Ema Lupacchino is a relative newcomer to the comic book industry, but she has already made her mark. With over 100 issue credits to her name, she has already worked on a lot of iconic comic characters including Thor, Vampirella and Lois Lane. Since issue #30 of Supergirl she has been the series’ regular illustrator. We got a chance to talk with her about her work on the title, designing battle armours, and choosing the right colour of nail polish.
Graphic Policy: How did you get the chance to draw this iconic character?
GP: Supergirl is fairly iconic in terms of her costume and her design, What do you do to put your own personal touch on this character?
EL: What I think is that the costume is not really important in order to define a character – the key is the attitude I give to her. I feel this responsibility every time I have to feature a specific character with the acting, the gesture, the expressions – it’s what describes him or her the most, the costume is just an outfit. This is what I try to give to her, a very specific temper and attitude. It can be a look, a way to move, a feeling. I want her to be as “real” as possible.
GP: Along with Wonder Woman, Supergirl is one of two major DC Comics heroes who are both very strong and very feminine. How do you find the balance between the two?
EL: Easily – she’s very feminine outside, in her movements, her make up, the way she smiles, these kind of things. And she’s strong in both her head and heart. Of course she’s Kryptonian and she’s got some extraordinary superpowers, she’s almost invincible, but the real force is in her will. The hardest part of my work is to communicate all this with drawings … I hope I’m doing it well :)
EL: YES! It was me, I confess! I love blue nails, and since it’s more modern that the classic red one I thought it could be a smart way to show she’s living our timeline.
GP: Also in the most recent issue Kara is thrown into some Kryptonian battle armor, which looked pretty amazing. What were your inspirations for the design?
GP: The series has generally been a mix between Earth based stories and outer-space cosmic stories. Is there a setting between the two that you prefer?
EL: Space, of course! On Earth, as our real world, nothing extraordinary really happens – but out there in the space, extraordinary things can be discovered: futuristic technologies, new worlds and races that are very exciting to draw.
GP: Speaking of outer space based stories, the world which you designed for the Crucible is pretty complex and amazing, between the different environments and an awesome looking space station. How much input did you get into the design of the planet?
GP: Are there any superhero characters that you would like to get a chance to draw that you haven’t already?
EL: Good questions, I have TONS! :D I really wouldn’t mind to draw Catwoman or Wonder Woman one day.
2 replies on “We Talk Supergirl with Ema Lupacchino”
Wouldn’t a ring structure with a star, or several stars, within its radius have no net gravitational attraction to the barycenter of the star system, assuming they shared the same plane? This is definitely the case in three dimensions, but I can’t recall if the proof of that fact needed more than two dimensions to be valid.
Regardless, if you’re concocting a fictional universe where a culture has the capability to build such a megastructure, it doesn’t seem entirely implausible that the gravity issue couldn’t be solved technologically, given the massive and strange technological advances necessary to build the structure itself.
I think you have to assume that the space station is actually rotating though, so it would affect gravity