One Hulk, Two Hulk, Green Hulk, Red Hulk Or Wait, Why is the Hulk Red?

With the release of Captain America: New World Order, We — as a comicbook aficionado, historian, journalist, and creator for over 60 years — have been repeatedly asked by several of our non-comics friends and family this very same question, “Wait, why is the Hulk red? (and when did he become red?)” Well funny story about all that, This didn’t just happen with this film, but the seeds of which were planted way back in the early 2000s (circa 2007 or thereabouts) Audrey Loeb and Chris Giarrusso began a running strip in the Marvel Bullpen pages called Bullpen Bits with little cartoon characters of the various Marvel characters (Giarrusso described it as Marvel done “Peanuts style”. This strip eventually morphed into Mini Marvels before graduating into a series of full-sized one-shot comics and trade paperbacks.

In addition to the regular Marvel characters that were being spoofed in that strip, Audrey, Chris Giarrusso and later Paul Tobin, Sean McKeever, and Marc Sumerak, all contributed to the Mini Marvels run of stories. Needless to say, the very concept of different colored Hulks apparently garnered enough traction amongst the Marvel staff that they made their way into the mainstream Marvel books. Still, it is important to understand that when Hulk first appeared in Incredible Hulk #1 (1962) co-created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby he was in fact gray. According to Marvel Lore, when that book appeared in print the actual coloring process of comics wasn’t sophisticated enough to maintain the same gray hue throughout (causing the Hulk to range in color from light to dark gray, to purple to blue to green, so the decision was made to color him green going forward).

Thus, it wasn’t until the second issue that the Hulk appeared as “normal” green self (Incredible Hulk #2, May 1962). Therefore, it was a green Hulk that existed in comics (with him later appearing from 1977–1982 on our TV screens in the form of Lou Ferrigno (with Bill Bixby portraying his alter ego of David Bruce Banner. Then, back in the comicbooks, in February of 1980, Bruce Banner’s Cousin, Jennifer Walters, was involved in a near fatal accident and received a transfusion of Bruce’s irradiated blood which transformed her into the Savage She-Hulk. (In 2022 She Hulk also got her own TV series on Disney+ with Tatiana Maslany as Jennifer and Malia Arrayah She-Hulk.

Interestingly enough, when the series was announced there were some conservative newsreaders who bemoaned the “Woke agenda” of a female hulk, without realizing that the character had been created some 40 years earlier, and not so much as an attempt to create a progressive character, but as a way for Marvel to protect their copyright on the name “Hulk” as a superhero.) In fact, during the run of The Incredible Hulk TV series, in a recorded interview, a journalist even asked Bill Bixby if there had been any talk of a female Hulk showing up, which Bixby thought was a good idea, but never actually occurred in the show.

Back in the Marvel comics, in 2015 the character, Amadeus Cho, also became a green Hulk, (The Totally Awesome Hulk #1), after being exposed to a concentrated dose of gamma radiation while attempting to save his friends from a villainous attack, essentially mirroring the origin story of Bruce Banner, this radiation triggered a similar transformation within Cho’s body, allowing him to turn into a powerful, green Hulk-like form. Two other gamma-irradiated characters (villains, actually) in the Hulk mythos are the Abomination (Emil Blonsky (1967), played by Tim Roth in The Incredible Hulk, 2008 and She-Hulk ‘22) and The Leader (Samuel Sterns, 1967) played by Tim Blake Nelson in both The Incredible Hulk (2008), and Captain America Brave New World (2025)

The Gray Hulk eventually reappeared in Incredible Hulk #324 (July 1986) while Peter David was writing the series. In this incarnation, Gray Hulk wasn’t so much of raging monster, as he was a Vegas crime boss named “Mr. Joe Fixit”. It wasn’t until the mid-to-late 2000s that Hulks began to take on more of a variety of rainbow hues. As noted, before, this began in a humorous strip entitled Bullpen Bits that appeared in various Marvel comics on the Bullpen Bulletins Page, written by Audrey Loeb, Chris Giarrusso, Marc Sumerak, Sean McKeever, and Paul Tobin (and which Giarrusso drew) it was in that strip that tiny red and blue Hulks were introduced.

