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MARK POULTON ON CREATING THE KONI WAVES
by Jennifer Contino (Pulse)
Mark Poulton, the writer and co-creator of Arcana's upcoming Koni Waves provided us with a preview details of the thought process behind the work.
Created by Mark Poulton, Stephen Sistilli, and Dexter Weeks, KONI WAVES introduces private detective Koni Kanawai, an ex-cop in Honolulu, Hawaii who with the aid of Pete – her surf buddy, Krystal – a colleague from her dancing days, and Huko – the owner of her favorite watering hole, encounters a series of supernatural events that leads her to discover a dark side of her island not seen in the usual tourist spots. It combines the spunky good girl comics of the 1940s with the black and white horror magazines of the 1970s.
The creation of Koni Waves was definitely a group effort. Steve, Dex, and I wanted to do something different. Tired of superhero books set in the city, we wanted to bring something fresh to the table. Relying on Steve’s strength to draw sensual women, we based our book on a female detective, one with weaknesses and faults that people could relate to. Thus, Koni Waves was born. Koni was a woman who worked her way through college as an exotic dancer. It was a means to end to get her where she really wanted to be… the police academy. However, Koni would face roadblocks along the way and see her dream of being a police officer fade away. How does someone cope when they achieve their dream only to have it taken away from them?
This was just one of the possibilities we loved about the book. Koni was a character who wouldn’t always make the right choices. She would stumble along the way. Also, adding to the book’s uniqueness would be our locale, Hawaii. Dex was Hawaiian and we thought we could use his knowledge of the islands to our benefit. Plus, the place is gorgeous. Bikini clad babes, beautiful beaches, volcanoes, the whole tiki culture… this was something you didn’t see in big city, superhero books. The pieces were starting to fall into place.
With our character and location set, our detective just needed some cases to solve. Here’s where Dex and I started having some real fun. We both grew up huge horror film fans, the gorier and scarier the better. Many days at work were spent debating our favorite horror films, what we liked, and what we didn’t. Now, we could apply those lengthy debates to our comic. We decided Koni would deal in select cases involving supernatural elements. Hawaii is rich with stories of gods, magic, and tiki goodness. You think Greg Brady had bad luck in Hawaii? You haven’t seen anything yet. Living Tikis, giant sea monsters, vampire surfers, leering men at ladies night are just a small taste of what we have in store for Koni. This is our dream project. It combines all of the story elements we like in our movies, television shows, and comics. If you’re looking for something different, I suggest you take a trip to the islands. It’s just a comic shop away.
The first part of Koni Waves comes out in March from Mark Poulton, artist Stephen Sistilli and letterer and Co-Creator Dexter Weeks.
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