Zorro Numero XII

Hello my friends,

I just realized I haven't shown any Zorro love lately, so here are the front and the back cover of the issue currently displayed on the comicbook store shelves.

You may be also slightly interested in knowing I got started on my thrid arc which should be out this summer ;)
Matt has really cooked some sweet stories for this arc and can't wait to share/show :D

Cheers,
Francesco

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Hello Pulp Friends,

I wanted to share the original inks of this cover I did for the first issue of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Below you can see the final cover, completed with colors (by me) and title/logo.
As I understand it, this is a new mini still featuring the MWNN character, but a different story arc. The writer is the talented and veteran Chuck Dixon and the interiors are by Esteve Polls: I had a peek at them and they are gorgeous :)
Published by Dynamite Ent. of course.

Anyhow, hope you dig my spaghetti cover :)

Cheers,
Francesco

The Spider Dossier

Hello Pulp Friends,

still catching up on several projects I have going, so this week I wanted just to quickly introducea couple of elements you will find in the first Black Beetle Episode: Colt City PD Capt Will De Soto and the SPIDER Dossier. Click on the image for the bigger version.

Have a great Pulp SUnday everyone :)

Cheers,
Francesco

All images © 2009 Francesco Francavilla.
BLACK BEETLE & COLT CITY created by, ™ and © 2009 Francesco Francavilla

The Three Musketeers

Hello Pulp Friends,

As promised, here's a quick recap of my wonderful time at FX show this past weekend :)

First let me thank Mike Herz and Marc Hammond and all the wonderful FX team for the warm welcome at my first FX show and for being so kind and nice to my wife and me.
It was great to see old friends (too many to list them here) and meet new ones (like the Austrialian Ben Templesmith and the Italian Gianluca Pagliarani and his friend Giovanni). I had also the pleasure to meet two very talented artists whose work I admire: Sergio Cariello, artist of Lone Ranger and a gazillion of other books, and Ruben Procopio, former artist and sculptor at Disney and now artist of all things Pulp at Moonstone. I was surprised to find out that both had Italian grandparents, and since we had so many things in common (italian roots, pulp love, mustaches-goatee-glasses ;-)) we decided to call ourselves the three Musketeers. Needless to say, once back home, I HAD to do this (see above) :) Let's see if you can figure out who is who ;)


Other highlights of the trip to Florida have been: the one day trip to Disney's Epcot (thanks to the sweet Ken and Rachel), mine and my wife very first time at Disneyworld (and I got beer too - yay ;)); the wonderful night out and dinner with the awesome Kathryn and Stuart Immonen and Ruben; the Pulp panel on SUnday morning with the brothers Sergio and Ruben (of course! ;)); the cool deck of cards featuring artwork from most of the guests of the show, just such a cool and neat idea (below is my Jack of Spades) for such a noble cause: benefit the American Cancer Society.

All in all, just some really great time :)

Cheers,
Francesco

BB & The Shadow

Hello Pulp Friends,

sorry for the missing Sunday post but I was in Orlando, FL, for the FX show and didn't have access to my blog. I did have a Live Pulp Sunday edition, kinda, but I will tell you about that in a bit.
Meanwhile I wanted to share some of the convention sketches I have done at the show and I apologize for the poor quality of the images since they are photos and not actual scans.

The Black Beetle one is my very first Black Beetle convention sketch: thank you, James, for allowing me to draw my fav character :) I also colored it (image above) and dressed up it a bit exclusively for this blog :)


The second is a Shadow sketch I did for the good Chuck Dixon - I will talk more about him later too :)

Cheers,
Francesco

Select Excursions to COLT CITY

Hello Pulp Friends,

first of all let me wish you all a very Happy Easter :D (check out my sketchblog for the Easter Egg I cooked for this special day ;))

I have been busy this week wrapping up that Lullaby story for Outlaw Territory. The pages are all done and they look great, I have been told :) I will check with my editor and see if I can show some more.
In between pages I had chance to do some more concept art for Black Beetle.



Today we will talk a bit more of Colt City. You were asking where it's located: I would say Colt City is in the nothern East Coast. I like the idea to be close to the sea and I like the idea that it can have very snowy winters (I like to draw snow enviroment: remember my little Shadow tale from a couple of years ago and the current Lullaby? ;)).
I will probably come back with a more detailed map, but for now I wanted to highlight one of the peculiarities of Colt City (and the Black Beetle universe): heavy news coverage. The news crews are everywhere, using choppers, cars, bikes, and they are one of the main information source for BB and the reason why BB will become widely known to Colt City population.

More on that later. Right now have a great Pulp Sunday everyone :)
Francesco



All images © 2009 Francesco Francavilla.
BLACK BEETLE & COLT CITY created by, ™ and © 2009 Francesco Francavilla

Coming Home...

Hi guys,

I had to take a break from the BB stuff this week for focusing on some work that is due ;)
One of the project is my short tale (I am wirting, drawing, and coloring this) for the anthology Outlaw Territory vol.II, coming from Image Comics.
Here's page 3 which probably is also the last page I am showing, otherwise I am going to spoil my story. I thought this was a good cliffhanger to end the preview with ;)

Have a great Pulp day everyone :)

Cheers,
Francesco

Greetings from COLT CITY

Hello Pulp Friends,

first of all let me thank you all for the huge response to past week poll: hearing from you Pulp fans and friends meant a lot to me and helped me in picking the first character to get the webcomic treatment, a new territory for me for more than one reason, including also the fact this will be my first attempt at writing a serialized comic. (Please wish me good luck on that too ;))

So, without reporting the numbers again, Black Beetle seemed to have gathered the double of the votes that Max Malone got, making BB the winner of the poll and the subject of my webcomic. MM seemed to have quite a few fans as well, so he is not going to diseppear, don't worry - let's just say he will be on vacation for some time but he will be back :)

I am still trying to figure out a few things, but I had a pretty good idea for the first story of Black Beetle and the title will either be "The Web" (as in the previous teasers) or "Along Came A SPider".



Since yesterday it was clear BB was going to be the winner, I started to think about the settings for the comic: I needed a city in the tradition of those pulp/noir asphalt jungles and Gotham City and NYC, so I came out with Colt City. More about the back story of Colt City later, right now I hope you guys enjoy the above postcard :)
I also started to work on the look & feel of the story. Attached to this post there is a couple of concepts like the above car and the CCPD chopper below, which I hope you dig.
As you can see, I am developing this as I go, right on front of your eyes: I just hope I am heading in the right direction.
Still working on the format (comicpress and stuff) but eventually I am going to give Black Beetle its own spot (meaning Pulp Sunday will not be the official BB home ;))
Meanwhile I hope you enjoy the images (click ont hem to see a larger size) and the progress.

Have a great Pulp Sunday everyone :)
Francesco



All images © 2009 Francesco Francavilla.
BLACK BEETLE & COLT CITY created by, ™ and © 2009 Francesco Francavilla