| Simone Bianchi | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1972-07-10)July 10, 1972 (age 53) |
| Nationality | Italian |
| Area | Penciller,Inker |
Notable works | Ego Sum Onirika Seven Soldiers:Shining Knight Wolverine Batman Detective Comics |
| Awards | Yellow Kid Award for the Best Italian Comic Artist and Writer of the Year |
| Official website | |
Simone Bianchi (born July 10, 1972[1]) is anItaliancomic bookillustrator,painter,graphic designer and art instructor, known to Italian audiences for his work in comics, CD covers,music videos, TV commercials androle-playing games. His most popular Italian comics is (unfinished) trilogyEgo Sum. To American comic book readers, he is best known for his work on comics such asDetective Comics,Green Lantern andWolverine. Bianchi's style is distinguished by his use ofink wash, orwatercolor halftones.[2]
Simone Bianchi was born July 10, 1972, inLucca,Tuscany,Italy,[1] where he still lives today. As a child, he had a love of superheroes, and took to tracing and copying illustrations ofSpider-Man,Daredevil, theFantastic Four,Batman andSuperman before he learned how to read and write.[2][3]
When he was fifteen, he published humor comic strips in the daily newspaperIl Tirreno, and went on to produce cartoons andvignettes in several other regional and national publications. In 1994, Bianchi met comic book artistClaudio Castellini, who became his teacher and mentor. Subsequently, Bianchi illustrated the premiere issues ofNembo for Phoenix of Bologna, andRivan Ryan for Comic Art ofRome, and 20 pages ofBrendon forSergio Bonelli Editore.
In 1998 his work was exhibited at a comic book convention in Lucca alongside well-known American comic book illustratorsWill Eisner,Andy Kubert andAdam Kubert.
Bianchi was commissioned byMetal Blade Records to illustrate the CD cover forTimeless Crime, a CD by the Italianpower metal bandLabyrinth. That same year he was hired as an assistant to Ivo Milazzo in teaching a course on comic book art techniques at the Accademia di Belle Arti inCarrara (School of Fine Arts).
In 1999 Bianchi illustrated the cover ofFantastici Quattro (Fantastic Four) forWizmagazine, and aone-shotConan Il Barbaro (Conan the Barbarian), both published by Marvel Italia, the Italian branch ofMarvel Comics.
Bianchi illustrated the cover of the debut album of the progressive power metal bandVision Divine, which was voted by metal and hard rock fans as the second-best album artwork worldwide. Bianchi's other album cover work included "Sigma" by Athreia Records, and Labyrinth's album,Sons of Thunder for Metal Blade Records.
That same year Bianchi became a full-time teacher of Anatomy for Comics at the Scuola Internazionale (International School) di Comics inFlorence. In the 2000, the School, along with publisher Calvin Edizioni, publishedEchi, Bianchi's first art book, highlighting his varied works over the previous three years.
In 2001, began working for Direct to Brain, one of the leading 3-D video production studios in Europe, doing character design,storyboarding, scene design,graphic design and artistic supervision of3-D modeling. Among his clients includedhip hop/reggae group99 Posse’s “Stop the Train” (for BGM Records), “Kitchen Tools” forVirgin Records, and “Per me per sempre” (“For Me Always”) for BGM. In November and December that year, Bianchi did work forFantasy Flight Games’s role-playing gameDragonstar. He also painted a poster for the Scuola Internazionale di Comics in Florence, illustrated Vision Divine's albumSend Me an Angel, and taught a second illustration course at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Carrara.
In 2002 Bianchi, working for Pegaso, illustratedthe four elements of earth, air, fire and water, on whichresin sculptures were based. That summer, he published his second art book,The Art of Simone Bianchi. He also painted five illustrations for Eldec, and worked again for Direct to Brain, this time for aCoke commercial. That December, he began work writing and illustrating the first volume ofEgo Sum, for Vittorio Pavesio, the 44 pages of which took him most of 2003 to fully paint. The first volume ofEgo Sum was published in hardcover on January 16, 2004, in Italy,France,Canada, andLuxembourg.[1] The second volume followed that year.[2]
In 2004 Bianchi attended the annual Festival International De La Bande Dessinée (International Comics Festival) comic book convention[2] inAngoulême, France, where he met Sal Abbinanti, a comic bookpenciller and the personal agent of American comic book painterAlex Ross, which led to Abbinanti signing Bianchi as one of his clients. In the Fall of that year, Bianchi painted the cover of an issue ofAtomika, a comic book created by Abbinanti and Andrew Dabb that debuted the following year.[1]
In October 2005 Bianchi's third art book,Onirika, was published by Vittorio Pavesio Productions and presented to the public at a convention in Lucca, for which he painted the official poster,[1] on which he collaborated with his sister Gloria.[2]
In mid-2004, Bianchi lived inNew York City, and met artistMike Bair, whose work Bianchi admired. Bair introduced Bianchi toDC Comics editorPeter Tomasi. After a few proposals, Tomasi gave BianchiGrant Morrison's script forSeven Soldiers:Shining Knight, which became Bianchi's first American work.;[2][4] it was published in 2005.[5]
The same year, Bianchi did his first American work forMarvel Comics, illustrating a number of covers forX-Men Unlimited.
Bianchi's illustrated the interiors ofGreen Lantern #6 (December 2005), and subsequently illustrated the covers for issue #8 (March 2006) to issue #13 (August 2006), which were written byGeoff Johns.
Bianchi first ongoing monthly work for an American Marvel book wasWolverine #50 (March 2007) to issue #55 (September 2007), which was written byJeph Loeb. To highlight the look of Bianchi'sink wash work, each of these six issues was offered to readers in both a color and black-and-white version.[6]
Bianchi's other Marvel work includes covers forUltimate Origins,Astonishing X-Men andThunderbolts.
Bianchi also illustrated the covers ofBatman, from issue #651 (May 2006) to issue #654 (August 2006).[7]
Bianchi signed a two-year exclusive contract with Marvel in February 2006, citing his childhood love of thesuperhero genre, and his greater familiarity with Marvel's characters. Though his contract precludes him from doing any European work, it allows him to continue the cover work he began previously for rivalDC Comics’sDetective Comics, which ran from issues #817 (May 2006) to #839 (February 2008).[3][8]
Bianchi also hopes to continue his work onEgo Sum, the third book of which he has yet to begin, though he has not spoken with Marvel as to whether they would publish it in the United States.[3]
Bianchi and writerWarren Ellis together worked onAstonishing X-Men, having taken over the book after the departures ofJoss Whedon andJohn Cassaday.[9] Following this he provided the art for the limited seriesThor: For Asgard written byRobert Rodi.[10]
Bianchi creditsMichael Bair with contributing to his success, and a photo of them when they met in the Summer of 2004 hangs in his studio.[2][11]
Bianchi uses extensive photo reference and a light box to give his artwork a realistic look. He uses a wooden drawing board that he used to draw on flat, but angled it due to back pain that he began having in 2006.[11]
In 2005 Bianchi was awarded with theYellow Kid Award for the Best Italian Comic Artist and Writer of the Year at the Expo Cartoon Convention in Rome, for his work onEgo Sum.[11]
