Pablo Marcos talks about THE SPIDER, MASTER OF MEN

Pablo Marcos Ortega, one of the best known and loved artists of the Marvel horror line of comics has joined the creative team on Moonstone’s Spider. His work on the Spider, Master of Men will play to his strengths as the ghoulish vigilante faces off against the Frankenstein legion. Pablo was nice enough to stop by First Comics News to let our readers know about his new monthly comic.

First Comics News: it’s been a little while since you worked on an ongoing monthly comics, what made this the right project?

Pablo Marcos: Just a few months ago Martin Powell and I talked with each other for the first time in many years. After catching up on things such as family and work he began to tell me about a project of a character during the 1930’s. I became intrigued by the subject of this “Spider” and we began to work together.

1st: Had you been a fan of the old Spider pulps?

Pablo: Never before had I heard of the “Spider” series. During our conversations, Martin began to explain the history and storyline of the Spider. He also sent me a ton of information on the character online, and within no time I was extremely interested in the features, appearance, and history of this character.

1st: This series is set in the 1930′s, how much research is involved in each issue?

Pablo: Well I definitely had to do some serious research for this comic series. After all, it was a completely different world from 21st century United States cities. Thankfully the internet provided a source of information for all of the various building schemes, machines, household appliances, wardrobes, etc. of the Big Apple during the 1930’s. Also, Martin was very helpful in this research as he sent me a few very useful links via e-mail to better understand this time period.

1st: You have drawn thousands of Barbarians, and Superheroes, what’s it like drawing the adventures of a guy in a business suit?

Pablo: When I began my artistic career in Peru some of my earliest works were political cartoons. Around 1960 James Bond arrived in the newspaper of Lima, Peru and thanks to the director of the newspaper, I was put in charge of illustrating this daily strip for nearly three years. The adventures of a guy in a business suit introduce a neat mix of drama and action. In the case of the “Spider”, he is both millionaire criminologist Richard Wentworth and a swift and merciless masked vigilante. Just illustrating one of those lives would be interesting, but both men are combined into one action-packed comic series.

1st: What are the elements necessary to make an exciting comic?

Pablo: I think that one of the most important elements to having an exciting comic is to have an engaging, suspenseful and well-written script. Of course, good illustrations are vital as well, but without an intriguing storyline, who wants to read it? I must say that I feel Martin has definitely accomplished this with the first episode of the series.

1st: In the first story arc, the Spider faces Frankenstein Legion. What does the Frankenstein Legion look like?

Pablo: The Frankenstein legion is a terrifying group of monsters. Like Martin explained briefly, they are a vicious horde constructed by a crazed genius to wreak havoc. They slightly resemble a mix between mummies and zombies on steroids. They do a good job bringing out the brutality in the “Spider”, because after all for Richard it’s either kill or be killed.

1st: The Spider has been around for 70 years, what is going to make this depiction of the Spider stand out?

Pablo: When the series first began seventy years ago, it was quite the action-packed, exciting comic. Then the original writer for the comic stopped the script. The “Spider” has been in hibernation so to speak, for a good while and now the series is being continued with the original “Spider” storyline being used as established canon. You could say that a very eager professional team is going to prove this depiction of the Spider to be just as good, if not possibly better than that of the original seventy years ago.

1st: The Spider pulp stories have been extremely violent, what level of violence are we going to see in the comic?

Pablo: Well I have a feeling that there will be no shortage of violence in this series. As the episodes advance, the quantity of bloodshed may advance as well. Also, Martin and I intend to create new characters with some very unique and sickening dark sides to them. The “Spider” will not be bearing the burden of boredom with the vast array of evil he’s up against in the Big Apple during this series.

1st: What’s the one thing that will surprise readers the most about the series?

Pablo: Well there are many surprises on the way, but I feel that the most potentially surprising part of the series could be the relationship between Spider and Nita. They have a rather passionate relationship and she is Spider’s perpetual fiancé but as Martin stated, unlike most other girlfriends of masked crime-fighters, she knows all of Spiders darkest secrets. Nobody knows just where this deep relationship between Spider and Nita could go…

About Author