I’ve been pleased to know artist Rich Buckler for decades and was happy to recently help renegotiate his contract with Marvel Comics for genuine participation in the Deathlok character that he created.

When I was young, Rich drew some of my favorite books including Fantastic Four, where he was handpicked to follow John Buscema, and later The Avengers. Best known for creating as well as writing and illustrating Deathlok (soon to be a major motion picture?), Rich is among a handful of legendary Marvel Bullpen artists who had the opportunity to draw nearly every major Marvel character of the 1970s.

In 2015, Aardwolf Publishing will release Rich Buckler: Artist, Innovator a perfect-bound portfolio of Rich’s work with anintroduction by Roy Thomas and, I expect, some rare insights from other important professionals. This collection of Rich’s impressive drawings will be a limited edition run that’s launched with a Kickstarter.

But before we do that, Aardwolf is offering fans the opportunity to order the book now along with special signed/lettered or signed/numbered bookplates from Rick. These bookplates will contain unique head sketches of Marvel and DC characters that Rich has drawn specially for this project. This is a chance for you to own a piece of original Rich Bucker art as well as the rarest iteration of this new book.

Signed/numbered editions of Rich Buckler: Artist, Innovator (only 100 will be produced) including the head sketch by Rich are $45 postage-paid.

The Lettered Edition of Rich Buckler: Artist, Innovator (only 26 will be produced), including a head sketch by Rich, is $72 postage-paid.

You can also order the book without the original head sketch for only $20.

Orders that need to be shipped outside of the U.S. will require additional postage.

You can request the character of your choice and we will try to accommodate you, but all character head sketches are either Marvel or DC characters, and each one is unique.

We do not have a ship date yet but you can reserve your copy now for just $20 (or by paying in full) by sending your order via PayPal to [email protected] – Please specify whether you are ordering the numbered or lettered edition.

Roy Thomas is writing the intro and there’s a handful of surprises (and surprise people) lined up for the Kickstarter. But we like to get the ball rolling with a good pre-Kickstarter. The sketched-in Uncanny Dave Cockrum and Invincible Gene Colan books now go for two or three times what Aardwolf retailed them for initially. Once a Deathlok film gets buzzed and Rich starts getting “icon” status (which he already deserves) people will be doubly glad they got one of these.

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