Black Beetles - Part 8

Dear Pulp Friends,

after the Australian love from Jason Paulos, the Black Beetle gets more international love today, this time from Panagiotis Mitsobonos, Athens, Greece :D

Panagiotis is a Pulp Sunday friend and he was kind enough to take some time off his schedule to do a tribute to the Black Beetle. That, of course, makes me feel again like a proud dad :)
Love the Ted McKeever vibe of it, almost a chalked graffiti on the walls of a Colt City alley, reminding the crooks that THE BLACK BEETLE IS ALWAYS WATCHING! :D

You can check more of Panagiotis' work here.

σας ευχαριστούμε, Panagiotis :)

Cheers,
Francesco

KARA BOCEK, BLACK BEETLE & COLT CITY created by, ™ and © 2009 Francesco Francavilla

Black Beetles - Part 7

Hello Pulp Friends,

hope you all had a wonderful Xmas time this past weekend :)

Coming back from my little visit @ the in-laws, I found these two cool Black Beetle tributes under the tree (metaphorically speaking ;))
They are both by a good friend and talented pulp artist Jason Paulos. I really dig the "SPIRIT/Eisner" vibe of these and they definitely bring back our pulp hero in the noirish settings of Colt City in "NO WAY OUT".
Thank you so much, Jase, you nailed it! :D
To check out more on Jason's own creation like the pulp Detective "HAIRBUTT the Hippo" or the EC inspired horrors of "EEK", I invite you to visit his site :)

Stay tuned for KARA BOCEK page 5 this week :)

Cheers,
Francesco



KARA BOCEK, BLACK BEETLE & COLT CITY created by, ™ and © 2009 Francesco Francavilla

Black Beetles - Part 6

Some days you just can't get rid of the Black Beetle... ;)

This is definitely a good week for the Black Beetle: so much love coming his way that he almost blushed. But then he remembered that's not something his enemies wanna see from him ;)

Today's homage is from a pulp afecionado and long time friend of Pulp Sunday: Kyle Latino. His "get rid of a bomb" gag is just hilarious: always loved those big bowl-shaped bomb in cartoons and old silent movies (and in the 60s Batman series ;))
Great fun stuff, and beutifully rendered with some old school inking: thank you so much, Kyle :D
If you haven't yet, please check out Kyle's pulp goodness at his site.

And stay tuned for page 4 of Kara Bocek coming this Sunday: things will get kinda "busy" ;)

Cheers,
Francesco

KARA BOCEK, BLACK BEETLE & COLT CITY created by, ™ and © 2009 Francesco Francavilla

Black Beetles - Part 5

Feeling like a proud dad right now, for all the love my baby (if we can call a grow up asskicking pulpish hero a baby ;)) is receiving :)

After the sweet tributes from Simon and Evan in the last few days, I got up today to find another awesome fanart of our favorite masked hero, this time from the skillfull hands of Thomas Boatwright, talented co-creator and artist of horror little gems like the Surreal Adventures of Edgar Allan Poo and Cemetery Blues.
You can check more of Thomas' work and coming projects here.

Thank you, Thomas, I really appreciate you taking time to draw Black Beetle :)

Cheers,
Francesco

KARA BOCEK, BLACK BEETLE & COLT CITY created by, ™ and © 2009 Francesco Francavilla

Black Beetles - Part 4

(part 3 being Simon's realistic take at our pulp masked hero I posted a couple of days ago).
This morning I woke up to find this beutiful rendition of the Black Beetle by the supertalented - and all around swell guy - Evan "Doc" Shaner.

Evan was already kind enough to send me, some time ago, a beutiful drawing depicting The Shadow, Green Hornet, and the Spider, a pulp trinity if you wish ;), (and he drew a Zorro on the envelope to make it even sweeter), so I was super happy to see him taking a stab at BB and the Kara Bocek's trio of baddies.
You can see more of Evan's beutiful work here.

Thank you, Evan, I owe you a few more drinks :)

Cheers,
Francesco

KARA BOCEK, BLACK BEETLE & COLT CITY created by, ™ and © 2009 Francesco Francavilla

BB The Movie (!?!)

No, as much as I wish it was an actual news, there is still no movie development attached to BB, not yet anyway ;)

Some time ago my good friend and pulp afecionado Simon Pimpernel (everyone should visit his wonderful pulp blog, if you are not doing it already) asked me who would I cast if a real movie about the Black Beetle was to be made. I replied a young Kirk Douglas would have been perfect for the role.
Well this morning Simon surprised me with this fanart photo manipulation, which looks like a real still from some '40s movie :)
I thanked him and asked permission to dress it up as movie poster and post it in here. Permission granted so here it is :)

Thanks again, Simon, it looks AWESOME.
Now if I can only time-travel and get young Kirk to sign for the movie...

Cheers,
Francesco

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

Black Beetles - Part 2

Hello Pulp friends :)

Yesterday I shared the beautiful Black Beetle sketch I unexpectedly received from Dan Brereton this past weekend. I was already very excited by this joyful surprise so you can imagine how I felt when I saw a seconf BB tribute being dropped on my table. My dear good friend Dar left me speachless when he delivered this in my hands. Thank you so much, Dar! :)

I will be talking about his beautiful "HUNTER" soon. (If you haven't picked up yet, do yourself a favor and pick up the hardcover: a magnificent book and a true labor of love for the subject matter)

To see the past tributes/homages to BB check this after Heroes Con post.
I am a lucky man :D

Tomorrow I will be back with more Pulp Sci-Fi.

Cheers,
Francesco

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

Black Beetles - Part 1

Hello Pulp friends :)

as I was mentioning earlier, I received some unexpected surprises at this past weekend Dragon*Con. No, I am not talking of the Power Woman who turned out to be a dude ;). I am referring to some tributes to my Black Beetle drawn by a couple of artists who I have a huge admiration for and that I am honored to call friends :)

Let's start first with the awesome Dan Brereton, of Nocturnals fame. He did a quick sketch of BB and I took a little time this morning to put some colors on it. Hope you guys dig the drawing as much I did :)

It's always cool to see my own creation drawn by artists whose work I admire, like it happened in the past with Steve Epting and Dave Flora, among others.

Stay tuned tomorrow for part.2.

Cheers,
Francesco

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

BB & Heroes

Hello Pulp friends :)

Heroes was (once again) a great show for me (thanks to all who commissioned me convention sketches and bought my books and prints) and for Black Beetle too: I sold out of the 30 copies I brought with me at the show (10 de-luxe and 20 regular). Everyone was picking up the sample ashcan I had on my table and ask the same question: "When it's coming out?" :D
I think our BB has definitely made an impression on the crowd at the show :)

I had a couple of BB requests (convention sketches - above is one of them) and had collegues and friends doing some BB fanart/homage as well (our own Dave Flora actually did his way before the show :)), a couple of them with a smiling BB :).
Steve Epting, Dave Flora, Brad Millette, Manuel Aguillera, Cory Laub: thank you so much, guys, it's always cool to see the different takes on our new pulp hero :)
I gave all of them the old paper treatment and posted below for all to see :D

I will be shipping some more ashcans and prints soon to those who ordered via blog/website - thank you again for the support and for diggin Black Beetle :) Anybody else who's interested in a copy of the ashcan, please email me with your choice (regulare or deluxe) and I will take care of you (as long I still have copies available).

Stay tuned for this Sunday next BB page!

Cheers,
Francesco











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