Sunday, April 5, 2009

Greetings from COLT CITY

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".

Colt City Car

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

Colt City Police Helicopter

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

11 comments:

Unknown said...

This is nice mate go on .
Good luck hope to see the first story soon .When we can see the first story ?

Kyle Latino said...

Well, it looks great. The city is already taking shape as a character in and of itself. Curbs my disappointent over Max's loss. Still, it's not like I'm not going to love every panel of Black Beetle.

Also, "Colt City" is a great name. Seems like all the good city names are taken: Gotham, Metropolis, Central, Star, Paragon, Diamond, Opal, Coast, Indianapolis. But Colt is really good too.

Unknown said...

I dig the car and the flying machine

Unknown said...

Francesco, you are going to love doing a serialized webcomic...take it from me....and I'm going to love reading it! I've already got a ad box for it on the Ghost Zero site, and I'll make sure to let folks know to tune into the adventure in Colt City!
-Dave

Honolulu Dogfight said...

Yes! I can't wait. The teaser stuff looks great, and I agree, you're going to love the serialized thing. I'm back in the swing with mine, happy and am going to be reading yours from day one.
I think I have warrants in Colt City too, which makes it personal for me.
-George

Unknown said...

I was thinking about what kinda graffiti crew this city will have and done this little wallpaper .
http://yfrog.com/23cccreu2j
plus i am fan of Kingdom hearts and plus black beetle hidden in picture
http://img218.imageshack.us/my.php?image=kingdomhearts2featblack.jpg

michaeljsmith said...

great as always - also congrats on Scalped... that was a beautiful issue sir

Chad Carter said...

I'm so god-bless-America jealous, FF. Colt City. Any indicator yet of exactly where this city is, geographically? East Coast? Panhandle?

Neue Ziel said...

Can't possibly describe the sheer awesomeness of the Black Beetle and the beautiful teaser art you just posted... I wish i could do a WebComic myself. My head is boiling with ideas but i can't find an artist. Anyways i'm going to support your "Black Beetle Initiative" without a second thought.

P.S May i create the Black Beetle Brotherhood?

Doc Shaner said...

Loving these designs Francesco, and really looking forward to this series. That car is especially interesting.

Francesco Francavilla said...

slavi: thank you! :) Not sure about the first story. As mentioned in the other post, I need to get back to a few projects that were in my plate already. I should have some more concept art up soon though.
Kyle: thank you, glad you are on board anyway and glad to hear you like the name of the city and the look of it :) As I said, it took me quite a few try before getting to COLT CITY :)
Dave: thank you so much for the link and the kind words :) I will try my best!
George: thank you :D I still hope to see your Phantom Skull in print at a certain point :)
BrikHed: thank you, glad you liked Scalped too: I am still very excited about that issue :)
Chad: thanks, glad to get your approval too :) I would say North-East Coast? Would love to have some snow at a certain point ;)
Neue: Thank you :) ANd write down those ideas: in my experience, if I don't write them down they will be gone within a day or two ;)
Evan: thanks :D I am basing the designs on original concepts from that period, to keep it "real" :)

More to come, stay tuned.
Gotta go back to work now :P

CHeers,
Francesco