Christian Ward

Britain’s hottest comic book artist talks to Garrick Webster about his Eisner-winning Black Bolt series, creating surreal worlds and his artistic inspirations…

“I think that you play to your strengths” Christian takes a grounded view

T “ hor!” shouts Christian Ward down the phone line. It’s a blustery morning and he’s out walking in a London park. Clearly, this is not the ideal time for an interview with Imaginefx. “I’ve got a dog called Thor, by the way,” Christian says. “I’m not shouting at a Norse god.”

There will be no prizes for guessing who the artist’s favourite superhero is. However, this rising star in the world of comic art should probably reappraise that choice. Although he’s done a short run on Thor with Jason Aaron, it’s his work on Black Bolt that is winning all the plaudits. In June last year, Christian and writer Saladin Ahmed won the Best New Series Eisner at San Diego Comic-con, and the achievement has given his career a tremendous boost.

extra exposure

“They send you this globe when you win and it’s weirdly heavy,” Christian says, excitedly. “But it’s a thing – a real thing! And I’ve really noticed a bit of an up-kick in my exposure and the amount of projects that I’m doing since winning. I don’t know whether it’s just because more people have seen my work because of Black Bolt, or whether the award does carry more kudos.”

The book itself offers something truly different for readers. Black

Bolt, a member of the Inhumans, was a marginal character in the Marvel Universe… until Christian turned him into a mysterious and enigmatic hero. “One of the reasons I wanted to draw Black Bolt is because he can’t talk. Well, he can talk, but his power is in his voice, so even a whisper can destroy cities,” says Christian.

The fact that nearly all his main character’s communication would have to come through body language and facial expressions was part of the challenge, and the artist found regularly himself pulling a range of faces in the mirror, asking himself, “What would my face be like if I felt this anger or felt this sadness?”

It’s not just that aspect that makes the comic Eisner-worthy, though. Black Bolt introduces readers to a cast of strange outsiders who are all stuck in a surreal, intergalactic prison. The blues and greys make it a cold, hard place, with a streak of hot pink running through the panels to hint at a hope of freedom. The surreal structures of the setting round off the book’s otherworldly feel very effectively.

We wanted this place to feel tangible. It couldn’t look too dreamlike or wispy

“We wanted this place to feel tangible,” says Christian. “It couldn’t feel too dreamlike or wispy – it needed to look really solid. The work of MC Escher was the perfect inspiration to do that and I thought, ‘How cool would that be? The MC Escher prison in space? What a perfect aesthetic.’”

take the reader on a journey

Surreal, unreal, ethereal – they’re all words used to describe Christian’s work. As an artist, what he loves to do is take comic book readers to places

they’ve never been before. From 2014 to 2016, he worked on ODY-C with the writer Matt Fraction, reinterpreting Homer’s Odyssey in a futuristic universe that was full of psychedelic patterns and equally colourful characters.

In his current project, Invisible Kingdom, Christian is working with G Willow Wilson to create another brightly coloured piece, but this time the vibe is somewhere in between The Fifth Element, Dune, Cowboy Bebop and Star Wars.

“I think that you play to your strengths,” the artist explains. “My rendering isn’t about something that could be real. The thing I would struggle with most would be a New York scene. I could do it, but there wouldn’t be a lot of joy in me doing it.”

Christian began developing his style while at university. He studied to be an illustrator and loved to paint. Main figures would be realistically rendered, but spiralling away from them would be geometric shapes, patterns and washes of colour. The look was influenced by Reggie Pedro, who illustrated album covers for Gomez.

everything at once

Although he works on a Cintiq and uses Photoshop, Christian doesn’t draw, ink and colour in sequence like other comic artists. He tends to do everything at once, building his panels up like a fine artist and blocking

I think that you play to your strengths. My rendering isn’t about something that could be real

fighting the bad fight Supervillain Titania gains the upper hand against heroes of the Marvel Universe, in Christian’s celebrated take on Black Bolt.

mighty art His 2018 run on Thor with Jason Aaron put Christian Ward at the centre of the Marvel Universe.

black bolt The stunning Eisner winning Black Bolt – something different for comic book readers.

space shark Thor’s battles in ethereal realms gave Christian Ward the scope to do his thing. red sonja In addition to his series, Christian continues to create covers and variants for books like Dynamite’s Red Sonja. iconic The simple and striking front cover for the first issue of Black Bolt.

the kiss Christian Ward’s homage to his hero Gustav Klimt, as seen in the comic Infinite Vacation, which the artists co-created with writer Nick Spencer.

lost in ody-c Internal panels from issue 3 of ODY-C. invisible kingdom Just released, Christian Ward’s new series with G Willow Wilson looks set to be a huge hit.

gideon falls A variant cover that Christian created for the series Gideon Falls by Image Comics.