I Came Back To My First Love — Mario Foccillo On Educating Next-Generation Artists

DC Comics artist Mario Foccillo is taking time to give back to the thriving comic book artist community in Italy. Foccillo, who has a number of DC variant covers under his belt as well as his first interiors for Knight Terrors: Green Lantern, is now teaching the next generation of Italian artists how to draw comics for the American audience at the Italian School of Comix in Naples.

I caught up with Foccillo at his boot at the Lake Como Comic Art Festival and spoke with him about why he wanted to teach future artists as well as his own variants, including his graffiti covers.

Tom Smithyman: Talk a little about the curriculum you are teaching and why you decided to spend part of your time working with this community.

Mario Foccillo: I’m teaching American superhero comics course in my school – this is the school where I started studied. These students have many inspirations. Some want to work in the French market. Some in the Italian market. And some in the American market. So the students learn about each.

I teach them the way to draw superheroes, and the way to represent the superheroes. We know that superheroes are the modern mythology. So they need to be drawn in certain ways. And they need to focus on the anatomies. And t and these epic human bodies.

This is totally different than the Italian comics. We start with a Batman script. And I let them know that these characters are different than the ones we have in Europe. For example, you have the thing about the brand of each one. You have to perfectly draw their logos when you draw a cover. That’s a different way of thinking than what we do here.

Smithyman: It only took you about 12 years to go from student to instructor. That’s not a long time.

Foccillo: I don’t know! (laughs)

This is a school that is really bonded to its ex-students. They love to have their students who are now professionals to come back.

Smithyman: You’ve touched on this a bit, but is the biggest difference between Italian comics storytelling from American comics storytelling?

Foccillo: They are totally different. In Italy, the mainstream comics are from Sergio Bonelli Editore. You may know Tex Willer and Dylan Dog.

Also, the size is different. Italian comics have a unique size – a little smaller than American comics. A lot of them are in black and white. And the grid is almost always six panels on a page. There are almost no splash pages. This is what I’m trying to explain to the students because some of them are more bonded to the Italian way of drawing.

In Italy, we don’t represent characters boldly because they are not superheroes. But I think that anyone who can draw Italian comics can draw superheroes because Italian comics are realistic. That’s why you can have so many Italian artists working in the US. It comes from our artistic history.

Smithyman: How did you learn how to draw heroes in the American style?

Foccillo: First, I grew up with superhero comics. But even before that, I’ve been in love with drawing anatomy. I started learning from Leonard da Vinci, Michelangelo, Caravaggio – these classic Italian Renaissance artists, who drew perfect anatomies. And I fell in love with them.

I started at 12, and I realized that my passion as an artist was in dynamic poses and dynamic anatomies. That made me better for American superheroes. And when I read American superhero comics, I saw what I love – these characters moving and jumping. And I love the characters as well. That was a good gym for me to work out.

Smithyman: After you graduated, how did DC discover your work?

Foccillo: During the pandemic, there weren’t a lot of comic festivals or conventions around the world because of the lockdown. At that point, I had no published work, and I was still finding my way stylistically.

I gave myself one last year to break in. If I couldn’t find work, I would find different work. Still as an artist, because drawing is something I do naturally. So I will always draw. So I created an art portfolio and came back to what I love, which was superhero comics, because before then, I was trying to work with the French market.

So I came back to my first love. So I made a portfolio with my colorist with covers – black and white and color. And I sent it over email because there were no cons so I couldn’t do a portfolio review. And a editor from DC saw my email, opened up my portfolio, liked it, and here I am.

I made my debut as an artist for Superman. My editor came back to me and said: “I like this stuff. Do you want to do a cover for Superman?” I read it many times!

Smithyman: You have a lot going on, of course. One of those projects is DC’s series of graffiti variant covers. How did you come up with that concept?

Foccillo: I have a background in writing. I also love rap and hip hop. I have that street background. I did a personal illustration that included the words, the figures, and Japanese art. I showed that to my editor, and he fell in love with it. He said: “Mario, why don’t we do a series of variant covers match the graffiti to the heroes?”  The first one was an Action Comics variant cover. We’re doing a lot of them now. The next one will come out in August.

Smithyman: You mentioned that the graffiti matches the personality of the hero you are putting on the cover. If you were drawing a cover featuring yourself, what graffiti would you draw on it?

Foccillo: I would say “Passion!” Passion is what drives me. That’s why I draw. So I think passion is the right word for me.

Smithyman: Passionate you are! Best of luck with all of your future endeavors!