[PROCESS] with Marco Rudy
A deeper dive into the art of GAME OF CITIES AND THINGS.
Today we’re back with a very special [PROCESS] post, with GAME OF CITIES AND THINGS artist Marco Rudy.
If you missed GAME OF CITIES AND THINGS, our latest LEGENDS anthology story, you can read it now, starting right here. You can also catch up on part 2 and part 3 while you’re at it.
And a reminder that members of THE CIRCLE, our premium tier, will be getting this story in print, in a beautiful two hundred page deluxe hardcover LEGENDS edition. Annual level subscribers will get it in print too, in a softcover edition. So if you’d like to get yours:
We’ll be back later this week with word on the next LEGENDS story coming your way, as well. Until then, here’s Marco to talk us through the making of this fantastic story…
Part 1, the Set Up: On page nine, The Duke reacts to Markos posturing in a more excited manner. So, initially I wanted that first panel to be the most impactful image in the narrative. Since the Duke is above the big stair case, I thought of all the panels after the first one, to be in a way, the steps down from the Seat — As if, and rightfully so, the Duke, the main man, is talking down to you, the reader, and by consequence, Markos.
Thing is, upon reflection, the whole steps-thing wasn't working so well when I put it down to paper, so I kept a similar approach, but with a different take — the panels would "stream" from the main panel, as if all of them pointed upward to the Duke, instead. Making it that all panels are a reaction to his call to attention, to his authority. And so we got the final page displayed in such a fashion.
Part 3, the Reversal: Since much of the third story is essentially Markos taking the Duke's seat (for all good and ill it gets him), a lot of the pages and panel designs reflect/mirror the approach on the first story - meaning, for this particular case, on page seven, the same approach to page nine of the first part is taken. Only this time after Markos take the seat of power, demanding the attention of everyone around, in much a similar fashion.
With the reversal also comes the swapping of the position and palette.
The Return of Darjon the Blind: I didn't have a lot of information on the character, just a few mentions in other stories here and there, and one striking image.
What I did have was a lot of build-up, like an aura around the character that seemed to build with each mention culminating in Markos adding to his myth, before the reveal, by the end of the second part of our story. Almost like the way his enemies/victims talk about "Baba Yaga"—John Wick, in his first two outings.
So I ran with that, and tried my best to convey just how slick and brutal he is, and thus deserving of his reputation.
The pages are designed around him doing what he does best: literally sliced and diced, with each panel a direct result of his movement in a ballet of death that takes everyone around with him, from the direct victims, to the fear it elicits in the Duke as Markos delights in the performance.
We even get a glimpse of how he “sees” the world—like a predator. Thus making his assumed need for eyes to just be a ploy to finally get Markos, his next target.
In the third part, on page 9, Marcus gets his due. Not only reflecting the same treatment that Darjon gave to the Duke (thus the head falling to the floor), But the color palette reflects Markos’s triumphant grin, on page 3. Not so smiley now, eh?
My approach to telling stories is, to try to take the reader on a journey through the story they consume, as they consume it. Panels aren’t just panels, colors aren’t just colors. Everything is there for a reason, for a purpose. If I made you double-take a sequence, then all the better. If I made you notice something specific and that something provided you with a different understanding of the story you’re reading, then we're “conversing” as you're reading the story.
And that is my mission done!
