'Conan the Barbarian' #14.
Mirko Čolak (written internationally as Mirko Colak) is a Serbian comic book artist, who has been mainly working for the American and French markets. His body of work spans all sorts of genres, from horror to superheroes and from adventure to science fiction. After starting out in his home country with work for several magazines and the 'Faktor 4' comic book (2006-2007), Čolak has done several religion-related comic books for the French publisher Soleil, and notable work for Marvel Comics and DC Comics in the USA, such as the 'Red Skull: Incarnate' mini-series (2011-2012), the one-shot graphic novel 'The Prox Transmissions' (2017) and several superhero fill-ins. For other U.S. publishers, he has worked with classic characters like 'Conan the Barbarian', 'Turok: Dinosaur Hunter' and 'Red Sonja', as well as creator-owned projects such as 'Kingsway West' (2016-2017), 'Unholy Grail' (2017) and 'Brothers Dracul' (2018).
Early life
Mirko Čolak was born in 1975 in the city of Zrenjanin in northern Serbia (then still Yugoslavia). Drawing since early childhood, he finished the Construction School in his home town and then headed for Novi Sad, where Marinko Lebović taught him the finer points of the comics profession. Besides Lebović, Čolak has also ranked among his main graphic influences his fellow countrymen Zoran Janjetov, Bane Kerac and Dejan Nenadov, as well as Moebius, Milo Manara and Hermann.
Early comic art by Mirko Čolak.
Early comics
Between 1994 and 1996, Čolak began his career working for the satirical monthly newspaper Ošišani jež ("Haircut Hedgehog"), drawing comic strips, illustrations and promotional artwork. Starting in 1996, he subsequently worked as a cartoonist and comic artist for the fishing magazines Ribolovački Trofej, Ribolovačke Novine and Ribolov. He additionally appeared in the quarterly comic magazine Placebo and some local Zrenjanin newspapers. Participating in several Serbian comic festivals and comic contests, in 2004 Mirko Čolak was named "Best Young Author from the Balkans".
Faktor 4
In 2006 and 2007, Čolak was an artist of 'Faktor 4', a Serbian science fiction comic, published by the Belgrade publisher Luxor with support of the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia. Written by Milan Konjević, the other artists were Aleska Gajić (who also graphically created the characters), Antoan Simić and Borivoje Grbić, with the coloring provided by Ivan Šainović. Published in twelve monthly comic books, the story tells the adventures of four high school students in the peaceful futuristic year of 2080, who are given supernatural powers by the immortal alien being Gamen, to defend the Earth from all kinds of alien and earthly opponents.
L'Affaire Oil' (Glénat, 2008).
International career
Mirko Čolak's international career took off with his collaboration with the American writer Ron Marz, with whom he made the creator-owned crime/spy series 'Russian Sunset' for Image Comics (2006-2007). The series starred a soldier for the Russian mob in Brooklyn, who is sent to his home country of Russia, where he is drawn into a web including brutal gangsters, seductive spies, fanatical terrorists and a stolen nuclear warhead.
Afterwards, Čolak began working for the French comic book industry, starting with the single volume of the crime thriller 'L'Affaire Oil' (Glénat, 2008), written by Jacques Mazeau. For the "Secrets of the Vatican" collection of Soleil Productions, he drew the second volume of 'Atlantide Experiment' (2008), written by Thomas Mosdi, and the single volume of 'Marie' (2009), written by Élie Chouraqui. Together with Lucio Leoni, he then drew the first volume of the 'Templier' series by Jean-Luc Istin, another series with religious themes. For the next two installments Leoni collaborated with the Italian artist Emanuela Negrin.
'Red Skull: Incarnate' #3.
Marvel Comics
Since 2010, Mirko Čolak has been working more extensively for the American comic book market. At Marvel Comics, he drew two issues of 'Secret Warriors' (2010-2011), before teaming up with writer Greg Pak for the five-issue 'Red Skull: Incarnate' series (2011-2012), telling the origin story of Captain America's nemesis. Subsequently, he worked with writer Greg Rucka on several comic books related to 'The Punisher' (2012-2013), and additionally contributed story art to issues of 'Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.' (2014), 'Uncanny X-Men' (2018) and 'King in Black: Captain America' (2021).
'The Prox Transmissions' (2017).
At Marvel, Čolak notably drew the 88-page graphic novel 'The Prox Transmissions' (2017), written by Peter David and Dustin Bates, the songwriter and lead singer of the band Starset. The comic was based on the 2014 novel of the same name, which had accompanied Starset's debut album 'Transmissions'. The book told the fictional back-history of the "Starset Society", which was formed after receiving a mysterious message from space and was the alleged reason for starting the band.
He was also one of the contributing artists to Marvel's 2020 one-shot comic book 'The Vitals: True Nurse Stories', telling nonfiction stories of nurses from the Allegheny Health Network on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic.
'Red Hood and the Outlaws' #7 (2017).
Other American publishers
In addition to his Marvel stints, Mirko Čolak has worked for several other comic book publishers. In 2013, he joined joined Dark Horse Comics for the 'The Woman on the Wall' storyline with writer Brian Wood in 'Conan the Barbarian' issues #13 and #14 (2013). At DC Comics, Mirko Čolak has drawn for titles like 'Saucer County' (2013), 'Green Lantern Corps' (2015-2016), 'Sinestro's House of Mystery' (2015), 'Deathstroke' (2016-2017), 'Aquaman' (2016) and 'Red Hood and the Outlaws' (2017), and also made cover illustrations for titles like 'Green Lantern: War Journal' (2023).
'Turok: Dinosaur Hunter'.
Rejoining writer Greg Pak, Čolak revamped the classic hero Turok in 'Turok: Dinosaur Hunter' (2014) at Dynamite Entertainment, and co-created the five-issue fantasy western series 'Kingsway West' (2016-2017) at Dark Horse. Further Dark Horse work by Mirko Čolak has included the single issue of the mystery comic book 'Lunar Lodge' (2023), written by Tyler Marceca, as well as the 'Assassin's Creed Mirage: A Soar of Eagles' mini-series by writer Michael Avon-Oeming (2025).
'Kingsway West' #3.
With writer Cullen Bunn, Čolak created the five-issue horror comic book 'Unholy Grail' (2017), a dark revisionist take on the Arthurian legends, published by AfterShock Comics. For the same publisher, Bunn and Čolak delved into the legend of Vlad the Impaler for the five-issue series 'Brothers Dracul' (2018). With writer Mark Russell, he returned to the universe of 'Conan the Barbarian' as an artist for the first five issues of Dynamite Entertainment's new 'Red Sonja' series (2019).
'Unholy Grail' #2.