The unused one is obviously by JR Jr.

The one that ended up being used is supposedly also JR Jr, though to my eye I don't see a lot of JR Jr in there.

Does anyone know any further information?

The bare bones of it was a reasonably intriguing idea. Blue collar guy in Pittsburgh meets an alien who tells him he is on his last legs and gives him the brand, which is some kind of interstellar weapon. 

The main thrust of the book in its first few issues was about the ramifications of having this power in the "real world". An added kink in the tale, was that it subsequently turns out the original alien may have not been quite telling the whole truth about being on his last legs. There's an element of ambiguity about quite what we know or don't know, as the hero was hypnotised when the alien gave him the brand.

This was all pretty good. Looking back on it, what wasn't so good was the kind of sliminess of the protagonist, who spends a lot of his time two-timing his single-mother girlfriend.