Behind the scenes of STRANGE SCIENCE with artist Butch Mapa!

Next month’s STRANGE SCIENCE one-shot is a historic first for Archie, showcasing Jinx’s best pal Danni in her own sci-fi horror story while revealing that she is transgender. And apparently . . . she’s also kind of in a long fight with Dilton! Old school Archie fans know this genius pair has a history going back to the 1989 miniseries, DILTON’S STRANGE SCIENCE, and we can’t wait to see what writer Magdalene Visaggio and artist Butch Mapa have in store for us. While we wait for August 16, we asked Butch to walk us through a sneak peek at his especially scary (and science-y!) artwork. Take it away, Butch!

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This is our first big action bit, so I tried to make this scene as impactful as I could. Magdalene wanted a certain kind of energy signature for the time travel effect, and I drew them in blue lines here to make them easier for Ellie to work with. I like the contrast of Danni’s more vertical body posture and Jinx’s ready to rock vibe, as it reflected their personalities.

For panels 3-5, the script was pretty straightforward; as the camera pulls back, the background gets more and more warped. The warping for everything in this issue is a mix techniques—I drew some parts with curved lines, and in others, I drew them straight, and then warped them digitally on my computer.

 

For Dilton, I was trying to think of a design that would be a little creepy without being too over the top, as I wanted to ease into the horror elements of the story. I was thinking that Dilton would be some sort of collapsing probability cloud that would come into focus as we observed him. Armchair physicist, right here!

I had the Smoke Monster from Lost in my head, and played around with crosshatching to achieve the look.

This page is a kind of montage as Danni and company make their break. I kept it at an even four panel grid to set an even pace, something I nicked off the GOAT himself, Jack Kirby. Ellie Wright did such a wonderful job on the colors over my linework throughout this issue—I hope you all can check it out!

— Butch Mapa

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Thanks again to Butch for letting us look behind the scenes, and you can reserve your collectible copy of STRANGE SCIENCE at your local comic shop today. And don’t let Dilton mess with anything in your neighborhood!