Interview: Zuda’s One Hit Knock-Out (Maximo V. Lorenzo)

Welcome the great Arturo Garcia, as he discusses a current entry in DC Comics’ monthly Zuda Comics competition with its creator, Maximo V. Lorenzo.

One Hit Knock-Out, currently sitting in first place in the December Zuda balloting, is at heart about a kid who wants to be a hero – you know, beating the holy bejeezus out of evil and all that. But Maximo V. Lorenzo’s story about pugnacious young Serge definitely packs more than a punch. I recently got the chance to talk to Maximo about Serge’s origins, his own inspirations and the unlikely site for his creativity.

A Boy Named Art: Congrats, you made it to first place! That’s gotta be encouraging, no?

Maximo V. Lorenzo: Well, it’s not so much the 1st place as the massive out pour of support I’ve gotten from everyone, if anything I feel I don’t want to let everyone down, so the pressure is on even more-so!

ABNA: I saw you mention One Piece as a favorite of yours. What creators/works do you consider an influence on your own style?

MVL: Yikes, I could go on forever, I’ve had so many influences from artists from all over the world it’s hard to say. If I had to choose story influences, I’d say Tezuka, Eisner, Oda (One Piece), Urasawa, those guys are full of soul! Art wise, I like Massimiliano Frezzato, Rumiko Takahashi, Go Nagai ( somewhere in the back of my head ), Toriyama, and Ishinomori.

ABNA: Serge surprised me – his inspiration for heroism seems to be more than a passing fancy. Tell us a bit about what you thought about in creating his character.

One Hit Knock Out

MVL: Well as a creator, I like to put a little of myself in each character, Serge no doubt has my burning passion, even if he has no chance in hell in succeeding even if he’s totally wrong, he’ll still fight as hard as he can for what he believes in.

ABNA: Piggybacking a bit on that, what heroes inspired you?

MVL: Hmm… If I had to pick a favorite western hero, I love Spider-Man; the fact he takes something very dangerous and makes it into something fun through quips and jokes. When Spider-Man gets serious you know someone is in for an ass beating. I like that contrast. Eastern I have to say Luffy from One Piece, every attack he does is amazingly creative, he comes up with a new move using his stretchy powers depending on the enemy, terrain, etc. He’s really gutsy and I dig that but I have to say just how creative Luffy is with his powers is a real sight to behold.

ABNA: You’ve said you’ve planned out three seasons of OHKO. Not to get ahead of things, but what’s the status of Season 2?

MVL: Basically the beginning, the end, and some key events. I know this sounds weird but I take long hot showers and just imagine stories and events, I write them all down so it’s not like I was planning on purpose, more of it’s something I enjoy doing.

ABNA: I see you’re running a Sentai contest on your DeviantArt site. Any particularly far-out Sentai entries you can tell us about?

MVL: Hmm, I’ve gotten 3 so far, I think its because everyone thinks the deadline is February 5th, but it’s not!! It’s January 5th! My mistake! So far there’s an entry with shark mouthed boots, that’s pretty awesome.

ABNA: One more Sentai question to close out this session: pick any 5 characters to make up your Sentai Dream Team – go!

MVL: The Punisher, Rock Lee, Jin Saotome, Simon Belmont, Tony Tony Chopper. Hahaha, what a messed up team!!