September 5th, 2012
For those who don’t know it, Giétz! is a comic about how Jazz music came to Italy in the 50s, a story about a young boy and his trumpet on his way to world fame. I made this book together with Andrea Campanella about two years ago and it’s been a little success (at least for us). We won two prices and the book was reprinted after a year (which is quite rare for little known Italian authors like us).
It took me some time to be able to think about a new project. I even had times when I considered abandoning comics altogether. But as you know I have a new project!
Music Makers of the World has a couple of common traits with Giètz!: both stories are about music and have a young man as a protagonist. So on one hand I like to think about MMotW as an evolution of Giètz! a more personal take on the comic-about-music theme. On the other hand MMotW will be a completely different story, much more surreal and absurd, focusing on the present (and on the future) more than on the past. The story will be full of surreal landscapes, monsters and nighmares, crazy inventions and all those things that I love to draw!
So I think this Giétzcover illustration perfectly represents where MMotW comes from, and now let’s turn the page and think about the future!
June 25th, 2012
With a friend of mine, Ryan Licata, we’re working on a thrilling new project. Right now it’s all a bit top secret, but more about it soon.
June 20th, 2012
June 5th, 2012
The Sentinel is probably the best known short story by Arthur C. Clarke. Famous for being the one that 2001: A Space Odissey was somehow based on. When they asked me: “would you do some science fiction illustration?”, I didn’t imagine I was about to illustrate this! It was quite a bit of a challenge. While I love sci-fi and loved to illustrate this story, it gave me little to work with, so I had to get inside the characters and find the things the story doesn’t tell you.
May 23rd, 2012
Kyrene prints a new programme twice a year and usually asks artists and illustrators to contribute their personal interpretation of their “totem animal”, a cow.
Along with the illustration for the programme I also created a promotional postcard for them.
My interpretation of the cow was clearly inspired by old movies where giant monsters destroy cities with their super-powers, like Godzilla.
April 21st, 2012
March 31st, 2012
I don’t know what happened, but I had a couple of days where I was totally inspired and just kept on drawing in my sketchbook!
It all started when I noticed that it was about time I’d draw some nudes again, to exercise my anatomic skills (which are lacking a bit as you can see).
March 19th, 2012
For this episode of Giètzcovers I’ve tried to remember how it was when I was drawing Giètz. What was I thinking about? And what music was I actually listening to? No, I wasn’t listening to jazz most of the time. Usually I would listen to some 80s post punk stuff, like Joy Division or the Cure. If I wanted something jazzier I would play Bohren and the Club of Gore or the Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble.
So If I had to draw a version of Giètz that reflects what I was actually listening to in that time, it might look a bit more like this one: Nico the gravedigger who likes to play some good old Jazz while shooting some zombies… a mix between Dellamorte Dellamore and Young Man with a Horn.
March 14th, 2012
I dedicate this new Giètzcover to Moebius, the greatest comic artist ever. Who has been my primary source of inspiration for a really long time.
Arzach was the one comic that really made me want to get into the business.
March 2nd, 2012
Visto che questa cosa delle copertine di Giétz mi sta pigliando bene, ecco la prossima in stile Roy Lichtenstein!
