Frank Santoro

Jordan C

2012-01-30T14:42:00.001-05:00

Top Square, Bottom Square, Center Circles

Jordan said he did not use a grid map to compose - but look how his arrangement lines up - intuitive spacing relates directly to measured spacing

Kevin H

2012-01-29T14:36:00.001-05:00

Top Square, Bottom Square, Center Circles for each Square

et in arcadia ego

2012-01-26T18:07:00.001-05:00

Dash Shaw's animation project update

2012-01-20T11:48:00.001-05:00

For those of you interested in the animation project I'm working on with Dash Shaw - please check out this video here.

Ravens

2012-01-13T18:52:00.003-05:00

6 x 9 grid

2012-01-13T10:48:00.002-05:00

TOUR

2012-01-10T08:37:00.002-05:00

Tour Dates for Frank Santoro signing / workshop

Thursday Feb 2nd - Escapist Comics Berkeley CA
Friday Feb 3rd - Mission Comics SF CA

Thursday Feb 9 - Floating World Comics Portland OR

Saturday Feb11 - Fantagraphics Store Seattle WA

Thursday Feb16 - Lucky's Comics Vancouver BC

March 1st Course Overview

2012-01-04T16:12:00.004-05:00

8 week Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers

The course will focus on making a 16 page comic - which is a "signature" in printing. Week one is choosing a format for the comic and what scale to make the original art.

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Week 1

Format Fever / Printing process / What is story? / What images already formed?

One pager exercise - clear action / Fast drawing story composition / Scale jumps

Large drawing exercise / 16 page story first take layouts homework

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Week 2

Story Structure / 16 page layouts for story / Grid choices / Fast scale drawings

Editing / Pacing / Figure ground / Is setting clear? / Tracing paper exercise

Contour line simplicity / Landscape exercise / Figure exercise / Building of planes

Faces with blockout color demo

Harmonic grids

Geometry exercise homework

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Week 3

Geometry Class / Dynamic versus Static symmetry / Full up layouts / Harmonic grids

Spread harmonies / Fast drawing exercise / Mapping fast drawings / Tintin example

Draw, draw, draw / Backgrounds - find lines with geometry of page

Tracing paper originals - Xerox class - transfer tracing paper to board

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Week 4

Color Class / Tracing paper originals / Work up originals / Color thumbnails

Blocking in exercise / Contour line and color / Matisse / Moebius / Drawing in color

What not to draw, removing lines / Grid harmonies relate to color harmonies - music

Color layouts at scale / Color coding / Draw, draw, draw / Abandon idea of "inking"

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Week 5

Full up originals / See as spreads - like paintings / Pacing of color

Balloon placement exercise / Coloring through balloons / Color coding dialogue

Executing color "finished" ink lines and color at same / "All on one board"

Draw, draw, draw / edit, edit, edit

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Week 6

Editing Lab / Brutal honesty about what works and what doesn't / Corrections pasted on

Lettering exercise / Lettering on separate layer - too much pressure

Words change image / Editing words / Editing image / Late changes work in grid

Covers - front, back and inside covers - part of narrative?

------------------------

Week 7

Editing Lab / All 16 pages due end of this week / Preparing for print

-------------------------

Week 8

Final changes / Printing / Final Crit

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Week one is format fever. Week two is story structure and finalizing layouts. The geometry of the page and spread will determine your layouts and pacing. We will do a lot of fast sketching for the layouts using harmonic grids. Week three is geometry, pacing and figure ground relationships. Scale. Color in week four. Then drawing, drawing, drawing in weeks four and five. Editing in week six and seven - and preparing the comic for printing in week eight.

But! it may turn out you want to do a collection of single images - 16 of them - and they hang together as a narrative. So then we would work on that and how we could find tension between symbolism and narrative of single images. The 16 page signature is the vessel - we just have to figure out how you want to fill it - what story you want to tell. So we can design it together, essentially, in the first week.

