INTERVIEW: Gather around for a new ‘Magic: The Gathering’ comic
Image courtesy of Dark Horse / Provided with permission.
Magic: The Gathering continues to conquer the world of collectible card games, dominating sales for Hasbro and amassing legions of dedicated fans. Devotees have also jumped mediums over the years and enjoyed the Magic universe in comic book form.
The first issue of Magic: The Gathering: Untold Stories — Elspeth is now available from Dark Horse (issue #2 comes Dec. 10). The four-issue series, which is written by Dan Watters and features art by Owen Gieni, follows the deceased Elspeth as she ventures into the underworld, and she’s determined to make it out of this subterranean hell and take on the sun god Heliod. For Magic fans, this story should be familiar and most welcome; it’s the unpublished tale known as Theros Beyond Death, and now it can be enjoyed in comic book form.
Recently Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with Watters and Gieni to learn more secrets about the story, what they think of Theros and to better understand their artistic process. For MtG fans, an “untold” tale of Jace is arriving in 2026. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
How much background information does one need on Magic: The Gathering to understand this story?
WATTERS: None, I would hope. Though the story is rooted in lore that’s been built through other media, my goal is always to create a tale that stands on its own. It’s my thinking that if it doesn’t do that, it fails as a piece of storytelling on its own merits.
Here, Elspeth is betrayed. She is murdered, and now she is going to escape the underworld to take back what is hers. At its core this is Greek mythology, and at its core, that mythology is built of universal truths and experiences — but with more multi-headed dragons and cannibals and stuff.
What do you like about Elspeth as a character?
WATTERS: Her tenacity. Got to love a character whose own death is just something that irritates them.
Did you have freedom to take some creative departures?
WATTERS: I was working within a framework, which is generally the job, but within that, I was given pretty free range to explore Theros as I saw fit. There’s so much beautiful art on the cards, and it was often a case of looking at certain ones and extrapolating the world from them. What were they already telling us? What would be additive to that? How do we square certain circles? I enjoy those parts.
What’s it like working with Owen Gieni?
WATTERS: Owen has been a fantastic partner on this. His work is wonderful and his enthusiasm infectious. I’ve thrown him some really abstract ideas, and he hasn’t flinched. There were some dense, very formalist page structures I conceptualized that I winced to send over; he’d have been well within his rights to tell me to go play in traffic. He picked up the challenge and made it look effortless to boot.
Do you feel there will be many more “untold stories” beyond Elspeth’s?
WATTERS: Oh, I should have thought so. This is a universe riddled with them. Some will inevitably crawl out of the woodwork.
Did you follow artistic guidelines for the entire Magic: The Gathering universe when creating the look of this series?
GIENI: Oh yes, absolutely, and I think that element was my favourite part of the job — being able to utilize and work with all these incredible MtG designs and artwork by some true legends of the field. I’m trying to stay as authentic to the original illustrations as possible while still giving my own take. It’s been great. We’ve got a whole team making sure story continuity and visual representation are correct and lore-accurate. I’ve just recently finished the very last of the final issue’s art, and I miss Theros already.
I love your cover for issue #1. What was the motivation behind that image of Elspeth emerging from the underworld?
GIENI: Haha, thanks! I really wanted to tell a story on the covers, not just have them look like random pin-ups of the characters. Elspeth defiantly escaping the dark depths, swarmed by a horde of golden-masked Returned, felt like a good way to start. Her white cloak is a nice visual centre point to build around. I technically gave her the wrong weapon here, continuity-wise, to the story we’re telling — her Godsend blade — but I really wanted to draw it.
Do the scales of her uniform help or hinder the artistic style?
GIENI: Haha, oh man, I love that sort of stuff — textural details. It’s pretty funny; some of the MtG character art from the cards was not necessarily designed with the idea of drawing a version of that character from all angles, multiple times, like we have to do in comics. The obvious solution is to simplify the design a bit, but I tried not to do that too much, if at all.
Did ancient mythology inspire any of your drawings?
GIENI: In a way. I certainly love Greek mythology, but I also tried to make sure the realm of Theros doesn’t feel one-to-one with our world’s mythological Greece, if that makes sense. It has to feel like its own thing, even though it has those obvious historical influences. It’s a great realm to play in artistically — limitless potential for more stories.
What’s it like working with Dan Watters?
GIENI: I love Dan. I think he’s brilliant — maybe the comics writer who most deftly blends cool high art and smart blockbuster pop together into one vision that we have in the industry right now. I’m a horror comics guy, and I love that Dan can really nail that aspect in his writing — tension, suspense, and scale, those nostalgic peak Vertigo vibes. I’m a big fan. I’d love to keep working with him.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Magic: The Gathering: Untold Stories — Elspeth, issue #1, is now available from Dark Horse. Issue #2 releases Dec. 10. Click here for more information.
