Aspen Comics attracted some lost attention in 2016 when the independent publisher of books like Soulfire and Fathom put out a series of variant covers featuring popular characters drawn by the late great Michael Turner. These were fit to some of Marvel and DC’s most popular titles such as Amazing Spider-Man and Harley Quinn. Today, Aspen Comics announced a new variant from a galaxy far far away.
Marvel’s upcoming Star Wars: Darth Maul #1, written by Cullen Bunn and drawn by Luke Ross will tell the story of his early training days under Darth Sidious and his reasons for hating the Jedi.
Aspen is printing a special limited variant cover based on a sketch done by Michael Turner. According to the publisher, there exist a small handful of contemporary Star Wars images done by the artist before his passing. We could potentially see future Star Wars comics get a Turner variant. Just as with their previous partnership variants, a color version done with Peter Steigerwald will be available alongside the virgin sketch cover. This Darth Maul image was one of the little known Turner pieces ever seen. As someone who has bought just about every Michael Turner sketchbook or ashcan at conventions, I don’t remember ever seeing this drawing or at least in this prominent a fashion.
The variants will be available for pre-order starting on January 14th at 12pm PST over at Aspenstore.com while the book releases February 1st.
