JOIN THE U.S.R.A. Pt.2

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... And Travel the World! :D

C'mon, does this image alone make you wish you had joined already? ;)
Sorry if it took so long to post my 6th piece but work and life kinda got in the way ;)
I am gonna to announce the two runnerups later this week and also post the final version of the silhuetted robots print that will go to the runner-ups and to the winner from last week (Casey).
Of course that print, as every other Giant RObot Week poster here, is available for purchase as well. Just email me if interested.

Until then, hope you enjoy today's offering :)

Cheers,
Francesco

Artwork & U.S.R.A. (United States Robot Army) © 2010 Francesco Francavilla.

GUNDAM!

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I hope you will allow me to go down Nostalgia Lane for Day 4 of Giant Robot Week :)
One of my fave robot show has always been GUNDAM, and not just for some of the coolest robot designs around, but also for the realism of the stories: a really good and well thought show, hands down.
And speaking of Gundam and nostalgia, here's an acrylic painting I did 17 (!) years ago: man, do I feel old...

Hope you dig it the same, even if an "ancient" piece of art ;)

Cheers,
Francesco

Artwork © 2010 Francesco Francavilla.

Join the U.S.R.A.

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... And Travel the World! :D

Here's Day 4 of Giant Robot Week and - by great demand - here's more about the U.S.R.A. (United States Robot Army) :D

Since many were asking on twitter, all of the Giant Robot Posters from this week are available as nice archival prints : just email me via website for details.

Cheers,
Francesco

Artwork & U.S.R.A. (United States Robot Army) © 2010 Francesco Francavilla.

Enlist Today in U.S. Robot Army!

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Day 3 of Giant Robot Week features this ad from the 40s for the U.S.R.A. (United States Robot Army).
Ha, the good ole times when you could pilot giant robots ;)

Hope you enjoy it and - moreso - enlist it :)

Cheers,
Francesco

Artwork & U.S.R.A. (United States Robot Army) © 2010 Francesco Francavilla.

Rob-O-Dawn

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Day 2, and first of the random chosen robot from all entries, winner of an archival print of the above poster. (Casey, I am referring to you ;))
Played a bit on the Red Dawn concept, so there it is "Rob O Down" (with the big O ;))
Hope you guys dig it and help me spread the word out there: let's try to reach as many people as we can :)

Cheers,
Francesco

Artwork © 2010 Francesco Francavilla.

YAMATO Ind. Now Hiring!

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So, let's get this started ;)
Hope you enjoy this old YAMATO Ind. ad, and yes, nice archival prints of all Giant Robot Week related art are available for purchase (pls email me via website for details).

Cheers,
Francesco

Artwork © 2010 Francesco Francavilla.

aNDy

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Hello guys,

Still in robot-mode here (we will be in that mode also next week ;)), so let me tell you about my favorite robot EVER: aNDy!
I created aNDy back in 2006 and my dear friend (and super-talented writer) Macon Blair helped me to flesh it out (if you have read the story, you know that is some sort of pun ;)) for Ivan Brandon's anthology 24/7 vol.2.
I WARMLY suggest you guys to find that anthology because it's chockfull of great little stories, including the one featuring the coolest (and saddest) robo-gorilla ever: aNDy.
Above are a couple of concept sketches, and below one of the pages from the story.

Hope you guys enjoy these and don't forget to enter your suggestion in the contest (see here)
Cheers,
Francesco

Artwork & aNDy © Francesco Francavilla 2010

AstroBoy Vs SpamB0ts!!

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Hello guys,

while we wait for the big super sized Giant Robot Week next week, here's some random robots to get you in the mood ;)
First, an ASTROBOY commission I did earlier this year (me HEART Astroboy, was used to watch the cartoons when I was a kid :)).
And then some silliness I thought of yesterday, while cleaning my mailbox: SPAMB0TS! :D
Hope you guys enjoy these and don't forget to enter your suggestion in the contest (see here)
Cheers,
Francesco

Artwork & Spamb0ts © Francesco Francavilla 2010

They Are Coming...

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They... WHO? You ask.