In January of 2008 Jeph Loeb (Audrey’s father) and Ed McGuinness introduced Red Hulk in a new volume of Hulk comic. At first the actual identity of Red Hulk was unknown, but two years after his introduction, he was revealed to be General Thaddeus E. “Thunderbolt” Ross. (This came as something of a surprise to everyone, as the character of Thunderbolt Ross had been killed some 20 years earlier. No explanation was given for this resurrection. This was, of course, followed in 2009 by the appearance of Red She-Hulk in Hulk (Vol. 2 #15) who turned out to be General Ross’ daughter, Betty, who ultimately morphed into Red Harpy (2019 in Immortal Hulk #16). Betty had been previously transformed into a Green Harpy way back in Incredible Hulk #168 (July 1973).

Other Hulks have included a Purple Hulk who first appeared in Avengers #24 (March 2012) created by Brian Michael Bendis and Daniel Acuna, who turned out to be Norman Osborn (formerly The Green Goblin, one of Spider-Man’s most notorious foes). Norman was given Super Adaptoid technology which he used to absorb all the powers of the Avengers at once, Hulk included… and nearly killing himself in the process. Outside of the comics, Happy Hogan became a purple Hulk during the events of the What If…? animated series.

While an Orange Hulk originally appeared as a playable character in the videogame Marvel vs. Capcom, this Hulk was not given any significance storyline but played slightly different from the standard Hulk later an Orange Hulk was introduced to the comics by Rick Remender and Mark Brooks Uncanny X-Force #12 (July 2011). This “Solar Hulk” was from Earth-295 (the Main Marvel Earth is 616). Orange Hulk seems to have gained his powers from solar radiation in the same way that Bruce Banner traditionally gained his through gamma radiation. It is also implied that he is stronger during daylight hours.

Blue Hulk who became Captain Universe in Incredible Hulk #1 (November 2005) was created by Jay Faerber and Carlos Magno. However, someone else who could well deserve the title of the Blue Hulk is Rick Jones. When Rick was exposed to gamma radiation by the Intelligencia in Hulk (Vol. 2) #2, he became a new type of Abomination, christening himself the ‘A-Bomb’ Hulk. As to why he became blue instead of green, it was assumed that since the Gamma radiation had been combined with other forms of radiation, it altered his skin tone to blue rather than green. He was later cured of the radiation and returned to his human form.

There was also a Brown Hulk who first appeared in The Incredible Hulk (Vol. 2 #13, February 2000). This “Devil Hulk” (which was created by Paul Jenkins and Ron Garney was actually less of a physical monster and more of an inner demon for Bruce Banner to wrestle with intellectually rather than physically.

Then there was a Black Hulk from Avengers & X-Men: AXIS #4 (November 2014) by Rick Remender and Leinil Francis Yu who was the character Kluh (this Hulk was linked to yet another incarnation of a greenish, deformed Hulk, referred to as “Guilt Hulk” who was just one of several split personalities of Banner formed by his abuse by his father Brian Banner.

Next is Yellow Hulk (this one enhanced by the villainous scientific group A.I.M.) who was introduced in Matthew K. Manning and Marcio Fiorito’s Marvel Action: Avengers #9 in 2018. The Yellow Hulk is a result of the godlike Nightmare messing with Captain America’s mind. Nightmare brought Steve Rogers’ nightmares to life, creating a pocket reality where his Avengers allies had been corrupted by the terrorist group Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M.) The Yellow Hulk is seemingly identical to the Savage Hulk in power and personality, but now A.I.M.’s signature shade of yellow.

Apparently, there is also another individual who is a yellow Hulk, and that is Jackson Lenard who is a character created by the gaming company Legend but eventually used in the Marvel Universe. He is a friend of Dr. Banners who was trying to find a cure for the Hulk but was turned into one himself!

Silver Hulk (otherwise known as Galactus’ Herald was designed by Ron Lim, and appeared in the one-shot comic What If...? Galactus Transformed Hulk? #1 (2025). The story sees Galactus choosing Bruce Banner as his new herald, imbuing him with the Power Cosmic.

Finally, there is actually a White Hulk (a Hulk clone) which appeared in James Kochalka’s story Hulk Squad, Smash! from Strange Tales Volume 5 #1, (September 2, 2009). The White Hulk was essentially written as a joke character in the anthology of weird and wild stories. Needless to say, given the nature of Marvel’s multiverse it means this character does officially exist in Marvel canon, and he’s described as part of a team of experimental Hulk clones created by the government.