For me, the key is the 7 spreads and 2 "covers" that create the 16 page signature. It is like a musical progression - and that is really what the course is structured around. Sort of like a traditional song structure. Something to study, I say!

-------------------

APPLICATION DEADLINE FOR THIS COURSE IS FRIDAY FEB 24th.

Class is limited to 10 students.

Application guidelines:

-submit one six page cromic you have written and drawn in the last year - meaning a comic that is AT LEAST six pages long -

-3 figure drawings done on 3 x 5 index cards

-3 landscape drawings done on 3 x 5 index cards

-email me jpgs - not too big - by Feb 24th -

capneasyATgmailDOTcom

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Overseas students are welcome. Last course had two Brits and two Aussies. I can understand French pretty well too.

Course is 500$ for eight weeks. Payment plans are available. I will work with you. Take the course. It is worth it!

New Course Announcement

2012-01-02T19:35:00.008-05:00

2012 spring course schedule

three separate courses available

March 1st - 8 week course - Full course - layouts, color, figure drawing - you will make a 16 page comic over the 8 weeks. 500$

April 9th - 3 week course - Color Workshop. 200$

April 23rd - 1 week course - Landscape / Figure drawing intensive. 100$

--------

Application deadline for all courses is Friday February 24th.

Submission guidelines:

- a six page comic you have written and drawn (from the last year) - meaning a comic that is AT LEAST six pages long

- 3 figure drawings - each done on a 3 x 5 index card

- 3 landscape drawings - each done on a 3 x 5 index card

- email me (not super big) jpgs of images to capneasyATgmailDOTcom

-------

If you are serious about taking the any of the courses - please email me capneasyATgmailDOTcom - and I will send you an invite to the private course blog that exists for the course that is just now wrapping up. You can see for yourself what it is all about. Thanks!

Tour Dates - signing / workshop

February 2nd Thursday - Escapist Comics in Berkeley

February 7th Tuesday - Floating World in Portland

Format Fever

2011-12-31T20:00:00.002-05:00

Here's a list of formats available to the comic book maker in 2011/2012

The template numbers on the following list are for templates used in my Correspondence Course.

Next course begins late February / early March 2012. Please email me capneasyATgmailDOTcom for information.

1. comic book
2. mome / new love and rockets
3. french bd album
4. manga
5. trade paperback - think chester brown collections
6. american magazine size
7. standard digest zine
8. magazine ratio digest zine
9. mini-comic
10. tabloid
11. no format - web format - 920 dpi wide scroll - whatthingsdo / ny times ratio
12. movie screen

FORMAT FEVER

1. comic book
2. mome / new love and rockets
3. french bd album
4. manga
5. trade paperback - think chester brown collections
6. american magazine size
7. standard digest zine
8. magazine ratio digest zine
9. mini-comic
10. tabloid
11. no format - web format - 920 dpi wide scroll - whatthingsdo / ny times ratio
12. movie screen

Santoro Correspondence Course

2011-11-27T08:57:00.005-05:00

My correspondence course for comic book makers is going very, very well. I am happy. I am thinking about offering it again beginning March 1st 2012. Please pass this post around to anyone you may know who might want to take the course.

Right now - we are in Week 5 of an eight week course. I thought this post reflects the thorough approach we are taking in this course. Please enjoy.

Questions about the course? Please email me: capneasyATgmailDOTcom

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SANTORO CORRESPONDENCE COURSE - Lesson example

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TINTIN HOMEWORK - WEEK 5 / EXERCISE 1

PRINT OUT THE TINTIN PAGE

TRACE THE GRID MAP PROVIDED HERE ON TRACING PAPER OVER THE TINTIN PAGE - use colored pencils

TRACE THE FIGURES and OTHER ELEMENTS LIKE I HAVE DEMO'D HERE

TRY AND KEEP IT TOGETHER IF YOU LOSE YOUR MIND

LISTEN TO MY AUDIO DESCRIBING WHAT IS HAPPENING - WHAT HERGE IS DOING

Storeyville discovery

2011-09-29T23:50:00.002-04:00

I found the last box of Storeyville at my dad's house.

