The Kark

The Kark, shown here as being a little skinnier than he actually is. He's a broad-shouldered brute. He is strong--it might take a half dozen men to truly subdue him--but not superhuman. A craftsman from the old continent, he was part of the team contracted to build radio buoys in the wilderness. As a character, he's very strange. He has this big, violent id that glories in creative violence crossed with an empathetic side that channels this anger into righteousness. He uses the moral burden of his role as a protector to justify his enthusiasm.

The Kark is fun to think about. I wanted this big brutish guy who's still very nimble; in my head he moves around a lot like the Hulk. Which is sort of my thing, I guess: I love these big, unstoppable guys who are just unrestrained id. The Heavy, the Hulk, the brute splicer. However, that effortless violence also bothers me. It's fun to watch one dude demolish a dozen, but there comes this feeling then that he's inevitable and unstoppable. So the Kark can't do that. Move him back, make him more judo-esque. I have this mental image of him holding a gun with a trigger guard too small to accommodate his colossal mitts.  So he corners a guy, stuffs that's hand into the gun, and starts squeezing the guy so he'll pull the trigger. I want to make a brute that can come up with creative solutions to problems.

Right, the art. The actual reason for all this. I'm obviously beginning to experiment more with Mignola-style heavy shadows and shape suggestion. My Liefield Syndrome began acting up, so you see pouches. Heavy shadows are starting to come out. Like I said, he's actually supposed to be a lot bulkier. I want his shoulders to match his neck, plus I want him to have a gut. He's more a linebacker than a bodybuilder; his muscles are for work, not for show. He does a lot of lifting, throwing, hammering and sawing, but very little running or gymnastics: as a result he's got powerful arms and hands, but he also has relatively underdeveloped legs and something of a gut.