Actually, there is “technically” one more Hulk-like character, and that is a “Skin-Tone Hulk” (Doc Samson), a psychiatrist who attempted to steal Hulk’s powers. While Samson became incredibly muscular, only his hair turned green. In the past, Bruce Banner has shown the rare ability to use his Hulk strength when still in human form (see Bruce Jones and Mike Deodato’s Jr.’s Incredible Hulk Volume 2 #50, 2003), suggesting he too qualifies for the ‘skin-tone Hulk’ title.

As a postscript to all of this, our friend, Ray Felix has independently developed a Red Hulk-type character that he wound up using in his own Bronx Heroes comic series A World Without Superheroes. That character eventually came to be known as Rampage. and went on to appear in Bronx Villains #1 from Ray’s production company Bronx Heroes.

Oh Canada!

I've long had a love of and desire to collect specialty comics. That is to say comics that either contain corporate characters selling or appearing in comics that are sponsored by other companies (not their respective publishers) or comics where the characters are pushing some sort of pro-social cause. Quite a few of these comics have been from Marvel, DC, and Archie, and I have amassed quite a few of them. 

Recently I acquired one that came out way back in 2001 for which I had long been searching. Well it arrived the other day and I've just finished reading it, and while I enjoyed it, I do have just one minor beef with it, which I plan on sharing with all'y'all now. 

As you can plainly see, the comic in question is Marvel's Wolverine Son of Canada, which was subsidized by Doritos/Lays, and was issued only in Canada. In this comic, native son Wolverine, along with Spider-Man and The Hulk get sucked through a vortex and wind up in The Great White North (where they eventually meet up with Storm, Captain America, Silver Surfer, Thing, and Thor all of whom have been captured by minions of Blastaar). 

To cut to the chase, the heroes manage to free their friends, and defeat Blastaar and his minions with relative ease (hey, it's only a 16-page comic with 2 pages of ads). My issue is this. I found a typo (printo, really as it was probably hand lettered). The error came on page two where Wolverine says "This is Vancouver, British Columbia." and Spider-Man responds, "Canada? Where in Canada? which makes no sense as Wolverine just said that they were in Vancouver, British Columbia. Causing me to think that Spidey was supposed to have said "We're in Canada? which would have made much more sense.

(I placed arrows on the art so you could better see what I was talking about above. 

Not a big deal, but, honestly, my editor-sense was buzzing.

Having gone through that, I just wanted to add one more image from the comic, which is a shot of Cabot Tower on Signal Hill in Newfoundland, but only because my good buddy Roger Keel lives in Newfoundland, and I thought he might be entertained by its inclusion in the comic. 

Well, that's all I have for today, now I have to get back to my real work so I can go catch the last matinee of Captain America New World Order later today. 

Tales from Section 12 & Beyond

Recently we were at a local comicbook show where we reconnected with Len Mihalovich, a comicbook writer/creator who penned several stories for various titles for Mythic Comics & Entertainment Group. These days he helms his own publishing corner of the Indieverse with Lenovations Press, and we not only caught up on old times, but we also picked up three of his comics at the show; Avenger New Blood #1, Fantastic Fan Boys Adventures #1, and Section 12 Antarctic Special #1 Search for Tomorrow with Tomorrow Girl.

Section 12 was created by Len Mihalovich in 1994 and published first by Dilemma Productions as part of an anthology and then in its own series from Mythic Comics. 

Avenger New Blood resurrects the legacy of the Golden Age (formerly Magazine Entertainment, now Public Domain) character, Avenger. In the first story of the issue, we meet wealthy scientist Roger Wright who became the superhero Avenger to retaliate against the Soviet agents who tortured and killed his brother. While the Avenger had no powers, he does have his own inventions on which to fall back, most notably his VTOL aircraft, Starjet and Dissolver pistol. The Avenger also possessed a utility belt containing items for almost any occasion. The first tale is from the past where Avenger and his (not sidekick, but personal filmographer) Martin “Booker Roberts, but we, for the purpose of this story are focused on Avengers granddaughter, Erica, who, though a criminal, is apparently being recruited to be the New Avenger, hence the “new Blood” aspect of the story..

Fantastic Fan Boys Adventures is about four young friends who join forces to fight evil with the greatest weapon of all, their imaginations and the comics they create to fight crime, and all before dinner. That’s the premise of this comic. As comic fans seem to have a knack for diving deep into the worlds they adore, dissecting characters and stories to apply real-world logic to comic-book science. These four friends not only create characters and scenarios, but then, once the talk has been played out, the other members do their best to dissect the tale as presented. In this issue, we discover the Fanboys’ origin stories, meet our newest hero, the Living Rocket, and witness the return of Track Suit Man. All told, it’s a wonderful comic full of adventures you’ll want to read.

