On April Fool’s Day at
Emerald City Comiccon,
Robert Kirkman and
Chris Giarrusso tried to pull a fast on the ECCC fans in attendance for the
Skybound/
The Walking Dead panel. They announced a new project entitled
The Walking Dead for Kids, which would be a panel-by-panel recreation of early
Walking Dead issues drawn in Giarrusso’s trademark, kid friendly art style. While the new comic series was a hoax, the image would actually be used as part of a new series of variant covers in honor of
Image Comics’ 20th Anniversary.


Since then Image has announced that in honor of its 20th anniversary, Giarrusso will recreate twelve classic first issue covers as variants. First to get the “too-cute” treatment is
Youngblood #17, which is especially appropriate because
Youngblood was the very first Image title. Thanks to
iFanboy, we now have pics of the Giarrusso’s first six Image 20th Anniversary variant covers:
The Walking Dead,
Spawn,
The Savage Dragon,
Youngblood,
Shadowhawk and
Morning Glories. My only question is which book will feature the Shadowhawk cover?
To be honest, The Blot’s a huge fan of Giarrusso’s work. I’ve been reading his Mini Marvels and G-Man Comic Bits strips for years, and my copy of G-Man: Learning to Fly (featuring a sketch by Giarrusso) is my favorite comic purchase from my one and only trip to San Diego Comic-Con back in 2009. Honestly, we need more quality all ages material like Giarrusso’s published by the comic book industry!
The first six Image Comics 20th Anniversary variant covers by Chris Giarrusso will be released sporadically over the next four months (May, June, July and August 2012) and The Blot wants them all! Be sure to keep your eyes peeled to The Blot Says… for more details on these awesome variant covers, and hopefully pictures of the second batch of tribute covers.
[Source: iFanboy]