Sara Pichelli

Sara Pichelli
Pichelli at Special Edition NYC in Manhattan
Born	Sara Pichelli
Nationality	Italian
Notable works	Runaways, X-Men: Pixie Strikes Back, Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man
Awards	2011 Eagle Award for Favorite Newcomer Artist
http://sara-pichelli.blogspot.com/

Sara Pichelli (born 1983 in Amatrice) is an Italian comic book artist best known for first illustrating the Miles Morales version of Ultimate Spider-Man. After starting her career in animation, Pichelli entered the comic book industry working for IDW Publishing before joining Marvel Comics in 2008 after getting discovered in an international talent search. After having worked on several Marvel titles, such as Namora, Pichelli was hired as the main artist on the second volume of Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man, which premiered in September 2011. Pichelli won a 2011 Eagle Award for Favorite Newcomer Artist.

Career

Pichelli sketching at the New York Comic Con

Sara Pichelli began her career in animation, working as a storyboard artist, animator and character designer. She said of this work, "It wasn't really for me. I felt like a tiny cog in a machine." She started working in the comic book industry after meeting comics artist David Messina. Prior to that, she was not particularly interested in comics and preferred animated films and anime. She worked as a layout assistant for Messina and worked on such titles as the Star Trek comic book series produced by IDW Publishing, including such editions as Star Trek: Countdown and Star Trek: Nero. In 2008 she submitted her work to the Chesterquest international talent search and was named one of the finalists by Marvel Comics editor C. B. Cebulski, which led to her working for Marvel. She illustrates for Marvel from her home in Rome.

Pichelli started working for Marvel Comics is 2008 with the limited series NYX: No Way Home, followed by a brief run on Runaways with writer Kathryn Immonen in 2009. She worked with Immonen again on the X-Men: Pixie Strikes Back limited series, released in December 2009, which focused on the X-Men character Pixie. Pichelli provided art for one storyline in the I Am An Avenger anthology series, which ran from 2010 to 2011, then joined the team working on Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man starting with the October 2010 issue #15. After that series ended, Pichelli contributed to the 2011 limited series Ultimate Fallout, where she illustrated the first image of the Spider-Man character as portrayed by Miles Morales in the Ultimate Marvel universe. Pichelli took on regular art duties on the relaunched Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man with Morales as the protagonist, starting in September 2011.

Technique and materials

Pichelli uses a Cintiq 12wx graphic tablet. When illustrating Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man, she added more screentones to her illustrations to give what she called "a more 'pop' feeling to the book", as she believed it would be more fitting to that series.

In creating the visual look of characters, Pichelli approaches the design by giving thought to the character's personalities, including the background that may have influenced them, and the distinctive traits that the characters exhibit, such as the clothing they wear, their body language and expressions. She followed this approach when creating Miles Morales.

Reception

There are three or four artists we've got at Marvel who are really starting to pop and sizzle and define a new look and style that's distinctly their own. We look at these people as being the next generation of Marvel superstars, and I think Sara is clearly one of them. Her stuff is bubbly and fun and alive and energetic and exciting. It has all the best traits and qualities of humanity and engagingness [that] I'd want in a Marvel artist.

– Tom Brevoort

Pichelli won a 2011 Eagle Award for Favorite Newcomer Artist, beating out fellow nominees Rafael Albuquerque, Fiona Staples, Sean Murphy and Bryan Lee O'Malley. Marvel Comics senior editor Mark Paniccia said of Pichelli: "Every time I see new pages from Sara she continues to grow as an artist. She's amazing now and I can't imagine where she'll be a year from now." Marvel Comics editor Tom Brevoort called her "a real breakout talent" and "a top talent primed to explode in a major way". David Brothers of ComicsAlliance praised her attention to detail and said he particularly likes the way Pichelli draws hair, facial expressions and body language: "The first two add a lot to the atmosphere of the comics she draws, and the third cranks her storytelling up to another level." IGN writer Jesse Schedeen called Pichelli's art in Ultimate Fallout "energetic, cinematic, and just flamboyant enough to offer a change of pace from the rest of the Ultimate Fallout stories".

Personal life

Pichelli lives in Rome, Italy.

Bibliography

• All-New X-Men #30 (2014)
• Astonishing X-Men vol. 3, #37 (along with Jason Pearson) (2011)
• I Am An Avenger #4 (along with Mike Mayhew, Colleen Coover and Lucy Knisley) (2011)
• Eternals vol. 4, #8 (along with Eric Nguyen) (2009)
• Girl Comics vol. 2, #3 (along with June Brigman, Lea Hernandez, Molly Crabapple, Adriana Melo, Carla Speed McNeil) (2010)
• Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3, #4-7, 11-13 (2013-2014)
• Marvel Digital Holiday Special #2 (along with Nick Dragotta and Sanford Greene) (2009)
• Namora, one-shot (2010)
• Origin of Marvel Comics: X-Men, one-shot (along with other artists) (2010)
• Runaways vol. 3, #10-14 (2009)
• Spider-Man #1-Ongoing (2016)
• Spider-Men #1-5 (miniseries) (2012)
• Ultimate Comics Fallout #4 (along with Salvador Larroca and Clayton Crain) (2011)
• Ultimate Comics All-New Spiderman #1-5, 8, 19-22 (2011-2013)
• Ultimate Comics Spiderman #15 (2010)
• Ultimate Spider-Man #150-154, 200 (2011-2014)
• X-Men: Manifest Destiny #5 (along with Michael Ryan, Ben Oliver) (2009)
• X-Men: Pixie Strikes Back #1-4 (miniseries) (2010)

External links

• Sara Pichelli at the Comic Book DB