The third book we scored from Len was Section 12 Antarctic Special which kicks off a three-issue miniseries with Antarctic Press and brings Ben Dunn’s character Tomorrow Girl into Lenovations Section 12 series of comics. According to a statement from Lenovations Press, “We are thrilled to unveil our first ever mini-series that brings together two comic book universes.” This collaboration has Tomorrow Girl — a fan-favorite character from Antarctic Press — teaming up with Lenovations’ super-team, Section 12.

Created by Ben Dunn, Tomorrow Girl first appeared in Antarctic Press’ Ninja High School V2 #1 as part of the Tomorrow Man family and the Ninja High School universe. Tomorrow Girl (Heidi) is 16 years old and attends Quagmire High School. Section 12 follows a top-secret government project employing super-powered individuals to contain scientific failures. With this three-issue crossover, Tomorrow Girl (in her own universe) goes up against a robot operated by a Professor Von Zoot, and gets tossed out of her own universe and into Section 12’s.

The fun part of this crossover is partly from the fact that in her own book, she is rendered in a very cartoony style, however, while in Section 12’s, she is depicted in a more realistic image. Unfortunately for her, once the universe shift, occurs, one of the monstrous, killer robots follows her into Section 12’s world and continues to weak havoc. Once she stops the robot, she is interviewed by a less than reputable reporter who casts Tomorrow Girl as a rogue alien who came here to attack the citizens of Earth. Fortunately, members of Section 12 see the broadcast and already know that the reporter is more interested in scandalous reporting than facts, and vow to track down Tomorrow Girl and resuscitate her heroic nature.

These books are  not only all ages, but pure fun, and (for us at the very least) harken back to an era of the entertaining comics of our youth which were there for the fun read, and not over-dubbed with any sort of agenda save that of heroes helping regular folks. 

There be Wülves out there

I’m very happy to announce that my comicbook, Wülf Girlz has been published by Dark Fire Press. This comic was some 18 years and four publishers in development. Now that it is finally in print, I’m honestly over the moon. (No pun intended.)

Back in 2006 I was invited to contribute a short horror story to a brand-new comicbook anthology. The writing prompt was to pen a 21^st century horror story that frightened me. The story I chose to write involved child abduction and abuse. This was because, at the time, my children were young, and I had experienced an incident some years earlier where my then three-year-old daughter wandered off in a crowded mall following her mother to the bathroom (without her mother or I knowing it).

This incident was literally the scariest five minutes of my life. All I could think at the moment was that I was going to have to explain to my mother how I lost her granddaughter. I was saved that moment, as my daughter had managed to successfully make her way across the crowded food court and connect with her mother. Because this was at a time before we had cellphones, there was no way her mother could notify me she was safe.

Needless to say, that incident was a large part of the inspiration for the creation of the characters who would come to be called the Wülf Girlz. My first publisher ran the first two installments of the origin tale (in B&W) with most-excellent art by Matt C. Ryan. While I was waiting for my publisher to release the third chapter, I was invited, in 2016, to bring the Girlz and contribute to a prose anthology, teaming them up with another writer’s character.

The concept of the anthology, MetaHumans vs The UltimateEvil, (Lion’s Share Press) was that several writers would team their characters up with Sean N. Koury’s character, The Bounty Hunter, and then each team would face off against some sort of evil entity. Happy to see the Girlz in print again, I agreed and had The Girlz meet up with Bounty Hunter in a short story entitled Northern Lite.

I eventually wound up splitting with my first publisher in 2019 and hooking up with InDELLible Comics. In 2020 The third chapter of their origin story appeared, this time in color with amazing art by Rick Lundeen in InDELLible’s House in Spades #1. The girlz also briefly appeared in 2021 in Popular Comics #5 in a story I wrote entitled Save the Children, which featured the Golden Age Owl Girl in the lead.

It was shortly after that that I negotiated a publishing deal with J.M. DeSantis to bring The Wülf Girlz to J.M.’s company Dark Fire Press. Unfortunately, after all the arrangements were made, COVID hit, and everything wound up on the back burner as we were all tossed into lockdown (and then recovery). Well, fortunately, as it turns out, you simply can’t keep a good comicbook concept down, and in July ’24, we finally achieved print copies of Wülf Girlz #1, with all three chapters now in color, as well as two short pieces — also by Rick — all collected in the issue. The first show I brought them to was the July CollectiCon in Montville, CT, which is where I sold my first copies.

