28 Weeks Later

Back from the FX show (good to see you, Craig! :)) and starting on a very busy week but I wanted to say hi and share this quickie inspired by the 28 weeks later music playing on my radio.

Cheers,
Francesco

P.S> Click on the images for bigger versions.

A Very Special Easter EGG

...for a very Happy Easter, everyone! :)

CHeers,
Francesco

MAX MALONE Vs BLACK BEETLE

Hi guys,

for those who don't check my other blog, Pulp Sunday, I am running a little poll to decide which one of my creations is gonna get my very first webcomic treatment: Black Beetle or Max Malone. Both characters have a very strong pulp influence, but hopefully they will also have some original touch to it.
To know more (and to cast your vote) click on the Pulp Sunday link on the right of the screen (or click here).
Te above is just a teaser I did today for Max Malone.

Cheers,
Francesco

Click on the teaser image above for the colored, bigger version.

EXTERMINATE!!!

Just a morning non-sense warmup before getting started on some more pages ;)
I guess I am calling this one... MODEK? :)

Cheers,
Francesco

P.S> Click on the images for bigger versions.

GARRISON

So, the news is finally out, even if was half hidden in a small blurb (about the recent Phoenix Con) on the Newsarama blog.
I can finally reveal what I have been working on since beginning of the new year (and still working on it as I type this): it's GARRISON, a creator-owned 6 issue mini from Jeff Mariotte and me that will published by Wildstorm pretty soon (I hope ;)).
The pitch? In Jeff's words: "It's a near-future action epic about the most dangerous man in the world, Lester Garrison, who happens to look like someone you'd find at the tractor pull on Friday night."

Jeff is not kidding when talking about action: I think it's the most action packed book I have drawn to date (and my past books had lots of action in them anyway), plus other cool, noirish, and hi-tech elements related to a colossal manhunt.
This book is anything but boring, I can promise you that :)

I can't show any of the artowrk yet, not until we get the ok to show by DC Comics, but you can trust me when I say this is gonna be a really fun ride :)

Cheers,
Francesco

Click on the teaser image above for the colored, bigger version.

MOD-OCK!!!

Just some craziness done for the March Modok Madness.
Thanks to the good Pedro for inviting me to join the fun :)

Cheers,
Francesco

P.S> Click on the image for bigger version.

Fire Rides With Me!

No, it's not the new Twin Peaks movie (even if that would be cool ;)).
Just taking a break and having fun in between sequential pages. :D

Cheers,
Francesco

P.S> Click on the images for bigger versions.

Wolverine and the X-Men

Since today it's Friday and it's the day when, each week, there is a new episode of WOlverine and the X-Men on NToon (8 pm), I thought to share some of the work I did as storyboard artist on this animated series. In particular I am sharing a bit of my process below and will share actual boards once some of the episodes have aired on tv (I don't want to spoil any of the stories ;))
Once again I want to thank my good friend and wonderful director Steve Gordon for letting me part of this successful series, which I warmly suggest you to watch if you aren't watching it already ;)

Cheers,
Francesco

The One

Please don't ask ;) :P

Cheers,
Francesco

American Idol

The most watched show on TV is gonna kick start a new season next week (tonight and tomorrow night there is the selection of the remaining 6 of the 12 contestants running for the title this season), so I thought to share some of the work I did for last season show.


As some of you know, during the result show every week they run a video/commercial of Ford with the Idols. One of the videos, last year, was about a comic artist (one of the idols) whose pages were coming alive, and the producers asked me to provide all the comic artwork that appears in that video. You can imagine my reaction when I heard that my artwork was going to air in prime time, on national television, seen by millions of Americans: very excited and also a bit scared ;)
Anyhow you can see the video here , on my website, and attached to this post you can see some of the artwork produced for the video (I did around 10 full pages of comics plus concept art and animations).

Cheers,
Francesco

FIRE!!!

Hi guys,

And here is the color version that will be in the book: I really wanted to play on the "fire" element so I hope I succeded in my intentions. Again, a big THANKS to Andy for inviting me to contribute to his awesome Firebreather :)

Next up (Tomorrow): AMERICAN IDOL!!!! :D

Cheers,
Francesco

Flashback!!!

And speaking of Scalped and work process, here's the "making of" page 4, a very important flashback as you will discover when the whole book is in your hands ;)
Click on the image for a bigger version.

Cheers,
Francesco

"FireBreather" Pinup

Hi guys,

Sorry for the long hiatus, but I had to wrap up the Scalped issue (delivered more than a week ago) and the third issue of my WIldstorm new mini (can't wait to tell you more about it), so I have been busy making some funnies ;)

Meanwhile I also took a little time to do this little pinup for my good friend and brother Andy Kuhn and his Firebreather (the pinup will appear in the upcoming trade collecting the first issues of this awesome Image series).
And below the starting sketch, for those who like the process stuff.
Colors coming soon.

