Angel : After The Fall

Franco Urru is an Italian comic artist best known in America for his work on Spike: Asylum, Spike: Shadow Puppets and Angel: After The Fall for IDW Publishing . The Comic Book Guide sat down with Urru to find out what he was up to before he was the go-to artist for Angel and Spike, his experiences at IDW and what’s coming up.

QUESTION: Franco, How did you break into the comic book industry? When did you first begin pursuing it? What were you doing before?

I broke into the comic biz many years ago but kept a very low profile as I worked for a studio of very renowned Italian artists. For several months I just did some works as assistant, inking or penciling backgrounds, doing some references research etcetera. I still remember that time as one of the nicest of my career. Eagerness, totally new challenges for me and struggling to learn more were such fun most of the times.

QUESTION: Was Spike your first big break? How did you land the gig working with IDW? What, if any books were you working on prior to Spike: Asylum?

On an international level, yes. Spike was the big break. I landed into that wonderful script after a friend showed my pages to Chris Ryall. At the time Brian Lynch had written his first story for IDW and I started to work immediately on the covers of the entire mini. After finishing the first cover I realized that I was exactly where I wanted to be.

In Italy I worked on different series: various projects through which I explored the most varied genres. Fantasy, superheroes, ehm...erotic. But I also did some illustrations for children books, for commercials and even some graphic designs.

QUESTION: Living in Italy, did you read a lot of American comics growing up, or does Italy have their own comic book market? What titles do you enjoy reading?

The 80 % of my reading has focused on American comics since the seventies and I hardly spoke English at that time. Italy has its own market which I followed (and still follow) eagerly but my priority always went to the main series of superheroes like X-Men, JLA, Fantastic Four, The Defenders, Batman and too many others to even mention them all. Even Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella at the times of Warren Publishing. I still follow most of the above-mentioned series and added more to my buying list. Hellboy, Buffy (of course) and some of the independents like Madman. A lot...

QUESTION: Were you a fan of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer and/or Angel television shows before you began working for IDW?

I bought the ANGEL series on DVD at the Amazon UK long before even thinking about drawing such wonderful characters. The moment I started to work on Spike, I already had completed my collection of both Whedon series (and FIREFLY as well) [for] a long time. Consider that the ANGEL DVDs were available in England a long time before they were in USA, I could understand any situation or flashback on Spike and Angel Brian Lynch was referring to.

QUESTION: Have you read Dark Horse Comics’ Buffy Season Eight at all?

Buffy is an extraordinary series so far. I enjoy both the story and the art. The writers know Buffy and all the Scoobies so well that I can imagine their voices while reading the books and Jeanty is such a talented narrator. He manages to balance the funny moments with the darker ones so well.

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http://buffycomics.hellmouthcentral.com/html/interviews/francourru.htm