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

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

BLACK BEETLE Vs MAX MALONE ( poll - updated!)

Hello Pulp Friends,

last Sunday I shared a pulpish creation of mine that dates back to 15 years ago, MAX MALONE: I was wondering if I should take it to the next step and have it developed in the form of webcomics and you guys seemed excited about that idea.
Well, diggin through my things, I found this other guy I came up with about 3 years ago, BLACK BEETLE. Where MAX MALONE is more a sci-fi pulp noir, this is more in the vein of masked vigilante pulp in some sort of '40s/'50s settings, with some slight (40s/50s) sci-fi tone to it.

Now here's the idea: I know a few pulp fans visits this blog regularly, so I would like to do a poll. Since I am kinda busy with several projects, if I have time to develop a webcomic, which one you would like to see "sequentialized" first: Max Malone or Black Beetle? Let me hear it from you and thanks for the input :)

Cheers,
Francesco

Click on the teaser image above for the bigger version. The art is from 2006, the "dress-up titles" from today ;)

Edit: I added an updated teaser for MAX MALONE (below) to have a fair fight ;)



Edit: The generous response from you wonderful pulp aficionados pushed me to put up some more art to help to decide. :)
Here's another teaser for Black Beetle and look for more Max Malone later today or tomorrow.

Thank you all,
Francesco



Edit> And here is the new art for Max Malone, as promised. Sorry for the little delay but I had to wrap up issue 4 of GARRISON and that's exactly what I did this morning ;)
Please keep the voting comig - would love to hear from all of you :)

Cheers,
Francesco

Introducing Max Malone

A Blast from the Past!

Hello Pulp Friends,

a couple of weeks back I told to our friend Neue that I was a big fan of Tech-Noir as well and I even did some sequentials, back in the days, in that genre. Well, I dug 'em up and they are 15 years old (it was 1994 AD ;)) so be gentle if you see some stiffness and a few issues ;)

I remember creating Max Malone for a monthly magazine: it's gonna be harder try to find all the character sheets and concept art, but now that I look at it, I may try to give it some new life (see new logo above, i.e.), maybe as webcomic? What you guys think?
The original story was inspired a bit by Blade Runner but I think I will change that if I give this another go.

Apologies for the italian balloons, which I drew straight in the pages, but I hope the action reads well anyway.

Hope you dig it :)

Cheers,
Francesco