Correspondence Course

2011-09-18T07:58:00.006-04:00

I'm starting a cartooning correspondence course.
Check it out at The Comics Journal.

update

2011-09-07T14:10:00.003-04:00

FOR THOSE who liked this blog:

i'm putting drawings up here. and here.

and i've been writing a column at the Comics Journal.

also, i'm starting a mail order only zine. those interested should email me their physical real world mailing address to capneasyATgmailDOTcom

Closing

2011-02-12T12:00:00.000-05:00

I thought that going to L.A. and having a show would be a good occasion to make the switch over to a new regime. Don't miss the next thrilling episode of Frank Santoro.

Opening

2011-01-13T09:57:00.017-05:00

Frank Santoro: New Values
Thursday, January 20 th – Friday, February 18th , 2011
Opening Reception: Thursday, January 20th, from 7 to 10pm
7914b SANTA MONICA BLVD around back - west of FAIRFAX
WEST HOLLYWOOD CALIFORNIA 90046
...
Dem Passwords is pleased to present a show of new work by Frank Santoro. For his first solo outing in Los Angeles, Santoro will exhibit a series of drawings rooted in Greco-Roman mythology. Lining the walls of the gallery, on uniform sheets of 25 x 38 inch gold-colored parchment paper, is a gathering of ideas and intimations that Santoro has been honing over the past several years.

These drawings evidence Santoro’s fascination with both the swift gesture of a spray painted graffiti tag and the virtuosic line work of renaissance drawing. These marks and textures are employed to summon figures that embody the violence, eroticism and grandiosity of classical mythology. In working in this vein, Santoro is participating in an artistic dialogue across the centuries. If you create an image of Mars, he wants to say, then you are both speaking to War and talking about war, the latter in concert with hundreds if not thousands of other artists. This web of connections gives the work, as Santoro has put it, “instant content – the figures are multi-dimensional signifiers.”

And to preserve their symbolic value, Santoro is careful to make images that allude to— but never indulge in—narrative. Instead he likens them to the frescos discovered in Pompeii and Herculaneum: charged, often erotic, images of Venus, Hecate, and other gods that underpinned and explained Roman daily life. Those frescos, and the work presently on display, are unprecious exaltations to the forms and ideas that move us.

Frank Santoro has previously exhibited in New York and Switzerland. He has published comics and zines including Incanto, Chimera and Cold Heat. He is also the author of the graphic novel Storeyville (PictureBox). Currently at work on an animated film and a new picture narrative, Santoro lives and works in Pittsburgh, PA.

- Dan Nadel
writer / Picturebox publisher

For further inquiries contact Sebastian Demian at
info@dempasswords.com or at +1.772.202.2733

