Designing a Monster: Butch Mapa Talks Kardak The Mystic

Kardak The Mystic #1 is now available at comics shops it takes the titular hero from the Golden Age of comics and modernizes the character for new audiences. Originally appearing in Top Notch Comics for M.L.J. Magazines, Inc. in 1939 before the creation of Archie Comics, Kardak returns in a new special from Joe Corallo, Butch Mapa, Ellie Wright, and Jack Morelli. The issue sees the stage magician gain a curse, leading to different realms blending together.

Due to the curse, Kardak sees monstrous threats emerging from other realities. Artist Butch Mapa took us through designing the terrifying Archie Comics creatures and what inspired their creations:

Kardak the Mystic's story dealt with things trying to slide into (and Kardak sliding out of) our world from Beyond, and Joe's initial art direction fit that perfectly. A taller and thinner silhouette feels more slippery and less weighty somehow, suiting the theme. My initial design was simply a tall, hooded figure. Then, I added some jagged cracks to represent that this character was trying to break through to our world.

I knew the hands I wanted it to have would be sharp, not just to signify the threat the monster represented but again to further hint at a being that was cutting through reality.

I knew a lot of the figure would be black and perhaps obscured by special effects, so the design of the face would be extremely important because that was the one area where we could really go crazy with the horror element. I again kept in mind the main theme and ended up with some designs related to layers (of reality) and birth (cutting through to a new reality). Here are the options I presented:

There was a final twist to the monster's design. While looking at the original Kardak stories from the '40s, I saw that one of his villains was The Transparent People; creatures made of a glass-like material, ruled by their king, Rexa. I thought that with some fixing, that the king would make sense as the monster. The challenge became finding ways to make him horrifying, as the design wasn't as scary as my initial pitches.