Jorge Lucas Interview
The following was originally posted on Pulse:
BY JENNIFER "SMASH!" CONTINO
Just how do events from the multipart House of M trickle down into the non-mutant corners of the Marvel Universe? How different is life for Bruce Banner the Incredible Hulk in this new reality? Is he still a mindless monster or something else? This July, writer Peter David and artist Jorge Lucas have answers as they take the Incredible Hulk to the Australian outback in a four-part adventure called The Last Refuge.
Artist Jorge Lucas has worked on a variety of Marvel projects over the past few years, but he's always had a soft spot in his heart for the jade giant, the Incredible Hulk. When [Editor] Mark Paniccia emailed to ask if Lucas would be interested in drawing a Hulk project, it didn't take long for the artist to say "yes." "The Hulk is special," said Lucas. "I love Marvel characters, but there's just something about the Hulk. I like Boris Karloff's Frankenstein movies, I love Jeckyll and Hyde, and I think the Hulk is a mix of all of this."
"The Hulk is a legend and it's very hard to change the look of a legend and it's very hard to change the look of a legend," continued Lucas. "I love the classic Hulk and had to simultaneously draw a different Hulk. I tried to draw him a lot like Jack Kirby, but I was also influenced by John Buscema, Mike Mignola, Kevin Nowlan, and Adam Hughes. In this reality, Hulk is bald with Aboriginal paint on the face and his body. In the first sketches, I put a lot of tattoos, but the Aboriginal paint is very simple and only, really, brush strokes with white paint."
The Hulk's look isn't the only thing different in this reality. The biggest superpower in the world also happens to be the master of magnetism, Magneto. He's not content to rule just a few countries, though. Magneto wants to rule the world and he has operatives in just about every continent, including the place Hulk's taken refuge, Australia. "Exodus, Vanisher, and Pyro are Magneto's representatives there," said Lucas. "They are like an elite army core - like a SS group."
As one might imagine, the Hulk doesn't like anyone disturbing his peace - especially since it's a commodity so hard for the being to come by. Magneto's worried about the power the Hulk possesses, more specifically, about being on the receiving end if the Hulk decided he wanted to oppose Magneto's rule. Lucas said the plot was very fertile ground for him to breathe new life into. "Peter David is a writer who knows how to generate images that are very good to draw," said Lucas. "I enjoyed the chance to create this different world. In the first script, Peter wrote for one panel: 'it's like the Planet of the Apes movies' and that was a great image to work from. I love the old Planet of the Apes movies and that idea helped me a lot."
"For these four issues, I changed my art style," continued Lucas. "I think Hulk is a strong character with great power - very violent. I needed to give more contrast to the drawing to give force to the drawing with many lights and shades. I really like this style."
Will regular Incredible Hulk readers like it as well? Find out when Incredible Hulk # 83, the first part of The Last Refuge hits stores this July. Also look for Lucas' work in Colossus: Bloodlines beginning this September.
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