Corina Knoll has interviewed Greg Pak about his Amadeus Cho character for the LA Times “Hero Complex” blog. Here’s an excerpt:

CK: Let’s talk about why you wanted to create a Korean American character.
GP: I’ve always thought it was particularly fun when you take a genre or story that doesn’t have anything to do with Asian American issues and then you cast that story with Asian American characters. Sometimes it allows for almost a more subtle kind of commentary that can come out of almost surprising or unexpected ways. We didn’t throw Amadeus out there like, “Here is the latest and greatest Asian American character: It’s Asian Man!” The hook was, this is a great conflicted character with a fun attitude, a good sort of Marvel-esque tragic back story, a big learning curve ahead of him and some dramatic potential.
CK: So why the name “Amadeus”?
GP: I thought of Asian American families giving their kids crazy names like Stanford and Harvard, and I just thought it was a fun idea that this family would name their kid Amadeus because they want or know he’s going to be a genius.

Click here to read the whole thing.

As revealed in last week’s “Pak Talks Comics,” Takeshi Miyazawa, the brilliant artist who drew the very first Amadeus Cho story, returns for a new tale in “Incredible Hercules” #126, which hits stores in February 2009. Now Tak has posted sneak previews of a few images from the book at his blog here and here — check it out!