Ron Garney's Skaar - Inside the Son of Hulk's Art

With this week's Skaar: Son of Hulk #1, readers will meet the infant child of Hulk and his queen Caiera, a baby who survived the brutal destruction of his homeworld and mother in Planet Hulk and will now star in his own ongoing.

After the series was announced last year, Newsarama later talked with writer Greg Pak and artist Ron Garney about the upcoming ongoing series. Pak promised that the series, which focuses initially on Skaar's survival on the ravaged Sakaar, will be "rich with epic action and emotion." While both Pak and Garney hinted to Newsarama that Skaar may one day meet his father, for now, Hulk's son begins his life as a wild animal filled with rage, but he meets the survivors of Planet Sakaar just as they desperately need his help.

As we post a preview of some of the pages from this week's #1 issue, (up there in the right) we do a quick follow-up interview with Garney, who shared some of his cover sketches with Newsarama, and we find out what readers can expect to see in the new Skaar: Son of Hulk series.

Newsarama: Before we talk about Skaar, Ron, now that your story in Wolverine with writer Jason Aaron has finished up, were you pleased with fan reception to your work on that title?

Ron Garney: Yeah, I thought it was great. I had such a great time on that book. And I look forward to possibly working with Jason again somewhere down the road. It was a very refreshing story. I think I do well with those types of stories, with singular characters where I can really sink my teeth into the action. It was a really different story for Wolverine because it had a lot of interesting ideas, like the scene where he was blowing himself up. The ways he was chasing Mystique around the Middle East. It was really well thought out.

NRAMA: Over to Skaar - you're getting to draw a whole universe of characters and locations in this comic, aren't you?

RG: Yeah, Greg's pretty thorough in his development of characters and the planet. Anybody who's read Planet Hulk can see, he's got the whole society worked out. He's got all the locales worked out. It really is like a movie in a comic book. There are tons of things going on. And it's the same in this book. Now we have the Hulk's kid running around, and he's a messiah of sorts.

NRAMA: They see him as their savior?

RG: Yeah. This planet's society has been talking about the son of the Hulk, and when he comes, they look at him as some kind of savior because of the oppression that goes on in this planet. And the story stems from that, and how he evolves from a baby, basically hatched from Caiera's womb, and how he's born into this very volatile and hostile environment. It suits his personality well.

NRAMA: So are you getting to design a lot of new characters?

RG: Yeah, but I'm designing them as I go along, really. The book's on a tight schedule, so I'm kind of doing it as I go along. I'm reading the scripts and designing them as I draw them. I wish I had more time to work on it. But it's been fun so far.

NRAMA: If this is the son of Hulk on a planet filled with creatures to fight, is it safe to assume you're getting to draw a lot of heads being smashed?

RG: [laughs] That's the only reason I draw anything is so I can draw smashing heads. What else is there in life, you know?

NRAMA: [laughs] Well, he's Skaar, Son of Hulk, on a volatile world. What is this -- tea parties?

RG: [laughs] Yeah, he's pretty much this savage character who's fighting all these beasts -- insectivores and all kinds of crazy things. It's a very crazy world. Skaar's just trying to survive at first. But he's got the Hulk's blood in him, so yeah, he's a little savage.

NRAMA: He's different from the Hulk, though, isn't he?

RG: Well, right from the get-go he's very animalistic, but that's because it's all about survival at first. You have to remember how this character came into the world here. He's a little baby, and he has to eat. And he grows very fast, kind of like a deer or gazelle. Within a few hours they can run. It's sort of the same thought process with this character. He hasn't even really spoken. He's just trying to survive at first. He's evolving. You'll see his personality eventually. But for now, it's about survival.

NRAMA: Anything you can tell us about what's coming up in future issues?

RG: Hmmm... what can I tell you about? There's a fairly mainstream, old Hulk character that is in the story of the book somewhere. That's all I can really say. I think fans will just enjoy this world that Greg has created. It's a lot of fun.