Broken Frontier

One of my New Year’s resolutions was to do more for comic industry charities like the Hero Initiative, a non-profit that provides emergency financial assistance for comic book creators in need.  The Hero Initiative’s Jim McLauchlin must have been reading my mind, because last month he asked if I’d be willing to contribute a drawing to the organization’s Hulk cover fundraiser.  Marvel has printed a hundred issues of “Hulk” #1 with a blank cover and now a hundred comics creators are customizing those issues with their own original drawings.  The Hero Initiative will sell the originals as well as a book collecting all hundred covers, and comic book creators in need will benefit.

Below, revealed in public for the very first time, is my own little contribution, which Jim very accurately dubbed “a PERFECT example of an artist ‘knowing his limitations!’ Bwah!” 

But just for kicks, before we show you the finished cover, let’s take a peek at the concept sketches.  Because when you ask a writer to draw, he goes all out, baby! 

First, here are the initial rough scrawls:

Whenever folks bring the “Planet Hulk” hardcover to me to sign at conventions, I do quickie Hulk sketches on the inside, just for kicks, similar to these line drawings.  As Jim notes, they accommodate my limitations -- I’m okay (relatively speaking) with faces and fists; it’s the challenge of connecting the two with proper perspective and anatomy that would take me hours to render properly.  The solution?  Just make that fist really big!

But I’d seen the John Romita and Tone Rodriguez covers that Jim was already showing off, and I knew that a simple line art scrawl from me was going to look pretty lame on the wall next gorgeous renderings like those.

So I busted out the Sharpies and tried something a little different.

Inspired by Carlo Pagulayan’s dramatic depiction of the Hulk in the shadows at the end of “Incredible Hulk” #109, I took a shot at something a bit more creepy and stylized.  And since I have next to zero experience coloring line art, I once again accommodated my limitations by designing something that only required three colors.

Finally, here’s the finished piece:

Pretty true to the concept sketch -- I just improved the look of the sword by referring to Carlo’s sweet design in “Incredible Hulk” #105.  And I gave ol’ Greenskin white pupils.  And hairy knuckles. 

Jim will be showing a bunch of the Hulk covers at the Orlando Megacon this weekend -- feel free to check them out and drop a few dollars in the donation bucket.  And if you can’t make it to Orlando, you can peek at a couple other covers at the blogs of Tom Brevoort and Terry Moore -- and, as always, make a donation at www.heroinitiative.org.

In the meantime, this writer’s back to writing.  See ya next week!

Thanks for reading -- we’ll be back soon with another thrilling installment of “Pak Talks Comics.”  Please click here to submit your questions for our Reader Q&A section and see you next time!

© 2008 Greg Pak.  All rights reserved.  For more about Greg Pak’s comics and films, visit www.pakbuzz.com.