New Values

2011-01-04T10:10:00.001-05:00

PGH PA 19

2011-01-01T11:11:00.000-05:00

PGH PA 18 Rankin bridge

2010-12-31T11:58:00.000-05:00

PGH PA 17

2010-12-30T11:58:00.000-05:00

PGH PA 16 glass factory

2010-12-29T11:45:00.000-05:00

PGH PA 15

2010-12-28T11:55:00.001-05:00

PGH PA 14 Monogahela river

2010-12-27T11:07:00.001-05:00

PGH PA 13 rowhouses

2010-12-26T00:06:00.001-05:00

PGH PA 12 view between houses on hill

2010-12-24T12:08:00.000-05:00

PGH PA 11

2010-12-23T12:16:00.000-05:00

PGH PA 10

2010-12-22T00:16:00.000-05:00

PGH PA 9

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PGH PA 8

2010-12-20T12:14:00.000-05:00

PGH PA 7

2010-12-19T12:13:00.000-05:00

PGH PA 6

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PGH PA 5

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PGH PA 4

2010-12-16T10:11:00.000-05:00

PGH PA 3

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PGH PA 2

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Pittsburgh PA

2010-12-13T12:08:00.000-05:00

St. Moritz

2010-12-12T12:12:00.001-05:00

52 - Amalfi

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51

2010-12-10T12:06:00.001-05:00

50 - Paestum

2010-12-09T12:05:00.001-05:00

49 - Francesco Clemente

2010-12-08T12:03:00.001-05:00

48

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47

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46

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45

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44

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43

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42

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41

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40

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39

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38

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37

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36

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35

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34 - Pan's Cave

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33

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32

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31

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30 - Italian coast

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29

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28

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27

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26 - New Mexico

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25

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24

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23

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22

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21

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20

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19

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18

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17

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16

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15

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14

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13

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12

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11

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10

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9

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8

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7

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6

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5

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4

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3

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2

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1

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old world

2010-10-20T07:50:00.000-04:00

3X5

2010-10-19T20:57:00.004-04:00

for mom

2010-10-10T22:29:00.008-04:00

She stopped by the house today and said she liked this one.
She never says that.

Jem Cohen

2010-10-08T00:10:00.001-04:00

chart

2010-10-05T11:45:00.001-04:00

Nadel in the Steel City

2010-10-03T10:05:00.003-04:00

Dan traveled to Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. I've been wanting to write about this trip because I remember Dan beating me to all the good back issues at the secret comics warehouse. But he couldn't fit them all in his suitcase so I get to look at them now that he's back in NYC, ha! Will try and write something soon for ComicsComics maybe - but until then check out Dan's report!

almond

2010-10-02T00:02:00.000-04:00

beatmatch

2010-10-01T00:00:00.007-04:00

SF

2010-09-30T11:02:00.000-04:00

Johnstown PA

2010-09-28T09:40:00.002-04:00

I played junior hockey in this same rink. Johnstown PA.

CARTOLINA DA PITTSBURGH

2010-09-19T10:28:00.010-04:00

Postcard from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania by Frank Santoro

CARTOLINA DA PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA
FRANK SANTORO

Page 1
panel 1 - This is an old factory town. The center of the American
steel industry for the 19th and 20th centuries.
PITTSBURGH È UN'EX CITTÀ INDUSTRIALE. NELL'OTTOCENTO E NEL
NOVECENTO ERA IL CENTRO DELL'INDUSTRIA SIDERURGICA STATUNITENSE.
-----
panel 2 - Now the hospital is the new factory in town. Both my aging
parents work there.
OGGI LA NUOVA FABBRICA DELLA CITTÀ È L'OSPEDALE. I MIEI GENITORI, ORMAI ANZIANI, LAVORANO ENTRAMBI LÌ.
-----
panel 3 - I live in an old worker's rowhouse. My mother's father grew
up in this house. Six kids in one tiny room upstairs.
ABITO IN UNA VECCHIA CASA A SCHIERA POPOLARE. MIO NONNO MATERNO È CRESCIUTO QUI. SEI RAGAZZINI IN UN'UNICA CAMERETTA AL PRIMO PIANO.
-----
panel 4 - My mother is Irish. My father is Italian. When they married
in 1970 it was a scandal. Immigrant families still did not mix back
then.
MIA MADRE È IRLANDESE, MIO PADRE ITALIANO. QUANDO SI SONO SPOSATI, NEL 1970, È STATO UNO SCANDALO. ALL'EPOCA LE COMUNITÀ DI IMMIGRATI NON SI MISCHIAVANO.
-----
panel 5 - People say I have my mother's smiling eyes. Her brother,
John, has the same eyes too. He and my mother helped me fix up the
house this weekend.
TUTTI DICONO CHE HO GLI OCCHI SORRIDENTI DI MIA MADRE. SUO FRATELLO JOHN HA GLI STESSI OCCHI. QUESTO WEEKEND LUI E MIA MADRE MI HANNO AIUTATO A SISTEMARE CASA.
-----
panel 6 - The rumbling sound of the train going by outside fills the
cellar where John is working. I realize this is all I have. My family and this small house.
IL FRASTUONO DEL TRENO CHE PASSA QUI VICINO RIEMPIE LA CANTINA DOVE
STA LAVORANDO JOHN. MI RENDO CONTO CHE QUESTO È TUTTO QUELLO CHE HO. LA MIA FAMIGLIA E QUESTA CASETTA.
-----
panel 7 - The house shakes a little from the train and I watch my
mother and her brother silently pantomime to each other like children over the roar.
LA CASA TREMA LEGGERMENTE AL PASSAGGIO DEL TRENO. NEL CHIASSO GUARDO MIA MADRE E SUO
FRATELLO COMUNICARE A GESTI COME I BAMBINI.
-----
panel 8 - The train sound fades and I hear them laughing. A sound as familiar as rain.
IL FRAGORE DEL TRENO SI SMORZA E LI SENTO RIDERE. UN SUONO FAMILIARE COME LA PIOGGIA.

