In honor of Michael Turner’s passing, Marvel announced today that they will be running the next two issues of Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness’ run of Hulk with Michael Turner variant covers.

For those of you not reading this run of Hulk anyway, it’s really, really cool.  The latest issue had the mysterious Red Hulk pounding Thor into oblivion and exiling both he and Mjolnir to the surface of the moon.  And the ending…  well….  wow…  The ending teams up pretty much all the heaviest hitters in the Marvel U in order to take down this Red Hulk.

It’s going to be cool.

Marvels statement about the covers (previewed below):

“Living in a world without Mike is something I could never imagine,” said Hulk scribe Jeph Loeb. “He was the greatest guy. The. Greatest.  I wanted some way to share my love of his artwork and at the same time give something to the fans — who were more important to Mike than anyone can imagine — and spoke to Marvel about doing these covers.  They are pieces Mike did of the Green Hulk (one as a gift to Frank Mastromauro)and Peter Steigerwald of Aspen Comics did the recoloring and remastering.  It was terribly important to me that Peter and Aspen got to be part of this as well.  They are a celebration of Mike’s enormous talent and in turn, his life.  Enjoy.”

“Michael represented the best of us both professionally and personally. He was a true superstar,” said Dan Buckley, Marvel President & Publisher.

Hulk #6 goes on sale 9/24/2008 and ships with 50/50 covers by Ed McGuinness and Michael Turner.

Hulk #7 goes on sale 10/22/2008 and ships 50/50 covers by Art Adams & Frank Cho (who take over the book for at least this issue) and Michael Turner.