It’s been a hell of a year for Marvel artist Greg Pak.
The man who created the new Asian American Hulk with fellow artist Takeshi Miyazawa also has another series coming out in November involving a Chinese gunslinger. He has a new book being released in December called ABC Disgusting, which will be his second children’s book and follows The Princess Who Saved Herself from earlier this year.
Pak will be the featured speaker Sunday at CAAMfest San Jose. He agreed to chat with AsAmNews about his projects and whirlwind life.
If you’ve been in another comic universe, you may not know that Marvel has selected Pak’s character Amadeus Cho to replace Bruce Banner as The Incredible Hulk.
Cho originally debut 10 years ago as a super genius teenager in an eight-page story for Amazing Fantasy volume 2, #15.
“In his very first adventure, Amadeus found himself on the run from a nefarious secret agency and had a run-in with the Hulk,” explains Pak. “So he’s got a long history with the Green Goliath, including the time during the World War Hulk event when he was one of the very humans crazy enough to side with the Hulk when he took on Marvel’s biggest heroes.”
Pak says it was only natural for Marvel to select Cho as the new Hulk given his long history with the character. Marvel had discussed the idea during a recent summit and phoned Pak asking if he would be interested in writing it.
“When I got the call about this project, I immediately wanted back in. It’s a fresh new angle that allows us to explore all the big themes of the Hulk in a new way. And I’m thrilled Marvel reached out to me, one of the folks who created Amadeus, and Frank Cho, an artist who used Amadeus in his Savage Wolverine series a while back.
“Amadeus is a 19-year-old genius with a ludicrous amount of self-confidence. He LOVES being the Hulk and he’s convinced he’s going to be the best Hulk ever which could cause massive problems for everyone in the Marvel Universe. There’s a big, meaty emotional story about a hero becoming who he is. And then, of course, he’ll be fighting things like giant two-headed fire-breathing turtles, so we’ve got that going for us, too.”
Amadeus Cho will debut as the new Hulk in December. Coincidentally, Pak’s other major upcoming project debuts at about the same time in November. Cho has been kicking around the idea of Kingsway West in his head for two decades. The comic book series from Dark Horse is drawn by Mirko Colak.
Kingsway West is a Chinese outlaw who has been in prison for 13 years. He is released and goes in search for his wife in an Old West overrun by magic. Like The Incredible Hulk, Kingsway West will feature an Asian American male lead character. Pak has no allusions his work will change the perception of Asian American men in the media.
“I’m thrilled about any chance for Asian American characters to get a spotlight in pop culture. But as a creator, I can’t control how a character’s received by readers. I’m just doing my best to write the most fun, exciting, and emotionally compelling comics I can.”
Pak grew up in Texas and spent years in the Boy Scouts. He loved Westerns, he loved outdoor adventures and the idea of telling a big story about a Chinese outlaw in the Old West has always intrigued him.
Pak describes Kingsway as a “badass with mad skills, a wry sense of humor and a pet dragon.” He’s confident readers will be drawn to Kingsway because of his “aching longing” for his love and “his struggle to do the right thing in a totally jacked up world.” The racism faced by Chinese in the Old West provides the backdrop for some of the story line.
“Kingsway West takes place in an alternate world in which folks mine for magic instead of gold, he said. “But much of the context is inspired by real history. It’s an incredibly dangerous world for folks like Kingsway. Demagogues are blaming the rise of magic on Chinese workers and the threat of violence is everywhere. Drama, we got it!”
Another character to look forward to is Ah Toy, a swordswoman who comes looking for Kingsway’s help, but may end up leading Kingsway into more trouble. Kingsway’s wife is Sonia whose image has yet to be released.
Also coming out at the end of the year is ABC Disgusting, which he describes as an alphabet book about disgusting things. Once again, he teams up with artist Miyazawa, who also co-created Amadeus Cho.
The two also worked together on The Princess Who Saved Herself. That book is based on a song of the same name by Jonathan Coulton. It’s the story of a princess who plays rock and roll on her guitar and drives a neighboring 
witch who plays classical guitar crazy. You can get a signed copy through GregPakShop.com.
Pak, 47, has been writing cartoons since high school. He started with various student publications through college and even did a strip for the Korea Times in the early 90s called American Seoul. He is an alumnus from of New York University’s film school graduate program and his feature film Robot Stories drew attention on the festival circuit and eventually had a limited theatrical release.
“That got me a meeting with Marvel, and suddenly I had this tremendous opportunity to write comics,” Pak said. “It all made sense. I loved comics, and I loved the kind of emotional storytelling combined with big genre high jinks that Marvel has always been known for. And I’ve been lucky enough to keep working for 11 years now!”
His advice for any aspiring artist is to work on small projects and build from there. Four and eight page comic stories are a good place to start. Short films and indie comics can get you noticed.
“There are always a thousand reasons to abandon any creative endeavor. In order to succeed, you first have to actually finish the work, which means processing critiques, shrugging off rejection, shutting down self-doubt, and knuckling down to clock the many, many hours it takes to make a story actually work. Being pig-headed enough not to give up is absolutely key.”
Pak is a writer, not an artist — in comic book terms they're two significantly different things (the writer writes words, the artist draws pictures).
… and on top of that, graphic artistry doesn't really have anything to do with comic books.
Our apologies for the bad headline. We have changed it.