Arkel vs the Devil by Marc Hardy

Arkel was a Franco-Belgan serie about angels & demons fighting with some sci-fi elements thrown in (such as space ships and laser swords, Star Wars wasn't far away). It suffered from quite the hectic publication life (giving it some kind of cult status in the process) and is now being released in super deluxe oversized editions shot from the original art (+ signed & numbered).

It made a huge impression on my 8 years old self back then. It remember being scarred or feeling uneasy about the big monsters in it and probably by the fact the “round eyes” Spirou style, however dark & sketchy Hardy’s style is, violently contrasted with some vicious death scenes in the book. This is my analysis now as I couldn’t obviously formulate it back then.

I found the art kind of ugly even though I could not help coming back to it and flipping through the book again and again for the above mentioned delicious scary factor (a la Kirby art when you discover it as a young kid if you will).

I met Mr Hardy during a store signing this December and asked for this sketch pitting the two main protagonists against each other. This may seem like an ambitious request but the understanding for this signing was that given the expensive price of the book, Marc would accommodate those kind of requests.

To say it delights me and my 8 years old self would be an understanding. Marc really took his time on it while we had a nice chat. The fact that it is oversized (close to 11 by 17) and drawn on heavy art paper (a la Artist Edition) really gives an arty look.

A special piece for me as you can tell ^^