Keep an eye on this blog as I am planning to post something everyday this week, to make up for the lack of posts in Feb :)

Cheers,
Francesco

Friday the 13th! Jason and Me ;)

Hi guys,

I wanted to let you know a fun interview to me went up today on Mania.com thanks to the good Rob Worley, who had the great idea to ask to several artists to provide their take on our beloved Jason, and asked a few questions to go with the art.
The interview/art gallery started on Feb 1 and it has been a countdown to today premiere of the new Friday the 13th movie.
Feel free to check the mine and the aother artists interview here :)

Cheers and happy Friday the 13th!
Francesco

The Making of Scalped

Hi guys,

I thought to share the process of Scalped page 1 for those of you who enjoy the making-of or who like this book :)
First I do a quick sketch for the page. Once approved I pencil the page on the official board and then ink it. I managed to take a (very poorly made) photo of the inking stage (below).
Hope you enjoy it since I am planning to show another couple of pages (if I get the OK to do so ;))

Please Click on the images to see them bigger.

Cheers,
Francesco

The Ballad of Baylis Earl Nitz

Hi guys,

I am working on Scalped, as mentioned some time ago, and decided to put together this promo/teaser about the story that you will be reading in March/April on issue 27. Once again, many many thanks to Jason Aaron to let me play a bit with this beautiful title :)

Cheers,
Francesco

And So It Begins...

A little something I did to celebrate a little event happening today :)

Cheers,
Francesco

Look Out, Choopie!!!

The Perhapanauts (a fabolous series which you all should be reading) #5 just came out in the stores so I thought to share this alternate cover Todd Dezago and Craig Rousseau kindly asked me to do for an upcoming issue of their book. Not sure which issue and when it will be out (I'll let you know) but I wanted to preview what I did for them.
Thank you, Tood and Craig, for letting me play with our favorite chupacabras :D

Cheers,
Francesco

SHELBY!

Hi guys,

I was wondering how a 1969 Mustang Shelby would look as Transformer. Well, here's the result. Hope you guys dig it and will not hate me for messing with a Mustang ;)
Click on the images for a bigger view.

Cheers,
Francesco

SCALPED!!!

I want to share a great news with you all: I was lucky enough to be invited to illustrate an issue of Scalped (#27), the critically acclaimed series created by Jason Aaron and R.M.Guera and published by DC Vertigo. I have been fan of this series since day one so you can imagine how excited I am to draw one of the stories written by the talented and Southern friend Jason. For those of you who are not familiar with this title, it's one of the top noir, gritty book out there (the other being Criminal by Brubaker and Phillips). I greatly suggest to hunt down the trades if you guys haven't got on this book already.
While waiting to show some preview pages, I hope you enjoy the promo art above.

Cheers and all the best to you all in 2009!
Francesco

"The Cold, The Frozen, and The Iced", Xmas 2008

Wish you all and your families a Merry Holiday Season and a Wonderful New Year!
Thanks for the continuing inspiration, my friends :)

Cheers,
Francesco

TearJerker!!!

Defnitely one of the most successful and funny 007 parodies in recent times. American Dad is really a good show (along with Family Guy, of course ;))

Cheers,
Francesco

Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

Just a fun intermezzo.
Now I have the songs stuck in my brain ;)
One step to the left... :P

Cheers,
Francesco

Dr. No (1962)

All these nice words on QOS put me in a 007 mood these days :)
Decided to revise an old Connery sketch from 2006 and turn it into a movie poster and decided to throw in a Dr No "portrait" too to top it all. Hope you guys digg it :)

Cheers,
Francesco

Trio of Masked Heroes

Hello friends,

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving with your families. I just got back home from mine and decided to share some of the free quick sketches I recently did on the back of my sketchbooks (since we were talking about this topic in the previous post).
If you have time, check out Pulp Sunday to see how I played a little more on that Sandman sketch in Painter and turn it in a (fake) cover piece :)

Cheers,
Francesco

Quantum of Solace... Retro Style!

Inspired by a certain movie I just watched this past weekend ;)

Cheers,
Francesco

Happy 4th!

Happy 4th of July, everyone :)

And, of course, I couldn't help to do a quick (WWII) Capt AMerica for the occasion :)

Cheers,
Francesco

Zorro and his Zorro-Mobile!!!

Hi guys,

I did this costumized Zorro at the recent Atlanta COmics Expo as part of the charity event benefitting RIF (Reading Is Fundamental).
If you guys want to bid on it, there are less than 2 days remaining (I know, I should have posted this earlier, but I have been so busy On my Zorro and Scholastic gigs that had little time for everything else).
Click here for the e-bay auction of my Zorro munny
Anyhow, hope you enjoy it even if can't bid on it (I hope you can though ;))

Cheers,
Francesco

To Mike...

I did this last night to pay a tribute to a great artist.

Hope you like it, Mike, this is for you.

Francesco

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!!!!

Spartans! Under Siege

Back in March I started a thread/jam dedicated to the movie "300" which was about to be released. The jam's goal was to reach the amount of 300 drawings by having several artists contributing to it and being inspired either by the movie or by the real historical events of Leonidas and the Battle at Thermopylae.
The jam is still going and since I run out of single illos, I decided to start a sequential strip: that's how Spartans! Under Siege is born! :)

Here are the first panels. Hope you guys enjoy it :)

Cheers,
Francesco