Well, in addition to having my comic being listed on Dark Fire’s web page, and announced in Dark Fire ads, the comic is now available at both GlobalComix and IndyPlanet as both digital and Print on Demand (PoD) versions. Naturally enough, you can also purchase copies direct from me whenever I appear at comic and book shows.

So, what’s next you ask? Well, there is a novella of mine featuring the Girlz which is slated to come out in the early part of 2025. The novella carries an introduction by a well-known horror writer and illustrator (I’ll tell you more about him at a later date — I’ve got to save something for a surprise).  Meanwhile I’m currently working on other projects, including bringing another one of my intellectual properties back into print (yes, also with Dark Fire — when you find a good publisher, you stick with them!)

That’s all for now, kids, as I pen this we have just passed Christmas, and am right in the heart of Chanukah and Kwanzaa, and heading for my daughter’s birthday, and New Year’s Eve. So stay safe, enjoy yourselves, and we’ll see all’y’all next year!

Write what you know: Joe Martino’s The Mighty Titan

Here is yet another older article of mine that appeared some years back on another web page with which I am no longer associated. It has been my intention to bring that older work here, and with this article I have now brought over all the articles from that other site.

As writers, we are told to “write what you know.” Which is a pretty nifty trick when you consider that we — as funnybook writers — write about green-hued monsters, men from other planets who can fly, billionaires wrapped in Iron, ageless mutants with razor-sharp claws, brilliant scientists with the proportionate strength of an arachnid, and yes, even pre-teen girls who morph into killer werewülves. Yeah, like we know a whole bunch about all that, eh? Well, the sad truth is that while we don’t really know so much (or as much as we would like) about having powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men, we do each know quite a bit about the everyday ordinariness of our own lives.

Well, taking this lesson to heart, writer, artist, and publisher Joe Martino determined to write about the one thing he perhaps (and unfortunately) knew best. Joe, as it turns out, he had cancer — twice. That’s the bad news; the good news is that he beat it both times it showed up in his body, but at a very terrible cost. Cancer, you see, not only cost Martino his peace of mind as well as a couple of sections of his kidney, but his first marriage as well. Needless to say, there were quite a few very dark days for Martino during that terrible time. Still — to corrupt a cliché — the thing that did not kill him actually helped make him a much stronger writer.

Martino found a way to turn his personal journey through the Hell of cancer into his teen-aged passion for comicbook superheroes. As a teen he discovered the joy of comics and as an adult he turned that escapist entertainment into a way to work his way through his own pain. His first couple of forays into comics took the forms of a hero that tread the ground between this world and the next (Ripperman), and a traditional superhero replete with powers from an alien race (Shadowflame), both of which were published by Arcana. From there, Martino determined that he wanted to continue producing comics, but decided that he wanted to publish them himself and created JGM Comics, which became the home of his latest creation, The Mighty Titan.

Starting in April 2013 Martino formed a publishing partnership with publisher, Dave Ryan and brought his creations to Red Anvil Comics.

The Mighty Titan is a typical superhero cut from the same cloth as are the best of costumed heroes. He is the pinnacle of the pantheon of those heroes, like Philip Wylie’s Gladiator, or Henry W. Ralston and John L. Nanovic’s Doc Savage. Titan though, is replete with powers and abilities akin to those of Superman, the regal presence of Thor, along with the magic of Captain Marvel. Then, so as not to overuse the Metro New York locale, Martino determined to cast his hero in a different zip code, and he had his hero call Chi-Town his home. That’s right, even though Martino is a New Jersey native he felt that Manhattan had enough heroes protecting it, so, Chicago became Titan’s kind of town. Just as every good hero needs his own major nemesis, Titan finds himself clashing over and over again with Trenchmouth, an evil ex-Nazi scientist. During one particular battle, however, Titan realizes he doesn’t quite feel like himself, which is where our story begins.

Still, while all of the previous paragraph sounds pretty much like every other hero you’ve ever seen, Martino’s story veers off from the beaten path of “traditional” superheroes (or “Superiors” as Martino has come to call the enhanced heroes in his universe of characters). According to Martino, his newest creation is a superhero concept with a unique twist that brings his own story into focus — Titan, you see, also has cancer. “The story essentially takes the experience I personally went through with cancer and wraps them up in a superhero shell,” Martino tells us. This then becomes the “write what you know” part of Martino’s work; given that Martino himself has survived cancer (again, not once, but twice — causing some of his friends to think of him as some sort of mutant himself) he felt it important to write that into the story, in order to “survive” it again. “This isn’t autobiographical,” Martino stated. “I have researched and talked to other cancer survivors to try and get the feeling of what other people have experienced.”

