Archie’s House of Horror: KARDAK THE MYSTIC

I miss the good ol’ days of magic.

I suppose what I really miss is life’s simplicity; how the lack of options brought folks together. No time was wasted endlessly scrolling through various streaming apps to find the perfect viewing experience, just to abandon it all and stare at our respective devices. Back in my day (the 1990s, that is), if there was an event on television, that’s what you were watching with your family. And magic specials were a huge part of my television-viewing youth. I remember scouring the TV Guide (kids, ask your parents to explain that one to you), and finding out that evening there would be a special magic event—whether it was David Copperfield, Lance Burton, Penn and Teller, or the various magicians featured on The World’s Greatest Magic. There was something so exciting about our family getting together to marvel at these gods among regular folk, the fascinating mix of entertainment and bewilderment—could these mentalists truly read minds? Can David Copperfield really fly?

This was until the fun came to an end all at the agile hands of a man in a mask. Breaking the Magician’s Code: Magic’s Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed was a different kind of magic special. The masked magician Val Valentino would perform large-scale illusions and close-up magic tricks, and then go on to reveal how the tricks were done. In a series of specials, he completely lifted the veil between the worlds of magic and normal, and suddenly the mystique was gone. These weren’t gods and goddesses among common folk, they were just really good at timing. With the secrets behind the tricks exposed, the magic TV specials gradually dissipated, or at the very least my interest in them did. Over time, onscreen magic would make its return—though it never really went away on the stage. Criss Angel: Mindfreak showed us the mastery of illusion, especially when it utilizes well-done camerawork. Masters of Illusion had a modern-day revival, and Penn and Teller’s Fool Us continues to showcase new magical talent, speaking in code to decipher how the trick was done, showing us there is still a mystery to it.

It would take a while for me to understand that knowing it isn’t just “magic,” but that there is a skill involved, is what makes magic and illusions so appealing. It’s like wrestling—even if you know how it’s done, it doesn’t mean you can just go and do it yourself. Sure, simple sleight of hand and card tricks can be done by even a novice illusionist, but ones on a much grander scale take a level of skill and precision that only the elite can achieve. And that’s what makes magic just so special: it still has levels of risk, danger, and speed that only those who have mastered it can truly accomplish and make it look believable.

…But what if you couldn’t decipher just how a magic trick has been done? What if no one could? What if the magic is real… and what if something sinister is behind it?

Archie’s next one-shot comic book, KARDAK THE MYSTIC, seeks to explore just that. Masterfully written by Joe Corallo, with tremendous art from Butch Mapa, KARDAK THE MYSTIC is a horrific tale of magic gone wrong and just how terrifying the secrets behind magic can be. In Archie lore, John Cardy was a bit of a superhero with a supernatural bend. Originally referred to only as “The Mystic,” Cardy was an adventurer and professional magician who would travel the world with his act and fight crime along the way. At the start, Kardak’s abilities were limited to simple stage magic, but he eventually acquired mystical abilities as well. Some of his powers included the ability to hypnotize and exert mental control over the actions of others, projecting illusions that seem realistic, along with telepathy and imperceptibility. On stage, he utilized escape and rope tricks and an ability to disengage his shadow.

In this new iteration, John Cardy is a struggling magician seeking fame. As attendance of his stage shows dwindles, John is confronted with a difficult problem: continue on this path he’s devoted his whole life to or abandon it and start fresh. This problem is made all the more difficult by the ticking time clock of life, as his fiancé Lorna no longer feels comfortable stalling their future together while he pursues a dream that’s leading them nowhere.

John’s life changes, however, when he encounters a strange novelty store owned by a mysterious woman who offers him an enchanted item that grants him the power of invisibility and can enhance his live show and dramatically change his career for the best—but nothing that good comes for free, and as a trade for invisibility, Kardak is granted the ability to slide between worlds, and what’s on the other side has its own reason to want to enter Earth.

…But I won’t say any more, you’ll have to read the issue to find out what that means and what happens next!

The horrors that take place in KARDAK THE MYSTIC are especially interesting because, just like being a child witnessing magic for the first time, so much of the terror and threat to our world is, like the secrets of how tricks are done, left to the imagination (though that’s not to say that we don’t see some delightfully wonderful horror designs that harken back to the classic Kardak, thanks to the amazing work of Butch Mapa).

As with most Archie tales, the horror always works on multiple layers. The first, and most obvious, is the malicious entity that wants to enter our world for nefarious purposes. The second is the horror of the consequences that come from trusting someone who is offering you untold power. But the third, and most relatable layer of horror, comes down to the fear of an uncertain future. The existential dread that accompanies having to decide whether or not our dreams are still worth pursuing is a fear that’s all too common; far more horrific than sawing a woman in half could ever be.

———

Read on for additional details on Kardak the Mystic, check out our previous exclusive look at interior artwork from the one-shot, and go here to catch up on all of the past installments of Archie’s House of Horror!

KARDAK THE MYSTIC (ONE-SHOT)

All John Cardy ever wanted was to be recognized for his talents at magic tricks and sleight of hand. He’s talented, but not enough to get noticed for it until he comes across a (unbeknownst to him) cursed ruby. This ruby grants John the power of invisibility. As Kardak the Mystic, he performs feats no one else can with this magic. Unfortunately for him, going invisible isn’t just a trick of the eyes, but rather entering another realm parallel to our own. And something inside that realm wants to use Kardak to enter our world for dark purposes.

Script: Joe Corallo
Art: Butch Mapa
Colors: Ellie Wright
Letters: Jack Morelli
Main Cover: Butch Mapa
Variant Cover: Skylar Patridge
On Sale Date: 8/14
32-page, full color comic
$3.99 U.S.

Main Cover by Butch Mapa:

Variant Cover by Skylar Patridge: