Greg Pak has written multiple classic runs of Hulk stories, including the Planet Hulk epic that inspired the gladiator storyline in the Thor: Ragnarok movie, the 2007 event comic World War Hulk, Skaar: Son of Hulk, which starred Hulk’s half-alien barbarian son, and The Totally Awesome Hulk ongoing series starring Amadeus Cho.
You can buy signed copies of a lot of these books at the Greg Pak Shop!
Vaneta Rogers has interviewed Greg Pak about “Skaar: Son of Hulk” for Newsarama. Here’s an excerpt:
NRAMA: Seeing as Skaar is, basically, a newborn, is this a coming of age story?
GP: It’s an exploration of what you get if you raise a person in a war-torn world stripped of every vestige of civilization – and then ask him to play nicely with others. Skaar will absolutely come of age during the course of this story – but not exactly in that heartwarming, afterschool special sort of way.
At the Sunday afternoon “Mondo Marvel” panel at WizardWorld Los Angeles, Marvel announced that penciller Ron Garney will join writer Greg Pak on the “Skaar: Son of Hulk” series that debuts in June. Marvel.com has more. Here’s an excerpt:
SKAAR: SON OF HULK focuses on the child of the Hulk and Caira the Oldstrong, his now-deceased wife. With his mother dead and his father back on Earth, Skaar grows up fending for his life on the post-apocalyptic planet of his birth, Sakaar.
“There’s a grand tradition of stories that explore the fantasy of savage survival,” explains Pak. “Maybe the more civilized and protected yet weirdly complicated and exposed the real world becomes, the more we’re attracted to stories about barbaric worlds where the rules are brutally simple. After battling bureaucracy and petty hypocrisy all day long, it can be nice to escape into a fantasy world where people survive by their wits and fists and swords.
“But there can be an element of wish-fulfilling denial to these kinds of stories—an artificial dream of noble savagery that can hide the true costs of brutalization and war. With SKAAR: SON OF HULK we’re embracing—and exploding—that fantasy, mining it for all its epic adventure and harrowing subtext.”
“World War Hulk Aftersmash: Warbound” #4 hits comic book stores on March 19. Written by Greg Pak with pencils by Leonard Kirk, the book follows the Hulk’s alien gladiator companions as they face a new challenge under the deadly dome of Gammaworld.
Click here to read a seven page preview at Marvel.com and tell your local retailer to hold a copy for you today!
In his latest BrokenFrontier.com “Pak Talks Comics” column, Greg Pak shows off his contribution to the Hero Initiative’s Hulk cover benefit. Check it out.
And click here to submit your questions for next week’s column.
Find out this Thursday in the next edition of the “Pak Talks Comics” column at BrokenFrontier.com!
It’s Tuesday Sneaks time! Today, feast your eyes on two never-before-revealed pages from “World War Hulk Aftersmash: Warbound” #4, written by Greg Pak with pencils and inks by Leonard Kirk and colors by Val Staples.
[Click on each image to see the larger version in a new window]
“Warbound” #4 hits comic book stores on March 19 — tell your local comic shop to order a copy for you today! And click here for more info about the book Comixtreme calls “highly recommended.”
Eric Moreno has posted an extensive interview with Greg Pak as part of ComicBloc.com’s “Inside the Comic Writer’s Studio” series. The article covers everything from earliest influences to Ann Richards to improv comedy to Robot Stories and Warlock and Hulk. An excerpt:
ELM: When working with sci-fi concepts, can you just go all out and let loose all of your wildest ideas, no matter how implausible they may be or do you still have to reign some of them in?
GP: During my years doing improv comedy, one of the best things I learned was to take one crazy idea and explore it thoroughly. On an improv stage, there’s always a huge temptation to toss aliens and the Titanic and a presidential assassination subplot and an Elvis impersonation into a scene about a mouse who doesn’t like cheese. And you might get some cheap laughs with each new, crazy addition. But then you can easily lose the chance to really explore that mouse and his cheese problem and get to some really deep, character-based, emotionally resonant laughs.
In a similar way, sci-fi stories tend to work best when you take one concept and explore it thoroughly. The madder Hulk gets, the stronger he gets. That’s the central hook and it provides the essential metaphor. It might be cool to see him start to fly when he’s sad and get really smart when he’s hungry and shoot optic blasts from his eyes when he’s happy. But then it’s very easy to lose track of the story and end up with briefly flashy spectacle without heart or a point that no one wants to read after a few pages.
ComicBookResources.com is running a fun series of articles interviewing Marvel Executive Editor Tom Brevoort about which Marvel characters the Skrulls would most hope to replace, capture, or convert during the upcoming “Secret Invasion” event. Here’s the blurb about Amadeus Cho, deemed the Eight of Hearts in the Skrull’s deck of most desireables:
Until ‘World War Hulk,’ he really hadn’t come to the attention of many people,†Brevoort continued. “Now that he has, though, he’d be a critical asset to neutralize if the Skrulls thought he might tumble to their plans.â€
Replacing Cho would give the Skrulls many advantages, the greatest being it would eliminate someone who could devise a way to detect them. Cho is also infamous for finding and exploiting holes in the plans of large organizations like S.H.I.E.L.D. In his adventures, Amadeus has come to befriend heroes like Hercules and the Atlantean princess Namora.
Like most teens, Amadeus has a disdain and distrust for authority, like like Iron Man and groups like S.H.I.E.L.D., which is something the Skrulls have certainly noticed. “Amadeus has shown a penchant for wanting to side with the underdog, or with anybody whose situation in some way mirrors his own, or that he feels an empathy with,†Brevoort remarked. “So it’s possible that they could convert him to the Skrull cause without any need for a complex deception.”
Another great review for “Warbound” #3, written by Greg Pak with pencils by Leonard Kirk, this time from WizardUniverse.com:
I want to marry Leonard Kirk’s pencils on Warbound #3; I love them that much. Greg Pak’s carved himself a nice little corner of the Marvel U, and it’s a sandbox I don’t want to leave…
“Warbound” #3 hit comic book stores on February 20.
“Warbound #3, written by Greg Pak with pencils by Leonard Kirk, racks up another four star review from Comixtreme, which notes, “Pak has guided these characters since their creation, and they’re just as intriguing here as they ever were.”
Click here to read the full review.
“Warbound” #3 hits comic book stores on Wednesday, February 20 — tell your local shop to hold a copy for you!