Polar (webcomic)

Polar
Cover of Polar: Came From the Cold
Author(s)	Víctor Santos
Website	www.polarcomic.com
Current status / schedule	Ongoing
Launch date	2 January 2012
Publisher(s)	Dark Horse Comics

Polar is a 2012 webcomic and series of graphic novels written and illustrated by Victor Santos. Featuring "international hitman Kaiser Black", the webcomic is inspired by a variety of action and noir fiction. Polar is characterized by its highly stylized design and complete lack of dialogue, though speech balloons were added in the graphic novel publications by Dark Horse Comics.

Polar depicts the story of international hitman Kaiser Black, the titular character of Santos' 2009 graphic novel Black Kaiser, as he forced out of retirement after an assassination attempt is made on his life. The story, described as "bleak", features a femme fatale character and a large amount of gore, and it is set in an icy landscape. The webcomic is notable for its lack of dialogue and speech balloons, and features a somewhat minimalistic style in color, being rendered entirely in stark black, white, and orange.

Víctor Santos was known for creating several graphic novels, such as Filthy Rich and The Mice Templar, before he began uploading Polar as a webcomic in 2012. Santos conceived the protagonist of Polar, Black Kaiser, for an action noir comic he published in 2010. Black Kaiser was inspired by Jim Steranko's S.H.I.E.L.D. comics, and Santos described the creation of this story as "mixing classic Marvel books, Trevanian novels, Bourne movies and manga action." The publisher of Black Kaiser eventually lost interest in the comic, though Santos still had various narratives in mind featuring the character.

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