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Kurt Sutter and Caitlin Kittredge Bring Anarchy to Lucas Stand

by Vince Brusio

From Kurt Sutter — creator of the hit television series Sons of Anarchy — comes Lucas Stand, his first original comic book series for BOOM! Studios that’s perfect for readers who have been looking for a new antihero like Jax Teller. Lucas Stand is a military vet who can't reintegrate into society and has emotionally cut himself off from the people he loves. At his lowest, Lucas does something he can't take back. Hell comes calling, offering him the opportunity to make things right, but this means Lucas can find himself in World War II, old-timey Hollywood, or even Vietnam. Co-writer Caitlin Kittredge gives us the scoop on this thrilling upcoming series!

Lucas Stand #1 (APR161343) is in comic shops June 22.

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Article ImagePREVIEWSworld: Lucas Stand #1 (APR161343) is a series that's created by Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter. As you've been tapped to be co-writer for the book, what's been your experience coming into such a high profile project? How are you handling the pressure? 

Caitlin Kittredge: It's been everything I could have asked for on a work-for-hire project. Kurt and everyone at BOOM! have been absolute dreams to work with. And while I'm a fan of Kurt's TV shows like everyone else in the world, this is a brand-new story and he's been very generous about giving me input during the scripting process. I didn't come into this with any ego—I just wanted to do justice to Kurt's story, and I think that helped in terms of not psyching myself out.

PREVIEWSworld: Tell us how you approached this assignment. What have you done to get inside the head of the character? Did you analyze Jax Teller to get a feel for Kurt's new bad boy? Did you research PTSD from former military members?

Caitlin Kittredge: Personally, I feel like Jax and Lucas are two very different sides of the same coin. Lucas is older and arguably has been knocked around by life more when the comic starts, but they both have a very strong, if skewed, moral compass. I was fortunate to be able to take Lucas from a bio and outline and fill in all the little details, which I had a lot of fun doing. Stuff like his preferred brand of beer, favorite band, and so on. There's a lot of first-person narration in the comic and getting inside his head was a really interesting journey. Regarding Lucas's PTSD I had actually just finished doing a large amount of research on special forces vets with PTSD for my Image series, Throwaways, so I applied some of what I learned to Lucas's development over the course of his series.

PREVIEWSworld: Without spoiling the book, tell us the premise for the story. How are we introduced to Lucas' isolated world? How do you engage us from issue #1?

Caitlin Kittredge: Issue #1 opens with Lucas punching his boss, and his day goes downhill from there. So much so that when he's thrown back in time to Nazi-occupied France to hunt down a rogue demon, it's actually an improvement.

PREVIEWSworld: Lucas appears to be up for some time-traveling, as the demons he is supposed to turn back can be appearing in periods ranging from World War II to present day. What are the challenges of trying to tell a story that can take place at a Starbucks one minute, or old-time Hollywood the next? Did it have a bearing on what diction you use for supporting characters? Or did you move past that, because it was simply background noise as compared to Lucas' mission?

Caitlin Kittredge: I love time travel stories. Really love them. I'll out myself as an enormous history nerd and the opportunity to play with a different time period every month is a dream come true. As far as the challenges, I feel like we circumvent a lot of the usual pitfalls of time travel narratives by focusing on Lucas's journey and the over-arching story of the demons he's hunting down.

PREVIEWSworld: Is this a story about redemption? Forgiveness? Vengeance? How would you pitch it? What's at the heart of Lucas Stand? What gives it a pulse?

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Caitlin Kittredge: I like to think of it as a story of learning to forgive your sins wrapped in a kick-ass revenge yarn. There's a theme of external redemption as Lucas works off all the horrible things he's done in his life by hunting and killing demons, but ultimately, he and the readers will realize redemption won't take you very far if you can't also make peace with your past and plot a new future.

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