven Spielberg-directed animated feature released in 2011. As a character, Tintin is a young Belgian reporter who, along with his canine sidekick Snowy, embarks on adventures and unravels mysteries in the early to mid 20th century. The Punisher, of course, is the Marvel anti-hero who infamously embarked on a murderous rampage of criminals following the death of his family by the Mob.
The fan art features Tintin covered in bandages and wearing Frank Castle’s trademark trench coat and skull symbol. Tintin is also carrying a shotgun, something the character would never be seen wielding otherwise. Meanwhile, Snowy runs alongside Tintin with an eye patch and cigar hanging out of his mouth. Snowy is arguably the funnier of the two and is most likely a reference to Nick Fury. In a caption to the tweet, Schkade blames procrastination for the art by stating, “I am not going to get better at answering emails and I will keep posting nonsense like Punisher Tintin.”
The mash-up could also be viewed as ironic given the contrasting nature of the two characters. Tintin is known for its clean style of artwork and the wholesome nature of his stories. The Punisher, obviously, is usually depicted as dark and gritty with stories ranging anywhere from violent to downright sadistic. In recent years, the Punisher’s logo has drawn controversy for being adopted by far-right militia groups. Gerry Conway has spoken out on the issue, so seeing him retweet a piece of fan art of his creation is some much-needed positive attention for the character.
The artist Dan Schkade also had another piece of mash-up fan art that went viral almost exactly a year ago to the day. After the 2021 inauguration of president Joe Biden, a meme of Bernie Sanders sitting in a chair spread all across the internet. In a tweet with the caption “I couldn’t sleep,” Schkade posted Bernie Sanders as the DC supervillain Metron, sitting hilariously in the Mobius Chair. Much like the disparate sources of that strange mashup, the contrast between Tintin’s clean artwork and Punisher’s grim work provides for a hilarious image.