Martino initially developed the idea for the series in 2004 when he was struggling through his first bout with kidney cancer. “It was a very difficult decision to take some of my personal experiences and put them down on paper in order to entertain people and possibly allow them to have a glimpse into what some of us go through while battling this potentially deadly disease,” Martino explained. Needless to say while Titan’s story most assuredly does have some very serious aspects to it, it is still a very cool — and yes, even fun — superhero comicbook that is full of dire villains, giant mechas, as well as some truly great mythological creatures.

What Titan experiences is in Martino’s words, “What it feels like to be invulnerable, and then, suddenly never being able to feel that way again.” The Mighty Titan is suddenly tasked with not only having to be able to save the world; but needing to be able to save himself as well. According to Martino, the book explores themes of fear, loss, pain, and ultimately the perseverance of the hero himself due to courage and determination. Titan is a hero of great power and strength, but he is also cast as someone who reminds us that we all have great weaknesses, and that we all can be destroyed. Still Titan (and by extension, Martino) also provides us all with great hope. For it is when we feel at our weakest, when we’re not sure whether or not we can make it through our darkest hours, it is uplifting superhero tales like this one that remind us that we can be saved, and that hope is not lost.

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Characters, Story and Content of The Mighty Titan, Ripperman and Shadowflame are Trademark ™ & Copyright © 2014 & 2024 Joe Martino. The text to Funnybook City is Copyright © 2014 & 2024 Robert J. Sodaro, D.B.A. Freelance Ink. All rights reserved by their respective owners.

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Robert J. Sodaro is a noted comicbook historian and journalist who began reading comics during the early ‘60s while sitting on the newsstand in his Uncle’s Mom & Pop grocery store. He began writing about comics in the early ‘80s and wrote for virtually every print comicbook publication published during the ‘80s & ‘90s.

The Tale of the Multieyed Lady

So, lately we’ve been on something of a Kickstarter journey, in that we’ve discovered and backed several over the past year. While backing Kickstarter comics can be something of a mixed bag, we’ve been generally pleased with the comics we’ve acquired. To be sure. Most of the comics that we’ve backed were by creators known to us, every once in a while we come across a creator and comic that completely surprises us. Such is the case with The Multi-Eyed Lady. This eight-page B&W comic is about a young girl and her friends who rises to save their town.

The comic was created by Juan Espinosa’s 10 year old daughter, Grace. Juan Espinosa is the founder of Bearded Man Comics and creator of a number of comics, including Adventures of a System Admin, Hackerstrip, and El Galipote. Grace is his fifth grader daughter who is also passionate about comics, so much so that she determined to write her own, hence the birth of The Multi-Eyed Lady, which she produced with the help of Topan Prakasa who illustrated the comic.

The Multi-Eyed Lady is a superhero story centered around a diverse team of heroes which is led by Guadalupe, who has the ability to see everything around her the Multi-Eyed Lady and Sir Strong, her husband, James, who — as his name implies — has super strength. The pair are joined by Alan, their tech-savvy partner, who performs Overwatch duties for the team. May, a very skilled tracker, Edgar their weapons expert, and Mary who is an accomplished spy. Together they fight against the criminals in their neighborhood, one of them who is the evil Witch Maya. As it turns out, Maya, is May’s sister. Unfortunately, Maya has become corrupted by greed and power and turned against her sister.

The comic’s story begins with Guadalupe and James reflecting on their double lives as both a married couple with friends and families as well as superheroes. From there we are introduced to Alan who has created a device that will allow the team to be alerted to crimes and to track Maya’s malicious activities. As stated, this initial comic of Grace’s is a B&W 8 pager. The comic itself highlights themes of friendship and loyalty, while showing all the abilities and personalities of each team member.

The story, though simple, is well told, and the art is clean and crisp, rendering a fine first effort for Grace and Topan. For our own part, we stumbled across the Kickstarter completely by accident and was so tickled by the concept of a fifth, grader producing her own comic that we felt compelled to back the project. Having received the comic, we are very happy that we did, as it was a pure delight to read. As can be expected, the comic (the story of which is wrapped up in this initial issue) is the first installment of a longer, ongoing series. We certainly hope Grace experiences enough success with this first issue to continue her foray into the world of indie comics.

