The Mark, "Taking Back The Streets", Page 6

During this period in my comic illustrating career, I based characters off movie stars I liked. For instance, I based the design of “The Archon” off of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Actually, that’s an interesting story in itself.

In the original late 80’s run of “The Mark”, “The Archon” was a mysterious figure, always shown in shadow or with his back turned, etc. But the Archon was the fictional country of Lutzany’s charismatic, fascist, Hitler-like leader. If anything, his image should be plastered everywhere, not hidden in shadow. I asked the writer, Mike Barr, what was the reason was for this incongruous dramatic choice. “Is the Archon going to later have a surprising reveal, like, he’s really Teddy Kennedy or George Bush?” Mike admitted he had no such plan; he had inherited the property and was continuing it as it had been in its previous incarnation. I informed Mike and the series editor, Bob Schreck, of the dramatic difficulties this was causing me and asked for permission to show the character in the manner necessitated by logic. They agreed both with my reasoning and my casting choice of the future govenator.

This is page #6 from Dark Horse Comics #14, “The Mark: Taking Back the Streets”, written by Mike Barr, drawn by Brad Rader, published in November, 1993.