interview with dan jurgens from wizard #102

WIZARD:  You live in Minnesota, home of Governor Jesse Ventura.  What's it like having a former pro wrestler as a governor?

DAN JURGENS:  Well I think he's a kook, so it's pretty kooky.

WIZARD:  You've entertained comic fans for years as a writer/artist.  But the bulk of your work these days is writing.  What's Up?

DAN JURGENS:  It never happened by design; it's something that sort of happened.   Certainly in the case of something like Thor and Captain America, one of the attractions - besides the characters themselves - is working with the artists on those books.  Working on Thor with JRJR is a dream.  He's phenomenal.  When Marvel called me about Cap, one of the major enticements was working with Andy Kubert, whose work I respect greatly.

WIZARD:  You  brought Thor back from cancellation.

DAN JURGENS:  To me, the secret of making Thor work is balance.  If it's "The Adventures of Thor on the Planet Earth," he's no longer unique.  To me, we have to see enough of Asgard to say, "Wow!  That's a cool place!" and at the same time we have to have enough of the world outside our window - through the Jake Olson character - that we can relate to.  If you can achieve that balance, everything else should fall into place.

WIZARD:  We just saw Thanos, too.  What's up next?

DAN JURGENS:  My first year on Thor was to reintroduce people to Thor.  My second year was to reintroduce people to the scope of Asgard and Thor' buddies.   We've dealt with new characters and the Jack Kirby era of characters, and now we'll delve into the Walt Simonson era of characters.  We'll also deal with a character named Malekith who showed up during Walt's run on Thor.  He'll raise havoc in Thor's life for awhile.  I'm trying to bridge all the eras and bring them together.   Also, the chances of seeing Beta Ray Bill again are getting better and better.

WIZARD:  John Romita Jr's leaving Thor this spring.  How do you feel about losing him?

DAN JURGENS:  He brought such definition to Thor, I hate to see him go.  And I really mean that.  What JR did on Thor is very difficult and very few people have done it.  Without copying the Kirby look , he managed to bring the grandeur and scope of Kirby to the book.  There aren't many people who could do that.

WIZARD:  Any chance of you pulling double duty as writer and artist?

DAN JURGENS:  That's on eof the things I'll try to work out.  Maybe.

WIZARD:  On creating Jake Olson

DAN JURGENS:  The beauty of a dual identity is it gives you two facets of that character to mess with.  People think secret identities are corny.  Maybe.   But you know what?  It gives you a lot of possibilities worth exploring.

NOTE:  I edited this interview to include only the Thor related stuff.  It is a lot longer, including his stuff on Captain America, Superman, and Aquaman.  But this is a Thor site, so..........  Otherwise, everything said is exactly as it's printed in the article.