Archie Comics is set to publish The Archie Art of Francesco Francavilla, a new art book showcasing the work of the prolific Italian artist. The oversized, 9×12 hardcover will showcase Francavilla’s cover work for the publisher. Francavilla announced the news today on Twitter:
SO EXCITED to finally reveal this!
THE ARCHIE ART OF FF Vol.1
My first HC artbook collecting tons of art (covers, layouts, interiors, concepts) I've done for @ArchieComics since 2011. With Jon Goldwater intro & words from my hermanos @alex_segura & @WriterRAS.
Pre-Order a bunch!! pic.twitter.com/jCJlCtfkaf— Francesco Francavilla (@f_francavilla) April 10, 2019
The image accompanying the tweet includes looks at both the front and back cover of the book, plus this description:
Archie’s new hardcover art book is a beautiful-designed celebration of Francesco Francavilla’s time at Archie. This art book is a gorgeously designed hardcover edition featuring the complete collection of his comic book covers and more. This title goes behind-the-scenes on Francavila’s work and its place in Archie’s history, with an insider’s look at the creation and ongoing legacy with the company.
Francavilla has been working with Archie Comics since 2011, when he provided alternate covers for the four-part “Archie Meets KISS” storyline. Since then he has done covers for all of the publisher’s major titles, including mainline books like Jughead and Betty & Veronica, and Archie Horror titles like Blossoms 666, Jughead: The Hunger, and Vampironica.
Francavilla was also the interior artist on Archie’s most successful horror series, Afterlife with Archie, which imagined a zombie apocalypse in Riverdale. The Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa-written series, which launched in 2013, revitalized interest in the Archie brand, and ultimately led to additional initiatives at the publisher like the relaunch and modernization of their core line, the addition of more horror titles and a superhero line called Dark Circle, and expansion into other media with TV shows like Riverdale and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. A large part of the success of Afterlife was the strength of Francavilla’s artwork—I know I personally only checked it out for that reason—so it’s great to see Archie recognizing the impact the artist has had and giving him a proper showcase.
With a retail price of $24.99, The Archie Art of Francesco Francavilla is due in comic shops on July 31st.