Page 2
panel 1 - Across the street was once the biggest railyard in the
eastern United States. The tracks lead to the steel mills along the river.
DALL'ALTRA PARTE DELLA STRADA UN TEMPO C'ERA IL PIÙ GRANDE DEPOSITO TRENI DELL'EST DEGLI STATI UNITI.
I BINARI PORTANO AGLI IMPIANTI SIDERURGICI LUNGO IL FIUME.
------
panel 2- Where steel was forged for skyscrapers. Where generations of families worked their lives away.
QUI SI FABBRICAVA L'ACCIAIO PER I GRATTACIELI. QUI GENERAZIONI DI FAMIGLIE HANNO CONSUMATO LA VITA LAVORANDO.
------
panel 3 - Now the city is a ruin. They tore down hundred year old factories in days.
ORA LA CITTÀ È IN ROVINA. IN POCHI GIORNI SONO STATE DEMOLITE FABBRICHE CHE AVEVANO CENT'ANNI.
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panel 4 - The children of steel workers take jobs in shopping malls or at the hospital where
most patients are aging steel workers.
I FIGLI DEGLI OPERAI VANNO A LAVORARE NEGLI SHOPPING MALL O IN OSPEDALE, DOVE QUASI TUTTI I PAZIENTI SONO ANZIANI OPERAI.
------
panel 5 - The hospital is the new factory. And we are the machines to be maintained.
L'OSPEDALE È LA NUOVA FABBRICA. E NOI SIAMO LE MACCHINE CHE RICHIEDONO MANUTENZIONE.
------
panel 6 - The hospital even took over the tallest building, the old steel corporation skyscraper in the center of the city.
L'OSPEDALE HA SUPERATO PERFINO L'EDIFICIO PIÙ ALTO DELLA CITTÀ, IL VECCHIO GRATTACIELO DEL GRUPPO SIDERURGICO CHE SI TROVA IN CENTRO.
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panel 7 - My mother says the president of the hospital has a palace in
the sky to look down upon us like God.
MIA MADRE DICE CHE IL DIRETTORE DELL'OSPEDALE HA UNA REGGIA IN CIELO DA CUI CI GUARDA COME DIO.
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panel 8 - (spoken by mother, laughing) "We plead to God, help us. We
give him our money to make us well. Why are we so old and sick? From working in a factory town."
PREGHIAMO DIO PERCHÉ CI AIUTI. GLI DIAMO I NOSTRI SOLDI PERCHÉ CI FACCIA STAR BENE. PERCHÉ SIAMO COSÌ VECCHI E MALATI? PER AVER LAVORATO IN UNA CITTÀ INDUSTRIALE.
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a comic for Internazionale, an Italian independent weekly newsmagazine. Thanks to Francesco Boille for the invitation. Colors done with airbrush first THEN drew blackline.