Comics
Exclusive Behind The Scenes Look At ‘Echoes’
Before Joshua Fialkov was penning the pages of DC’s hit I, Vampire series, he wrote a little series for Image Comics alongside Rahsan Ekedal called Echoes. This book is horrifying, and scares you in ways you couldn’t imagine. Brilliant artist, Rahsan Ekedal, offered BD an exclusive look behind the scenes of Echoes. After the jump, Ekedal takes you through the entire creative process, from full scripted pages, to layouts, to final lettered pages, plus some insightful commentary that you won’t find anywhere else. If you’re looking to get into the comics industry, either as a writer or artist, you’ve just struck gold my friend.
Echoes follows the story of Brian Cohn as he battles with schizophrenia. Unfortunately for Brian, the meds don’t solve all his issues as he discovers that he has inherited his father’s serial killer instincts. It’s an intense ride down a blazing road of insanity that will remain ingrained in your mind long after you’ve read the final page. The trade is available in stores now, and it comes highly recommended. Read on for the skinny
Pages 7 and 8 from the first issue are still one of my favorite little scenes from the series. On this page, Josh set me the challenge of conveying a very common moment in horror films – a dark, threatening figure appears behind the hero, then disappears right before the hero turns around. This a ‘scare’ moment in film, something that (hopefully) makes the audience jump a little. However, on the page, it’s a lot harder to actually surprise the reader. I could have simply placed Brian in the foreground of the panels, and had the dark figure pass behind him in the background. But I found that there was no scare, no shock in simply replicating that sort of cinematic shot. When I reversed the “camera”, and placed the shadowy figure in the foreground with Brian framed by the dark doorway, I found that it forced the eye to see Brian first, then the dark figure second, providing that little moment of “cinematic” shock for the reader.
I also like page 8 because it’s where I began to introduce the darkness as a character. Taking some inspiration from Edvard Munch, of course, I gave all of the shadows throughout Echoes quite a bit of texture. They literally are a visual stand-in for Brian’s mental health. They are tumultous, volatile, and may or may not contain horrors lurking just out of sight. In this scene, Brian’s paranoia makes him believe there may be a person or something sitting there in the darkness. And that delusion is only broken by the violence of his watch alarm, expressed by Troy Peteri’s brilliant lettering and the little Kirby-esque explosion in the final panel.
These 32-panel double-page spreads became one of the hallmarks of the series, and I this one from issue 4 is my favorite, and I think probably Josh’s favorite as well. It’s all about memory versus truth. Brian (in his therapist’s office, revealed in the following pages) is recalling his father showing him an old print of the 1903 Alice in Wonderland silent film, while explaining his rough philosophy of life to his young son. Through the filter of Brian’s suspicions (that his father may have been a serial killer), and possibly distorted memory, this father-son moment becomes threatening and even terrifying. To help convey that, I went through the 1903 film frame by frame, picking the most intense images, and then twisting them just slightly to be even more threatening and disturbing. It’s how Brian remembers it. But is it truth?
Comics
‘Witchblade’ is Getting Resurrected This Summer in New Comic Series from Top Cow and Image Comics
Witchblade, the popular comic series that initially ran from 1995 to 2015 and launched a TV series, is getting resurrected in a new comic series from Top Cow and Image Comics. It’s set to unleash heavy metal, black magic and blood this summer.
Look for the new Witchblade series to launch on July 17, 2024.
In Witchblade #1, “New York City Police Detective Sara Pezzini’s life was forever fractured by her father’s murder. Cold, cunning, and hellbent on revenge, Sara now stalks a vicious criminal cabal beneath the city, where an ancient power collides and transforms her into something wild, magnificent, and beyond her darkest imaginings. How will Sara use this ancient power, or will she be consumed by it?”
The series is penned by NYT Best-Selling writer Marguerite Bennett (Animosity, Batwoman, DC Bombshells) and visualized by artist Giuseppe Cafaro (Suicide Squad, Power Rangers, Red Sonja). The creative duo is working with original co-creator Marc Silvestri, who is the CEO of Top Cow Productions Inc. and one of the founders of Image Comics. They are set to reintroduce the series to Witchblade’s enduring fans with “a reimagined origin with contemporary takes on familiar characters and new story arcs that will hook new readers and rekindle the energy and excitement that fueled the 90’s Image Revolution that shaped generations of top creators.”
Bennett said in a statement, “The ability to tell a ferocious story full of monsters, sexuality, vision, and history was irresistible.” She adds, “Our saga is sleek, vicious, ferocious, and has a lot to say about power in the 21st century and will be the first time that we are stopping the roller coaster to let more people on. I’ve loved Witchblade since I was a child, and there is truly no other heroine like Sara with such an iconic legacy and such a rich, brutal relationship to her own body.”
“The Witchblade universe is being modernized to reflect how Marguerite beautifully explores the extreme sides of Sara through memories, her personal thoughts, like desire and hunger, in her solitude and when she is possessed by the Witchblade. So, I had to visually intersect a noir True Detective-like world with a supernatural, horror world that is a fantastic mix between Berserk and Zodiac,” Cafaro stated.
Marc Silvestri notes, “This is brand new mythology around Sara, and I can’t wait for you to fall in love with her and all the twists and turns. Discover Witchblade reimagined this summer, and join us as we bring all the fun of the 90s to the modern age and see how exciting comics can be. I can’t wait for you to read this new series.”
Witchblade#1 will be available at comic book shops on Wednesday, July 17th, for $4.99 for 48 pages. And it’ll come with multiple cover variants.
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Cover A: Marc Silvestri and Arif Prianto (Full Color)
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Cover B: Giuseppe Cafaro and Arif Prianto (Full Color)
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Cover C: Blank Sketch Cover
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Cover D (1/10): Dani and Brad Simpson (Full Color)
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Cover E (1/25): Marc Silvestri and Arif Prianto, Virgin Cover (Full Color)
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Cover F (1/50): J.Scott Campbell (Full Color)
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Cover G (1/100): Bill Sienkiewicz. (Full Color)
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Cover H (1/250): Line art by Marc. Virgin Cover, Inks (B/W)
Witchblade #1 will also be available across many digital platforms, including Amazon Kindle, Apple Books, and Google Play.
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