This first illustration is the cover image for a game entitled
The Gang. It's a card game developed by
DV Giochi that's based on the idea of playing odd versus even numbers. It's visualized in such a way that the two sets of numbers are rival gangs trying to capture each other (by collecting cards). There are also special cards (a spy, a lookout, and a boss) that give the gangs extra options in capturing each other. Here are the character cards:
An important aspect of the game-play is that the cards are sent to three cities to capture each other. Here are the illustrations for the cities (New York, Chicago and Detroit):
In addition to the game illustrations, I was asked to create a short comic as a promotional item to be distributed with the game during the festival. The title roughly translates to "Odds Against Evens" but I'm told that in Italian, it works with a double meaning that involves shooting.
During the second day of the festival, the game was presented at this conference:
After that, I was free to explore the rest of the festival and similarly to last year, I found the best part to be all the original artwork on display (both in the festival exhibitions and from collectors/dealers who had pages up on display). The work on display ranged from contemporary independent pages to the works of such figures as Jack Kirby. From what I managed to see, there was a grater variety of styles and techniques on display this year which made for a very interesting experience. There were also several renown artists in attendance and drawing before the audience. That was a real treat to watch.
My favorite part however, was this:
V for Vendetta was the book that got me to finally try and write a complete narrative through comics after many short attempts as a kid. Seeing a room full of David Lloyd's original work for the book brought out the fanboy in me more than anything else at the festival this year.