The GIANT ROBOTS! Yep, in July I will have finally a Giant Robot Week :)
I had planning to do one for such a long time, so I am very happy to finally do it this month :)
It's not gonna be next week (gotta some work to do) but def it will happen in July.

I am also taking 1 suggestion (already have a few robots lined up) so feel free to throw in your favorite robot suggestion by replying to this post: you guys have a week from now. The winner (the one I will decide to include in the gallery) will receive a signed archival print of the chosen robot.
Rule #1: if you see already entered the robot you liked, then pick another one that has not been entered yet. There can be only one winner so if there are multiple entries of the same robot, I will only consider the first one who entered it.
Rule #2: this is GIANT ROBOTS week, so try to suggest giant robots (mostly from Japanese anime) instead of small robots (like C3PO, for example).
EDIT!!!
Rule #3: please enter only 1 suggestion/name. For multiple names in the same post, I will only consider the first one.
Rule #4: check the above chart to make sure your entry has not been named yet. Also: small robots will be in red and mostly likely not considered for the grand prize.

PRIZES! Since there are so many great suggestions, I am thinking to add a couple of extra prizes for runner-ups, randomly picked among all entries: the prize is a large archival print of the group shot of all entries (like the one above, insilhuetts, but compelted with allt he robots suggested during the week) :)
Same print will go to the winner as well, in addition to the single robot one.

Of course, please spread the news: the more the better :)

Alright, everyone is ready? GO! :)

Cheers,
Francesco

Artwork © 2010 Francesco Francavilla.

9.9.9.

"9.9.9., what have you DONE?"

Inspired by today's date ;)

Cheers,
Francesco

9.9.9. created by & © 2009 Francesco Francavilla.
Artwork © 2009 Francesco Francavilla.

Help This Blackbird (24/7 Preview)

I can now officially announce (since I turned in the pages ) that I will be part of the second vol. of the Image anthology 24/7. Ivan Brandon was gracious enough to invite me to contribute to it and I happily accepted and contributed with not one but two stories.

The first one, at 4 page story titled Confession, is something I am very proud of since it's my first time where I did everything (story and art and even lettering). For those who are around my age, there are some Easter eggs and homage to one of my wife's favorite songwriters in this story (like especially the pacing/time signature is meant to have this certain tone, but there are lots of other little elements in these pages). Probably nobody will notice or care, but it is still a lot of fun and I think add another level of meaning to the story I was trying to tell here (or at least it was meant to; we'll have to see if that comes across or if I accomplished what I was aiming to do). There is a big hint also in the title of this post.



This is something I like to do with little short stories or even with single illos -- I try to communicate ideas on different levels and really tell a full story. Even if I'm just drawing a Batman or whatever, I have in mind a story or a situation that I try to get across with background or costume or mood or something.

In a very weird way, this tendency to do things in this way kinda leads me to the second story I have in 24/7. The second one is based on an illustration I did some time ago. The excellent writer, Macon Blair, took all the elements from the illo and built a very unique and cool story of 13 pages. That is the famous ANDY I was mentioning earlier (and I showed a page from on the drawing board). It was a blast to draw and I hope you will enjoy it as well.



This story was a surprise for sure. Ivan Brandon had seen my illo and passed it along to Macon and asked him to write a story based on this. I absolutely had no time to do this project, but when I saw Macon's first script, I was really compelled to draw it. You see, what really got me was not that he had done the script. That is flattering, but not so important.

The thing that got me in the heart was that he picked up on all the elements I put in the illo, even things that were not so obvious. He got the weird ape language references, he got that that I was trying to say something about the cyber jungle and hoping that somebody sees the illo thinks to the natural jungle and make that comparison in the mind and think about what is the same and what is not and what is going and gone. That is what touched me, because really it was probably the first time that a writer really understood (or even tried to understand) what I was meaning and what I was really trying to say.

He went past the surface elements and really thought about what was in the art. It felt like a true collaboration, even if we never spoke about the project because all what I was thinking and feeling was in that script. Then he added some of the coolest story on top of all that and made my humble little illo into something totally amazing. It was kinda spooky actually. I am really looking forward to hearing reaction when this book comes out and hope everyone really enjoy these stories!

OK sorry for going all intellectual or whatever. I promise the next post will just be a Batman or something!!!!