THE MARK IN AMERICA, ISSUE #2, PAGE 15

I like the way I did the natural lighting in the room, with the strong daylight overcoming the artificial light. I made good use of the wood paneling to depict the plane of the wall falling away from the window. Ditto with the pile of the rug.

Thinking in film terms, the scene transition between panels 3 and 4 would be cutting on the sound of breaking glass (panel 3) and the smack of Isaac’s hand into his palm (on the far left of panel 4). Again, I’m manipulating the reader’s eye read—the first thing one sees in panel 4 is the word balloon, then the smack of the fist-in-palm, then one’s eyes “pan” across to Burovnik and two of his goons. Damn; looking at in now, it would have worked better if Isaac’s word balloon had been placed on the right side of his face, so that the eyes would hit FIRST on the fist-in-palm instead of the word balloon. Oh well; one of the downsides of working “Marvel Style” is that I couldn’t indicate balloon placement as the dialogue hadn’t been written yet, except in general terms. However, I regret the simplicity of the inking on 
Isaac’s face, especially when I put all that volumetric rendering into his shoulder. It was probably cowardice on my part.

Panel 6 is an example of what the writer, Mike Barr decried as my “archness”, i.e. my droll sense of humor that I injected into the proceedings on a regular basis. I carefully placed Isaac in the middle of a target shaped carpet (writing a margin note to the colorist to treat the alternating circular bands red and white). This was NOT in the script, I’m pretty sure, and Mike may have resented the way I was hi-jacking the narrative.

This is page 15 for "The Mark" issue 2, volume 2, otherwise known as "The Mark In America", published by Dark Horse Comics in January 1994. Written by Mike Barr, drawn by Brad Rader.