Courtesy of Archie Comics, AIPT can share process pages for Kardak the Mystic #1, featuring art by Butch K. Mapa. Out now in comic book shops, Kardak the Mystic expands on Archie’s dark magic universe.
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Without further ado, check out Mapa’s commentary below!
With the release of DARKLING last November, Archie finally applied its successful horror approach to one of its classic superhero characters. KARDAK THE MYSTIC follows along the same path, featuring a character with an even longer history being given a supernatural twist.
My approach is always to adapt my style, as much as possible, to suit the story. For KARDAK, I felt that Joe’s treatment was less of the gory body horror that I’d done in my previous work for Archie, and it had more of an eerie tension that built up over the course of the script.
I thought an old-school EC Comics vibe, with an illustrative style, would suit the story but ultimately decided against it. I felt that part of our goal was to modernize and bring Kardak into the present.
Keeping those things in mind, I looked at the works of Kevin Nowlan and Adam Hughes. Both have such a command of mood and shadow, while still maintaining a clean look to their art. Nobody would mistake me for either of those legends, but those were the starting ingredients I had in mind as I began to cook.
A large part of the story has Kardak seemingly becoming invisible, but actually sliding into a sideways dimension, where his viewpoint of reality would be distorted. Instead of simply vanishing, I imagined Kardak’s body would look like it disintegrated into dust and nothingness, to give it a darker edge.
To give these sequences their own identity, I used a different rendering style, using gray tones and washes to make things appear a little less “solid.”
Our main beastie is mostly hidden and obscured as it stalks Kardak. Joe wanted a taller and thinner silhouette for the figure, giving it a deformed, unearthly appearance.
I had more confidence in experimenting with the artwork, knowing that I had the remarkable coloring talent of Ellie Wright as a collaborator. I’ve worked with her before, and the final pages look stunning.
I hope you enjoyed this peek into the process of creating Kardak the Mystic, please do check it out at your local comic store in August!
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