The big reveal! Kinda.

As readers, it’s not really a huge reveal (since the significance of the marks hasn’t been explained just yet), but for the Brimia crew, it’s definitely the first big moment to make them realize this run is not everything they were led to believe it was. Of course there have been a few hints along the way, but this is the first in-your-face revelation for them.

For the marks themselves, I wanted something fairly easy to draw (unlike the circular mark on Sky’s neck, which I think will be a bit of a pain every time I have to draw it…damn circles). I also wanted the Kaagan-Vas mark to be evocative of a pirate Jolly Roger skull and crossbones, with a very aggressive and tribal look to it. I think I nailed it, especially the “easy to draw” part. Yay!

Interestingly, in my original art pass, the marks were very clean and crisp, which didn’t feel right. Once I roughed them up a bit and added the stray specks, that really added the creepy factor I was looking for. And it fit their characters much better. After all, it’s not like they’d be applying these marks precisely and carefully with stencils; they’d be powering through them with more of a brutal energy. That’s how the Kaagan-Vas roll.