EP07 - Greg Land
GREG LAND -
INTERVIEW 2026
Thank you for taking the time to do this. It’s a pleasure to be able to converse with artists whose work I grew up with. First time I saw your art was in Ultimate Fantastic Four #21, part of the original Ultimate Universe, which I was reading religiously as a kid.
When did you decide you wanted to work in comics?
Well I always entertained the idea of working in comics, but my first professional job while in college was in screen printing. They would print my art on t-shirts which was cool when you would see it in the stores, but after 8-9 years I thought if I was ever going to make it drawing comic books I need to make a move. So I made a sent submission packages to Marvel and DC and got a couple rejection letters. Then I made a portfolio and started going to comic cons and talk to editors, get some feedback and hope one might give me a chance. And at the end of the last day of a show in Chicago I talked to a DC editor, Pat Garrahy, and he was the one who called me and gave me chance. And things took off from there!
At DC you worked on Birds of Prey, can you talk about your time doing that book?
It was a terrific experience getting to work on books written by the great Chuck Dixon. Loved his scripts and all the characters.
As a follow up to this, I read that in the beginning you did the covers based on Brian Stelfreeze’s sketches, is that process easier or somewhat more limiting then doing your own compositions?
In the beginning it was fine since I was just starting out, but as time goes on I prefer my own compositions. Brian was great!
Following that was Sojourn at CrossGen, can you tell me how that came about and how was that experience different from DC?
Mark Alessi owned Cross Gen and was building a company down in FL where he brought down great writers, pencilers, inkers and colorists, all housed in one big industrial building to help production move along better and the teams could conspire more to make great books. It was a lot of fun and got to meet a lot of my peers, put faces to the names and make some long lasting friendships. DC was always great to work for too, but all done on the phone and fax machines! (dating myself!)
Transitioning from DC & CrossGen to Marvel, were there any challenges you faced compared to your previous work?
Not really, the transitions always went well, easy. They all approached production about the same, other than like I mentioned, CrossGens was all in house.
Can you tell me about Ultimate Fantastic Four with Mark Millar, what that collaboration was like and what are you the most proud of during your time on the book?
I really loved Mark’s scripts and just reading them made me excited and then I realized, oh crap! How am I gonna draw that and give it justice! But it made me want to dig deep and make the pages dynamic. I would love to draw FF again someday.
You were also the main artist on the Ultimate Power written by Brian Michael Bendis, J. Michael Straczynski & Jeph Loeb. What are your memories of it?
Again it was a dynamic series so I just kept trying to get better and tell his stories best I could.
You transitioned to Uncanny X-Men next, how was it for you as an artist to bring your style into the mutant world?
Well it was still drawing super heroes and there was a lot of action and again I tried to do the stories justice. They let me have a little more free reign on page layouts to suit my style too so it all worked pretty good together I think.
Was there any particular issue or storyline that was your favorite?
It was cool drawing the 500th issue and the ones that followed, those pages are still sought after today. We get asked all the time if we have any left to sell!
Uncanny X-Men #500 Variant Cover - Art by: Greg Land
Uncanny X-Men #544 Variant Cover - Art by: Greg Land
Interior art from Uncanny X-Men Vol.4 #1 - Art by: Greg Land
Symbiote Spider-Man which you illustrated is simply gorgeous, it has a manga-esque quality to it, in terms of style and storytelling. Was that a conscious decision or the script was written that way? I also loved how it felt fresh yet nostalgic at the same time. Taking back the readers to a “time before” (especially that shot with the Twin Towers)
Really? I never thought I had a manga type, more realistic, but thank you. There wasn’t any mention of that in the script and I just drew in my style really. I did love the old style feel of Spider-Man in the city and all.
Interior art from Symbiote Spider-Man #1 - Art by: Greg Land
Who are the artists (in Comics and Fine Art) that inspire you to this day?
My top 3 are still the same, Jack Kirby, Gil Kane and Buscema.
Where do you find inspiration when you feel burned out?
I really don’t get burned out too much, but if a page/cover isn’t working I usually take lunch or go to the gym and clear my head and come back to it the next day and it seems to work out pretty good.
What does your sketchbook look like, what kind of tools do you use?
I use the same mechanical pencil I’ve had for 30 + years, just replace the lead and erasers! And a variety of prisma color pencils, very thin and sharpies and various sizes of.
What is your favorite cover or alternate cover that you worked on, and why?
I would have to say that my Phoenix on the Phoenix End Song cover has become my iconic piece, but also Spider-Gwen on Edge of Spider-Verse 2 was cool to draw. I’m kinda known for drawing the female superheroes so any of those really. But also love Spidey and FF and I guess I love ‘em all!
Phoenix Endsong #1 - Art by: Greg Land
Edge of Spider-Verse #2 Variant Cover - Art by: Greg Land
Amazing Spider-Man #16.HU - Art by: Greg Land
World Under Doom - Art by: Greg Land
If you could recommend a comic book to someone who never saw your work before, which one would be? Alternatively, is there one comic that you didn’t like for any reason, that you worked on?
The Symbiote Spider-man series of books is a pretty cool one, both in story and art. The Uncanny X-Men same.
Uncanny X-Men #18 Variant Cover - Art by: Greg Land
Had to draw a villain called Death’s Head in the Iron Man series, I really didn’t like drawing that character! And an issue of Astonishing X-Men where the heroes were in street clothes and riding on a bus!
What are you working on right now that you share?
I just finished a collaboration with Marvel and Willams F1 racing team that turned out cool! Marvel characters, Dr Doom and Iron Man joined the race! Being from Indiana and a fan of the Indy 500 and cars in general, that was really cool for me!
AWF1 Team x Marvel - Iron Man: Racing Towards Doom - Monaco Special Edition Cover - Art by: Greg Land
Are you a morning person or a late night owl? Coffee or tea?
Moring and tea!
Last question, what was the best and worst advice you got?
-Some art teachers in school along the way said comics wasn’t a good field to go into and it was really hard to get in, but one middle school art teacher, Mr. Linkenfelter, encouraged me and even after middle school to go for it. He retired to Phoenix years ago and has since passed, but we did a con out there while he was alive and brought him out to the show to sit w/me for the day and see how things turned out! I think he loved it, I know I did.
Thank you for answering my questions. I know you’re really busy, so just simply taking the time to do this is much appreciated. Hope you’re having a great day and can’t wait to see what you do next!
You can follow Greg Land on X(Twitter).
