EXTRACTS: Illustrators issue 14 © 2016 The Book Palace (96 PAGES in Full edition)

35 Joe Jusko Follow Diego Cordoba as he tells us about this fantasy artist whose larger than life heroes have graced the covers of all the major comic book companies FACING PAGE: T arzan of the Apes, 100th Anniversary Painting (2012), acrylics on board. ABOVE: Heavy Metal June 1978, Joe’s first cover, painted when he was only 17 and had just graduated from high school. BELOW: The Incredible Hulk , (circa 1997), acrylic on board, painted from a John Buscema pencil drawing for the Marvel Theme Park in Florida. Probably one of the best-known fantasy and comic book cover artists today, Joe Jusko has been actively working as an illustrator for over 30 years. His paintings are rich and vibrant with colour, and peopled by dynamic and vigorous muscular characters that could easily snap a person in half between their thumbs and forefingers. Born in 1959, Joe grew up on the Lower East Side of New York City, in an area called Alphabet City, consisting of avenues named after the first four letters of the alphabet, and made up mostly of tenement buildings that date back to the 1800s or early 1900s. “Our apartment was in one such tenement, older than old, but it was the best my parents could do,” Joe says. He was inspired at an early age watching his older brother draw. He also discovered comic books, especially those produced by Marvel, which were the first comics he began to seriously collect. Within Marvel he encountered the work of John Buscema, an artist who would have a lasting impression on him. “I had discovered his work in 1968 when I bought second-hand copies of Avengers #57 and #58, the first Vision story. After that I sought every book The Hulk © Marvel Entertainment, LLC