Author notes

Chapter One, Page 8

michaelallanleonard

on June 27, 2013

James was trying to go for what he calls that "Bill Sienkiewicz crazy eyed look" in the second panel without being "too obvious" about it.


My take on writing the Arcanum is that they were sort of like the very early incarnation of Daffy Duck, before he got the sort of 'stable' egotistical blowhard jerkwad persona.

If you've ever seen those shorts, Daffy was just that – pure off-the-rails stream-of-consciousness crazy, and that kind of unsettled me as kid. I laughed at his antics, but there was a mild tension behind it, that things could go south at any given moment.

Bugs Bunny might pull the old circus knife-throwing gag just to see you sweat, but at the end of the day, it was just a prank, all in good fun.

Early Daffy, though, he had a streak of the Joker in him – if he threw that cleaver at your head, you never knew if he was going for the close call and the laugh or if he had completely different intentions but his aim was just off … that was what I went for with the Arcanum, where they'd be happy to give someone rabbit ears behind their back and mug for the 'camera' on one page, then turn and bare their fangs on the next.

James always managed to perfectly nail that 'cartoon' feel with them in the art, to play up the humor without losing the horror.