THE MARK IN AMERICA, ISSUE #3, PAGE 22

During the period when I was illustrating “The Mark in America”, I consciously tried to make as many of the incidental characters women as I possible, and, further, women of color. In this case, I made the bus driver a woman (the script didn’t specify gender) and the pregnant woman across the aisle from Helda a woman of color (the bus driver too). The writer, Mike Barr, said it was a plot point that the woman next to Helda had to be Caucasian, as (spoiler alert) her body would later be mistaken for Helda’s. I thought getting rid of the spotted black on her hair, turning her blonde, would solve the issue. However the colorist made her African-American anyway. Mike complained to me about it, like it was my fault. I guess I could have made the unnamed guest character more obviously white, but, to my eye, she doesn’t look any blacker than Helda.

Damn. This page looks like Russ Heath if I do say so myself.

This is page 22 for "The Mark" issue 3, volume 2, otherwise known as "The Mark In America", published by Dark Horse Comics in February 1994. Written by Mike Barr, Drawn by Brad Rader.