DC Announces “G’nort’s Illustrated Swimsuit Edition”

DC Comics will see out summer 2023 in fine form, with G’nort’s Illustrated Swimsuit Edition, a 48-page book collecting the best of the company’s swimsuit variant covers — alongside brand-new super-beach-bod material.

The superhero swimsuit special is something of an infamous idea, owing to Marvel Comics’ famous run of Sports Illustrated spoofs, which were filled with incredibly horny art of Marvel heroes as only the early 1990s could provide. If you haven’t seen the Punisher in a skull-shaped Speedo… Google it. Or Namor’s already skimpy costume reduced down to a scallop shell and some artfully draped strings of pearls — or Ghost Rider’s flaming skeleton lounging buck-naked in the surf…

For some reason, Marvel has never reprinted the swimsuit specials. They remain a legendary relic of back-issue boxes and nostalgia. The Hellfire Gala has become Marvel’s fancier answer to the swimsuit special: An excuse for artists to go ham while redesigning superhero costumes into high fashion.

Leave it to DC Comics, then, to pick up the campy torch where the distinguished competition has left it to lie for so many years. The company’s first swimsuit variants premiered on comics covers last year, and a new variant series was announced in March, and set to appear in this June’s titles, from Action Comics to Wonder Woman.

G’nort’s Illustrated Swimsuit Edition — named for the hapless, furry Green Lantern whose name rhymes with “sport” — will collect a selection of 2022 and 2023 DC Comics swimsuit variant covers in one volume, along with a Midnighter and Apollo story from the company’s 2020 summer special. But there will also be new material in the Edition: an eight-page story featuring the Penguin “clad in the tightest bathing trunks you can imagine,” according to DC’s news release, and one of three randomly chosen centerfolds featuring brand-new art and center-stapled into each issue. DC’s news release says the company plans to announce these new pin-ups throughout the summer.

G’nort’s Illustrated Swimsuit Edition collects some of the splashiest, steamiest, swimsuit covers from DC’s best talent, all in one place for the very first time, along with Steve Orlando and Paul Pelletier’s Midnighter and Apollo story, “Out There,” from DC Cybernetic Summer, a new 8-page story featuring The Penguin—clad in the tightest bathing trunks you can imagine—by Julie Benson and Shawna Benson drawn by Meghan Hetrick, and more.

Plus, G’nort’s Illustrated Swimsuit Edition will have its very own centerfold! There are three potential centerfolds for your viewing pleasure—but who will grace your issue? You’re not going to want to miss the all-new center-stapled pin-ups of DC’s beach-body babes! DC will reveal the centerfold characters and artists in the coming summer months!

G’nort’s Illustrated Swimsuit Edition will feature a main cover by Vasco Georgiev along with open-to-order cardstock variant covers by J. Scott Campbell and Adam Hughes and a 1:25 variant cover by Pablo Villalobos.