Sunday, July 20, 2008

Pulp Spotlight: The Man With No Name

Pulp Spotlight
The Man with No Name
Hello pulp-friends,

Since I have to skip next week for con reasons, I thought to have a beefy episode today with lot of art and dedicated to a pulp genre I haven't covered yet (as far I remember ;)): the Western!
What better than the Man with no Name, the hero of Sergio Leone's beautiful trilogy, to get the Western rolling? :)

Sergio Leone
"A fistful of dollars" is the first movie of the so called "trilogy of the dollar" (the other two movies are "For a Few Dollars More", 1965, and "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly", 1966), directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood.

Masterpiece of the "spaghetti western" genre, A fistful of Dollars is mistakenly considered the first of that genre. Actually there were already western movies made in Europe before 1964, but they weren't as popular or successful. Leone's take reinvented the genre, bringing it back to popularity and re-defining the rules of a good western.

The movie was inspired by the japanese "Yojimbo" (1961) by Akira Kurosawa. SInce it was the first spaghetti western to reach the American market, many members of the cast and crew got a stage name, including the director Leone and the composer Ennio Morricone. In the United States, the United Artists publicity campaign referred to Eastwood's character in all three films as the "Man With No Name".

Cheers,
Francesco

Clint Eastwood
Pulp Spotlight is the monthly feature where I cover other famous characters that have helped to build the Pulp genre not just on the radio but also in the other media.

8 comments:

maurizio battista said...

Il tuo grande talento non si smentisce mai.
In questi disegni si vede quel western polveroso e vissuto che Sergio Leone raccontava nei suoi film!

P.S.: Potevo postare in americano, lingua che come ben sai parlo "benissimo", ma ho optato per la nostra lingua madre in modo da dare un taglio internazionale al tuo blog. :-)

Ilia said...

that middle picture is just mind blowing. the shading, the little twinkle of light and the composition...killer...sometimes simple is brilliance. stunning.

all 3 pictures very nice.

Unknown said...

There's a man who knows his westerns! Thanks for the primer, Francesco!
..and I agree that the center piece is particularly fantastic. It captures duelling cowboys in a very iconic way.
Great!

-Dave

Greg said...

Oooh, shiny! I do love the old spaghetti westerns, heck, almost all westerns. I was raised mostly on those and the original Star Trek. Guess that helps explain why I like Firefly so much....
This is a very nice "parting" gift for while you'll be away. Take care.
Greg

K. Johnson said...

Way too funny. I just did a review of "Yojimbo" recently. Seems like people are hungry for their "Spaghetti" right now!

This all looks fantastic, as always, and thanks for such an awesome dedication to the ever-wonderful Western!

Francesco Francavilla said...

Maurizio: grazie mille, cumpa' :) If you want, I can translate it for you ;)
Ilia: yeah, and the middle picture is the one that took less time too (something like 5 minutes maybe?)) Now if only the readers would like something that simple and sketchy ;) Thank you! :)
Dave: thank you! :) I know they keep labeling Zorro as a western, but when I hear western, this is what comes to mind ;) Maybe I will be lucky enough to do a Jonah Hex or a MWNN one shot, who knows? :)
Greg: so you grew up with spaghetti and treks: that's a good diet, you know? ;) Thanks for the kind words :)
Kell: thank you and welcome aboard of Pulp Sunday :) Please feel free to post the link (if any) to your review of Yojimbo: would love to read it :)

I will be back with some more Western love later on, I promise :)

Cheers,
Francesco

FLOOPtRON said...

Amazing drawings! They are really pleasant to me! The middle picture simply stunning. Now I became the daily reader of this blog, here so much interesting.
I like comics and animation, therefore I learn to draw in this style.
To in total you of the best.
Your russian reader.

Francesco Francavilla said...

Thank you so much, Flooptron :D
I hope you are still following the blog and still enjoying what you find here :)

Cheers,
Francesco