iFanboy Upstarts: Andrea Sorrentino

Green-Arrow_20_PanelOne of the most asked questions to comics creators by comics fans is how to break into comics. The answer I’ve heard more often than any other that I’ve heard in the eight years I’ve worked in the industry is a simple one:

“Just do the work.”

An artist who is keeping their  head down and doing just that is Italian artist Andrea Sorrentino. A graduate of Italy’s Academy of Fine Arts, Sorrentino recently joined with Jeff Lemire for a new era in DC’s Green Arrow, giving the series a bit more heart and a bushel more intrigue and danger. To comics fans, Sorrentino’s work might seem simpatico to artists like Jae Lee or Alex Maleev– stylized realism which pays more attention to shape than line, resulting in darker work that is staged for maximum effect.  People who have been reading Sorrentino’s work going back to I, Vampire or even God of War before that know the Italian isn’t adverse to switching things up, at some points altering styles akin to Daredevil cover artist Paolo Rivera.

Sorrentino got his start at DC just three years ago, drawing the licensed title God of War for the now-defunct Wildstorm imprint. Sorrentino was quickly pegged by DC editorial as someone who has an eye for a commanding image, and was enlisted in late 2010 to do the covers for the X-Files / 30 Days of Night crossover just months after his debut. After that, Sorrentino was off the racks for 6 months but busily working away on his major coming out party as a artist of the I, Vampire series launched with the New 52 reboot in November 11. Thanks to a head start, Sorrentino drew 14 back-to-back issues — a record in modern times where artists are rotated in and out between arcs (or sometimes sooner). Sorrentino’s work on I, Vampire got his name out to comic fans and even won him the Best Comic Artist award in IGN’s Best of 2012 Ceremony, while also building up a small following and appreciation amongst his fellow comics professionals. That earned him a step up to join with Lemire to take the flagging Green Arrow title over just a few months back.

An interesting fact I learned while prepping this is that Sorrentino routinely colors the first issue of the project he works on in order to set down a color palette and ground rules for the regular series colorist to follow up upon. This attention to detail along with the amazing progression he’s made from God of War to his work on Green Arrow makes me excited for every new issue and next project Sorrentino comes to next.

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Comments

  1. Fantastic art, I should check out Green Arrow

  2. I think he is probably my favorite artist right now. I first came across him on I,Vampire and now I will probably buy pretty much anything he does. He has really kicked it up a notch on Green Arrow. His stuff is just amazing.

  3. Absolutely loved the art on I, Vampire. It was the death knell to that book when they took him off of it, other artists tried to get his style but just couldn’t manage. Tempted to get the Green Arrow in trade though purely for more of his art.

  4. Yep same here on I,Vampire I took noticed. What him & Joshua Hale did on that book was fantastic. Now with him & Lemire on green arrow it’s been great. Can’t wait to see what book he’s on next.

  5. Stunning work. Sorrentino is one of my faves.

  6. The line art reminds me so much of Bendis’ stuff on Goldfish and Jinx. Maybe a little more dynamic, but it definitely takes me back.

  7. I can’t love his style on Green Arrow anymore, it’s made it go from absent in my pull to a must read in my pull, and GA was a constant for me preNew52.

  8. Great artist!!! Hope SO MUCH that he someday takes over the main Batman title for a long multi year run! I need a Batbook that looks this way.

    • That would be awesome. Although I can’t complain much about the current artists on the Bat books I would love to see him on one of them.

  9. I really like his style….and think it fits well with the Green Arrow title. Darker, gritty, more of a “real” feel that is needed for the direction that they are taking the Emerald Archer.