By Pablo Hidalgo and Paul Ens
Never has the dark side been this sexy. In the pages of the upcoming Darth Maul comic series, the Sith apprentice unveils his intricately tattooed pectorals for the first time. For authenticity's sake, the artists of the comic -- cover artist Drew Struzan and interior artist Jan Duursema -- turned to the original concept artist who designed Maul, Iain McCaig.
"I had heard from [Continuity Editor] Allan Kausch that Dark Horse was going to be doing a Darth Maul comic, and there was much rejoicing, because I would get so many letters from fans asking, 'Would you please bring him back! Even half of him!' The comic, at last, will be a place for him to live on," says McCaig.
"When they said he was going to be stripped to the waist, I was doubly happy. I had kind of designed Darth Maul's whole body based on the idea of peeled flesh and muscle patterns. There's one drawing I had done back on Episode I where he's wearing a costume that reveals an arm, the part of the chest, and the leg," describes McCaig. "I had started to work out those patterns on his body, but never completed that. So I was really happy when I got the call. That meant I could get in there and figure out what else was under there."
Although Maul's body art is revealed, the full story behind it will probably forever remain a mystery. "This is my conjecture, but in my mind, when he became a Sith, he had a transformation," speculates McCaig. "The tattoos -- very painful tattoos -- would cover his entire body and become the mark of the Sith."
"The tattoos on Maul's chest further enhance the dark nature of Maul's character," says Duursema. "His dedication to the dark side must have been total to endure this. Drawing the designs for the first time gave me a chill because they are like calligraphy or ancient runes and give him a strange and terrible beauty--especially when he is in motion. It hit me like a shock one day when I was pencilling the first issue that these designs were destroyed when Darth Maul was killed by Obi-Wan."
"I really wanted to do something that wasn't the common approach for comic covers," explains Struzan. "I saw the beautiful graphic quality of Darth Maul's design to be a natural opportunity to take a strong graphic design approach to the whole assignment. Darth Maul is a mystery and I felt the only way to really get to know him would be intuitively. So the covers are more emotional than explanatory. He is power, mystery and an enigma. Will seeing his chest tell us more about who he is and what his motives are? I doubt it. What it tells me is that his face is not makeup, but that he is truly a zebra of a different color."
"In my mind, he's covered from head-to-toe," McCaig coyly reveals. "Every inch of him. I had a lot of people who called up with suggestions -- especially women -- who were suggesting different patterns, especially red spots on his butt."
The Darth Maul comic series, by Ron Marz, Jan Duursema, Rick Magyar and Drew Struzan, begins in September from Dark Horse Comics.
