Marvel has announced the six talented artists for this year’s Young Guns program, which spotlights the best and brightest early-career artists in the comic book industry. 2018’s inductees are Pepe Larraz, Javier Garron, Marco Checchetto, Aaron Kuder, Mike Del Mundo, and Russell Dauterman, who will each produce special limited exclusive variant covers for six new books, as well as their work on their own regular series. Here’s a look at the variant covers:
1. Avengers #678 – Russell Dauterman ( and Matt Wilson)
2. X-Men Red #1 – Pepe Larraz (and Edgar Delgado)
3. Marvel Two-in-One #3 – Mike Del Mundo
4. Doctor Strange: Damnation #1 – Javier Garron (and Jason Keith)
5. Black Panther #170 – Marco Checcetto
6. Amazing Spider-Man #797 – Aaron Kuder (and Jason Keith)
“I still clearly remember the launch of Marvel’s original Young Guns campaign over a decade ago, crafted as an innovative way to recognize and promote the upcoming artists we believed in – and knew would one day be superstars!” said C.B. Cebulski, editor-in-chief of Marvel. “From its inception, Young Guns has always been about living up to Marvel’s long legacy of identifying and hiring unique and groundbreaking talent to give our fans the best looking comics on the stands. And here we go again! Introducing the class of 2018, six artists poised for greatness, whose art will grace the pages of some of the coolest comics of the year!”
Previous Young Guns have left their mark through some of Marvel’s greatest heroes, with alumni like Jim Cheung, Steve McNiven, Leinil Yu, Daniel Acuña, David Marquez, Sara Pichelli, and many more drawing some of Marvel’s biggest events and launching groundbreaking new series.