An interview with Guy Dorian, Sr.: The coming of COR!

Here is yet another older interview I did some years back that appeared on another web page with which I am no longer associated. It has been my intention to bring that older work here, and with this interview I have just one more article to bring over. anyway, here we go...

This is part two of a two-part interview with Guy Dorian, Sr. the First half  can be found here:

C.O.R. premiered at the New York Comic Con in 2016. where Guy Dorian, Sr., Ian Dorian, and Matthew Pallotta had giveaways of the Zero issues of both Law of Resistance and C.O.R. and were signing their books. Also present was Janine Fackque creator of Quandary.

Guy Dorian, Sr. is something of a Renaissance-level artist, he can draw, paint, watercolor, sculpt, build, write, and dance (he can’t sing). His his first comicbook work published at Marvel in New Warriors #48 (1994). Some of his other comic work has included UltraForce, Hari Kari, Bad Girls, Hakkiro Soul Quest, and many others. Not just making an impression on the comics themselves, Guy has worked on many trading card sets for both Marvel and DC Comics.

In addition to all of his comicbook work, Guy has built up his portfolio in a variety of different art fields, such as toy designs (for WWF/WWE), trading cards, coloring books, magazines, stickers, billboards, newspaper comic strip ads, and more, the list goes on and on. Beyond his artwork, Guy is also a sought-after lecturer, focusing on fine art as well on professional comicbook art. Currently he is working with the Jack Kirby Museum and Research Center on big projects, as well as character development for Marvel Comics Avengers Assemble, and a self-published comic entitled COR (discussed here), that he is working on with his son (Guy Dorian, Jr.) and others.

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RJS: Tell me about your new project, COR.

GD, Sr: Well, COR is a project by myself and a company called PKMM Entertainment. I can tell you this character COR is something I’ve always wanted to do. He has the intelligence of the entire internet and intelligence of all those who are connected to the internet at his beck and call. He has translucent skin on parts of his body, that shows the red glow of his veins system. He’s a character who is flawed by his own birth, and by his own species to which he is the sole heir. This all occurs with the help of a woman he meets by the name of Anat.

He goes on a journey to ultimately discover where he came from, who he is, and why he is here. The book is written by the very capable and talented independent screen-writer, Guy Dorian Jr. (my son), illustrated by myself and inked by the phenomenal Bob Wiacek. Some of my good friends and fantastically talented icons of the comic industry are on board for collaboration on stories, pages, and covers of this great series. Some of those artists that I have the pleasure of working with are Sal Buscema (who took over as Guy’s inker for the rest of the entire series as well as on the other books on which Guy is working), Herb Trimpe (the zero issue has an article about Herb Trimpe and features one of the last illustrations Trimpe ever did), Paul Gulacy, Michael Golden, Rich Buckler, Larry Hama, Louise Simonson, Joe Sinnott, Neal Adams, as well as Janice Chiang on letters. And I can’t forget my son’s writing partner, Cody Ciezlekowski.

All of this is brought to you by the visionary named Matthew Pallotta. He is the executive vice-president of PKMM, and the executive editor and vice-president of PKMM Entertainment. Matthew is a visionary, and an incredible talent in the industry of electronics and soon to be of entertainment.

RJS: What prompted you to create this story?

GD, Sr: Nothing necessarily prompted me. My brain is always running at a thousand miles per second, I am always thinking of new intellectual properties, stories, characters, worlds, products and series. You name it, my brain never stops running, never stops creating, never stops thinking, never stops taking me somewhere to creation.

RJS: From what I already know about it, it seems to be a far cry from superhero stuff for which you are perhaps best known.

GD, Sr: It’s a collaboration originally with my son. We are both into fantasy and science fiction as well as some superhero ideals, ideas and characters. We started collaborating on projects and our thoughts came together to create something totally original. It can be considered a sci-fi fantasy, based around a hero. But make no mistake he is a superhero, just not in the same sense that we see men in tights. He’s a hero and anti-hero, but in the course of the story he’d be classified as a hero. I guess you’ll have to read the story to find out. As far as if it is more difficult, I guess I have to say everything is both easy and difficult because I never look at anything or any project or any story without trying to put my all into it. At various times, it is just both simple and extremely difficult.

RJS: Will this be a limited run series or do you intend for it to be an ongoing series?

GD, Sr: The story will be debut as a six-book miniseries, and then turn into its own full ongoing series.

