Black: Gerardo Zaffino’s Macabre Comics

Gerardo Zaffino is a comic book artist who has worked on the covers and drawings of such popular series as Avengers, Conan The Barbarian, Cosmic Ghost Rider Destroys Marvel History and Karnak, in which the legendary Warren Ellis served as screenwriter. In addition to his work for Marvel, Zaffino has also done other, equally curious work for other studios – Suiciders for Vertigo, God Country, Rumble!, Head Lopper and many more.

More: Instagram h/t: muddycolors

About his process, Gerardo says: “I do very loose pencils. Lately, I’ve been trying digital pencils, which are basically blown up thumbnails. I take a bit more time when there’s some special lighting or with technical parts like buildings or structures, but other than that, I don’t even spot blacks, I do all that straight with inks. I don’t have a special technique. Sometimes I would start with brushes, other with nibs, but I always alternate between them. I also use white gouache and inks, white gel pens, and everything I can get my hands on to get different effects.”

“I always try to color my own work when doing covers, but when I don’t, or when doing interior art for someone else to color, I just tweak the levels to clean up the whites a bit and flatten the blacks. I try to keep as many variations in the middle as I can, but cleaning them up a bit.”