The Death Laser!

(click on the strip for a better reading experience :))

Hello Pulp Friends :)

It was 1960s Nick Fury week over at Comic Twart, and I decided to do a little Sternako inspired strip/story which I posted yesterday there.
Since the format I sued was similiar to our beloved Sunday strips, I added a cover image this morning and I am posting in it since I think it qualifies as goold Pulp comic :)
Hope you guys enjoy it even if it's a very short tale :)

Have a Wonderful Pulp Sunday everyone :)

Cheers,
Francesco

Artwork © Francesco Francavilla 2010

John Carter of Mars

Note: all images are available in larger size vies if you click on them.

Hello Pulp Friends,

I wanted to share the step by step for the above fake cover I did for John Carter of Mars - it seems I am specializing in pseudobiblia (or impossible books ;)) lately.

When I heard about the weekly TWART topic being John Carter, I had this idea to mock those old paperback covers: they look great plus I didn't have to fill the whole page with artwork (yeah, hard to cut too much time out of the weekly schedule when you are under deadlines ;)).
I wanted to show John and possibly Dejah facing some kind of beast. Initially I thought of some pterodactyl, then one of those 6 legged tiger, and finally I settled for some sort of alligator/reptyle.



Once the linework was done, I hand drawn in all the graphic elements and type (logo, titles, etc).


And then brought the file in Corel Painter and add some colors (trying to keep a muted palette).


Finally took the cover, sat it on a shelf for 50 years in the attic, and you get the result shown on top of this post ;)

Hope you guys enjoyed it :)

Cheers,
Francesco


Artwork © 2010 Francesco Francavilla

Archie the Teen-Wolf

Hello Pulp Friends,

I posted this "pseudo" ocver earlier on Comic Twart blog for this week topic: Archie Comics! When I saw some of the 50s cover, with those 50s clothes, the idea of a mix with a classic EC style horror cover would have been a fun thing to do.
I scribbled/sketched the concept quickly (see below) and finally got around yesterday about drawing most of it. Added the type and balloons this morning and ta-daa, the dish (above cover) is served! :)
Hope you guys dig it :)

A few notes:
- in the original sketch the # on the cover was 90, which is the number for FEAR in the Italian cabala (each thing has a related number which can vary from 1 to 90). I changed the # in 66 and added JUN, which is... the 6th month, so that makes, well, you know which particular number ;)
- in the original sketch I thought to add a full moon behind the title ARCHIE. I ended up iusing the moon as cap for the i in Archie: I thought it was better that way.
- finally I slightly changed the original balloons dialagoes to make it a more immediate read

Cheers,
Francesco




Artwork © 2010 Francesco Francavilla

Planet of DOOM!

Click on the above and below illo for LARGER views.

Hello Pulp Friends,

First please let me apologize for the missing KARA BOCEK episode this past Sunday: I was out of house most of the day and couldn't finish the page in time. To make up for that, if all goes smoothly, we my have double page next Sunday :)

Meanwhile here's my latest COMIC TWART contribution: "Johnny Recon" created by fellow Twartist Mitch Gerads and his good freind Scott Dillon.
This was fun to draw and reminded me of the good times I had while drawing Fear Agent a couple of years ago (Rick, when am I up again for a one shot? ;))
Pure Pulp Sci Fi Fun :D
Below the original inks before color and type treatment.

Cheers and stay warm,
Francesco



Artwork © 2010 Francesco Francavilla

J.A.K.E. II Reporting for Duty

Click on the above and below illo for LARGER views.

Hello Pulp Friends,

Some more Pulp fun done for the Comic Twart jam.
Of course, being the Pulp afecionado I am, I couldn't be more happy with such choices. And I am hoping such joy breathes through this week's illo.
I am posting her eon Pulp Sunday also the intial rough sketch, the inks, and a detail of the final rendition.

Now if only I could work on a full mini showcasing GI Robot and set in a (of course Weird) World War II action, I would be (can you believe it?) even happier :D

Cheers,
Francesco





Artwork © 2010 Francesco Francavilla

The Rocketeer in "One Down, Next Up"

Here's a Rocketeer 'thing I did (in between pages here and there since Monday) for this week theme at Comic Twart (you should check the other awesome entries -outstanding work from everyone!)

When I heard about the topic for this week, last Friday, I had 3 ideas popping up in my head. I went with the "quickest" one, which was a remake of an old composition I did a few years ago and never got around finishing it. You can see the "starting" pencils here, along with my memories of the late Dave Stevens (I had the honor to meet him and chat with him years ago in SD with the good friend and super talented Jim Steranko - speaking of hanging out with the "cool kids").

Click on the above image for viewing the whole illo in its cinemascopic entirety :)

I may tackle the other two ideas when I get some spare time.

Cheers,
Francesco

Zorro Salutes

(click on the image for bigger size)
Hello Pulp Friends,

I recently joined a group of fellow artists who jam weekly on a specific character. The blog is Comic Twart (Twitter Art) and the first week topic/character was (HA!) Zorro! Of course I felt like I was playing in my own backyard ;)
With issue 19 (coming out later this month) and issue 20 (coming in late Feb) wrapping up my third arc (and second run) on Zorro, I decided to partecipate to the jam with one of the pages from issue 20 that just came out from the oven. It seemed to fit the ending of the arc (even if that is NOT the last page of the issue ;)) with a nice shot of Zorro saluting and Tornado rearing :)
Please check Comic Twart for more zorros from some talented people.

Also please come by and say hi if you are gonna be in Charlotte and surroundings this coming Saturday: I will be at the Charlotte MiniCon with goodies and always a big smile :D See you there!

Cheers,
Francesco

KARA BOCEK, BLACK BEETLE & COLT CITY created by, ™ and © 2006-2010 Francesco Francavilla