RJS: Besides COR, do you have anything else that you have in the works you want to discuss?

GD, Sr: At the moment this book is everything, but I do have another major project I’m working on. That project is a sculpture of none other than Jack “King” Kirby, the greatest comicbook artist who ever lived. It will be a life-size sculpture and monument dedicated to his memory for his fans from all around the world. I have been involved with the Kirby Museum for quite some time now. In discussing, and going over this project a development that has come out of it is that I will be a guest speaker, doing a lecture and physically drawing about Jack Kirby’s art…why he drew what he drew…and that was true from the time he was an early professional all the way through to his greatest successes.

RJS: I noticed that Ian is also working on a new project and both of your projects are being pitched on the same website. Are you guys going to be self-publishing them together?

GD, Sr: My brother’s project is called Law of Resistance or Resistance. It is a story that was created by my brother, Ian and Jim Krueger. Our development of COR, was an influence on the creation of Ian and Jim’s character. Matthew Pallotta played his part, which was then developed by Ian and Jimmy and ultimately scripted by Jimmy. My project is called COR – Controlled Organic Robotics. I created the initial character from my son’s descriptions and writer became co-creator with me working and developing the story. He also has a partner who was involved in the writing and his name is Cody Ciezlekowski. The energy of creating this project is my favorite part of character creation, and I am very happy to be now working on the issues.

RJS: What other kinds of things do you think you’d like to do going forward?

GD, Sr: I’m pretty much doing them. My main thing right now is continuing to work with a great group of amazing iconic professionals as well as continuing work with my son on COR. The character of COR is just a blast to work on! The story, the characters, the energy out of the book… it’s just all me and just really who I am! He’s a science fiction, retro-dial…and yet a new creation that has gotten so much praise over the last few months. We haven’t even released the issues yet. The character that I have created, COR, has a mixture of Black Panther meets the Alien meets Machine Man meets Terminator…it’s just one of those types of characters that you know when you make it that clicks. A character that will stick, a character that will stay, the response by fans and by professionals alike has been overwhelming. It’s an honor to be able to be a creator, an illustrator, an artist, a sculptor,  a painter, and especially a comicbook artist! To just be involved in all these things in the industry in an artistic sense it’s really just the greatest thing. I absolutely love what I do and everything that is being done right now on these issues!

These novels which are first going to be a six-book series, and then a graphic novel and it will be continued as series of novels is all being brought together by the amazingly intelligent and charismatic mind of Matthew Pallotta. Matthew and PKMM put together this group of phenomenal talents in the comics industry to create PKMM Entertainment. Much like Steve Jobs, he has been involved in working with advanced technology solutions, and computers for many years. In his job, he has worked for the federal government for his entire life, creating and developing software solutions and his intellect has been so broad-based. He’s created so many things in that space, that he just could not be contained. He loves the comic industry, he loves the movie and game industries, he loves science fiction, fantasy, superheroes… you name it! He’s putting everything out there to make sure that this new company, PKMM entertainment is a viable working entertainment company that does things right, by using all the greatest talent that he can find on the planet.

I almost forgot to mention my brother is working on his project with anchors such as Bill Sienkiewicz, Mark Texiera, Joe Weems, Matt “Batt” Banning, and many other extremely talented big wigs in the business. On my book, COR I have been working on the title in some capacity as anchors and pencil is collaborating with me are John Livesay, Bob Wiacek, Rich Buckler, Joseph Rubenstien, Herb Trimpe, Michael Golden, and the great Sal Buscema, as well as possibly Michael Kaluta, and a few more. And let’s not forget the great Janice Chiang on letters for both books.

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COR, and all artwork associated with the character, including COR logo is copyright © & TM 2015 & 2024 PKMM Entertainment/Guy Dorian, Sr. COR published by PKMM Entertainment. All rights reserved. All material relating to COR may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in any form

without the written consent of Guy Dorian & PKMM. All trademarks and logos are © copyrighted by their respective parties.

The text to Funnybook City is © 2015 & 2024 Robert J. Sodaro, D.B.A. Freelance Ink. All rights reserved.

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Robert J. Sodaro is a noted comicbook historian and journalist who began reading comics during the early ‘60s while sitting on the newsstand in his Uncle’s grocery store. He has been writing about them in the early ‘80s, and wrote for virtually every print comicbook publication published during the ‘80s & ‘90s. These days, much of his writing can be found here or on HubPages.com.