The Biggest Badass Alternate Cover Ever

We give you now the alternate cover to the January 1993 issue of Malibu's The Protectors (#5):



You may have a hard time seeing it in the small picture, so click on the image to see a larger version in its full glory.

That's right: there's a 3/8 inch hole drilled right through the entire comic, reprenting a bullet hole through the bloody chest of the hero on the cover (drawn by Thomas Derenick & Mike S. Miller). The cover was also cardstock and embossed.

The hero in question in the young Night Mask, son of the original Night Mask and member of The Protectors. The cover commemorates the story inside (written by R. A. Jones and drawn by Thomas Derenick & Mike Deodato) that featured the brutal killing of Night Mask by the group's main villain, the diabolical Mr. Monday. (Of course, in the story Night Mask was never actually shot in the chest, but never let the contents of a story get in the way of a gimick cover!)

You may think that your alternate comics covers today are badass, with their red backgrounds or incomplete sketches or whatever, but you have a long ways to go until you reach the ultimate stage of cover baddassness of The Protectors #5.