The curious case of the 1992 Marvel Universe Jusko card

[DynaEtch]

I always wondered why the 1992 Marvel Universe #197 card “Death of Gwen Stacy” has what is obviously a Joe Jusko signature at the bottom




The actual artwork appears to be John Romita Sr, and has the sig by him. You can also find signed examples by Romita on eBay

https://www.ebay.com/itm/15499628756...oAAOSwj75igcNz

I don’t see other examples of 1992 Marvel Universe cards with an artist sig on the outer border like that, the artist sigs are within the artwork. I understand that 1992 Universe cards have a background that is connected on an uncut sheet, so thought maybe it’s something to do with the card below….but it’s on the very bottom row of the sheet, which I saw from an earlier (and very cool) post by jdandns.

Originally Posted by jdandns

That was a master class in creating a larger image but having each card work on its own. Mark Bagley's compositions for the '94 Ultra Spidey are legendary. No less than Sergio Aragones and Jim Lee also did this for cards around the same time, and it's a great effect, taking full advantage of the 9 pocket album page design. 1990 to 1996 was an incredible era for original trading card art.

Oddly, MU Series 3 (1992) had a specially commissioned painted background for the character cards. To display the full effect without having to physically line the cards up in rows, Marvel issued them as a pair of 22x34 posters in their ongoing monthly line of Marvel Press Posters (available at comic stores or through subscription service by mail in those days).

So what is going on here, why is Jusko’s signature on this card?