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.
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