LAZARUS #5, page 16
MICHAEL LARK: I just love the sense of dreariness, as well as the quality of light inside the barn. I love westerns, and the story of the Barretts allowed me to indulge that particular love.
LAZARUS #7, page 5
GREG RUCKA: It's that final image—the resolution of this incredibly intense scene, and again, Michael accomplishes everything here without really depicting motion, per se—there's such a powerful stillness throughout, and it's nowhere stronger than in the final image of the sequence.
LAZARUS #7, page 10
LARK: This little travelogue has so much going on in it—it tells so much story with so little. It was one of my favorite pages to draw so far in the series.
LAZARUS #9, page 23
LARK: A very difficult piece of action to draw, and for some reason it came out much better than I could have hoped!
LAZARUS #11, page 3
RUCKA: I love the sense of both motion and stillness in this panel, the way Sonja is moving with such deliberate control. It's a terrific introduction to her, and Michael just DESTROYED this sequence—it's glorious.
LAZARUS #13, pages 6 through 11 [Page 6 pictured]
RUCKA: Though I am especially fond of page 6, panel 2, this sequence was incredibly technically challenging for Michael, I know (because he made a point of telling me...). But the tonal shift in LAZARUS: Conclave here, the camaraderie between the various Lazari, is just terrific. Michael introduces another five characters we've never seen in that second panel, specifically, and each of them is distinct, each of them is evident as their own person, their own character.
LAZARUS #15, page 19, panel 5
RUCKA: The end of the trial by combat, all that action, all that fury, and then this one moment where Forever has kicked her sword back into her hand, she's about to grab it from the air, and she's not even looking at it—she's looking at Sonja, off, beaten. Her expression, bloody, battered, and this wonderful sense of resolve as she prepares to kill her opponent, here, this woman who is one of her only—possibly the only—friends.
LAZARUS #17, pages 22-23 [Page 23 pictured]
LARK: I like the casual nature of the soldiers here, the joking and teasing between them, and then Forever's entry, wearing her new armor (which I love). And Forever's look in that last panel. A reader referred to this as her "I Will End You Look."
LAZARUS is available in three collected editions (Vol. 1: FAMILY, Vol. 2: LIFT, & Vol. 3: CONCLAVE), one deluxe hardcover collecting the first two story arcs, and ongoing single issues. LAZARUS #21 arrives this Wednesday and concludes the fourth volume, POISON.