BLACK BEETLE Is A SMASHING Success!

Hello Pulp Friends,

     I am so happy to see that Black Beetle #0 (collecting the NIGHT SHIFT 3-parter published in DHP plus extra material) was received so well by critics and fans (lots of BB love on Twitter) - makes me even more excited to get the new mini NO WAY OUT rolling this year.
If you haven't picked it up yet, please do: I heard of several store being sold out already and I don't want you to miss out on the fun that Black Beetle is :)

Here some of the reviews (click on the links for the full reviews).

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THE BEAT
REVIEW: THE BLACK BEETLE #0, “Night Shift”
   BLACK BEETLE certainly has the potential to become an enduring “cult classic”, inspiring readers to roll up for more “twisted thoughts” from Francavilla in 2013.

COMICOSITY
Review: BLACK BEETLE: THE NIGHT SHIFT #0 9/10★
   Francavilla truly understands the economy of excellent storytelling, both in character movement and illustrative detail.

COMICS ALLIANCE
Francesco Francavilla's 'The Black Beetle: Night Shift' is the Hottest Cape Comic You Can Buy This Week
   The Black Beetle is the purest expression yet of Eisner-winning artist Francavilla's love for pulp, mystery, noir and superhero aesthetics

GEEKS OF DOOM
Comic Review: The Black Beetle: Night Shift #0
   The Black Beetle: Night Shift #0 is all set up and all AWESOME! Let’s be honest, there’s plenty of pulp heroes running around these days, but The Black Beetle is all sorts of fun. No downbeat, depressing, down on humanity story here, just some fantastic action and adventure!

CBR
The Black Beetle: Night Shift #0 Review 4/5★
   "The Black Beetle" is a delightful slice of skewed madness from one of today’s finest artists.

LOGO GO /NO GO (Tom Muller)
GO: THE BLACK BEETLE — NIGHT SHIFT
   The Black Beetle is Francesco Francavilla’s love letter to the pulp fiction serials of the 30s and 40s. Francavilla is pulling out all the stops to really capture the finer points of the pulp design language, both for the cover designs and the related promo material to create a fully realised design language that is flexible but immediately recognisable.

COMIC VINE
Best Comic Covers of the Week
   We loved the really pulpy cover to THE BLACK BEETLE: NIGHT SHIFT #0 by Francesco Francavilla this week. It reminded us of those old 1950's mystery paperback covers in the way it is styled, and the way Francavilla plays with light and shadows is simply awesome.

SCIFI PULSE
In Review: The Black Beetle #0 A
   Francesco Francavilla has got a mastery of this universe and shifts us around it expertly. I cannot wait to see where he takes us next!

COMICBOOKBIN
The Black Beetle #0 Review 9/10★
   Easily one of the year's best debut issues, The Black Beetle #0 is opening salvo of what looks to be one of the best ongoing series of its kind.

COMIC ATTACK
Dark Horse Reviews: The Black Beetle #0 5/5★
   The quality of this issue is unsurpassed.

COMIC BASTARDS
Review: The Black Beetle #0 4/5★
   The story and artwork flows seamlessly together, a beneficial effect of having a single creative mind at work, and the plot is masterfully paced with no dull moments to be found.

NOSTALGIC Books and Comics
Picks of the Week: 12/19/12
   This handsome collection features three Dark Horse Presents stories originally published in issues #11–#13, from Eisner Award winning talent, Francesco Francavilla (Batman: The Black Mirror). Pure masterful pulp at its finest. This buzz-worthy read is as beautiful as action/adventure gets!

EXAMINER
‘New York Times’ best-selling artist creates pulp hero the Black Beetle
   Through the Black Beetle, Francavilla is able to explore all he loves about classic pulp-noir characters adding his own storytelling sensibilities by writing and drawing a story with no limits.

GEEKSUNLEASHED
Wednesday Watchlist
   I’d seriously consider buying a Russian telephone directory if it was illustrated by Francesco Francavilla.

COMICBOOK THERAPY
Advance Review 4/5★
   It’s a throwback comic that is worth your time and money.

NERDIST
Top Picks
   The Black Beetle is Eisner Award winner Francesco Francavilla’s chance to flex his mystery muscles in this hardboiled pulp-noir tale with a superheroic twist.

BIFF BUMP POP!
You Won’t Throwback The Black Beetle #0 On The Wednesday Run
   The comic book seamlessly mixes the noir and superheroes genres, is beautiful to look at and, most importantly, it’s super fun to read!

COMICS CRUX
The Black Beetle: Night Shift #0
   This Wednesday, grab The Black Beetle #0, smooth as silk and a reading adventure like you won’t believe. The Black Beetle earns every bit of your reading dollar.

THIRD EYE COMICS

Picks of the week.
   FRANCESCO FRANCAVILLA, the incredibly talented artist of BATMAN: THE BLACK MIRROR, totally blows our minds with the first issue of this mini-series that debuts his tribute to the pulp era, the BLACK BEETLE.

REVIEWFIX
The Black Beetle: Night Shift Review: Worth Getting Excited About
   “The Black Beetle: Night Shift” is a well written pulp comic that is a joy to read from begging to end. It is well written, a page turner and has some of the best art the genre has seen this generation. “The Black Beetle” series and Francesco Francavilla are going places and those places will be huge.

COMICOSITY
THE HONOR ROLL
   It may have been the most flat out entertaining book of the week.

COMIC-PER-DAY REVIEWS
Black Beetle #0
   This is a moody, atmospheric piece that really hits the pulp target.

ROBOT6
Chain Reactions | The Black Beetle #0
   If you like pulp heroes or Francavilla’s awesome artwork, this might be the book for you

THE WEEKLY-CRISIS

BLACK BEETLE: NIGHT SHIFT #0
   This is a story of high adventure, where moral dilemmas are pretty black and white, and it's an awful fun adventure to be on.

DEN OF GEEK
Black Beetle #0 (Dark Horse), Night Shift, Review 9/10★
   While reading the full color comic, I could practically hear the breathless tones of an old radio drama, or see the Black Beetle as the star of his own Republic serial. There's no doubt about it, boys and girls! The Black Beetle #0 was the best thing I read all week!

THE PARADOX COMICS GROUP
BLACK BEETLE #0 8/10★
   Clandestine Nazi agents, ancient mystical artifacts and an ice-cool, gun-wielding costumed crimefighter, presented in the comic format with style and aplomb? How could I not sign up for this?

MAJOR SPOILERS

Staff Picks of the Week

COMICS: THE GATHERING

Black Beetle : Night Shift #0 Review 8/10★
   Francavilla’s writing is straight forward with colourful characters, pulse pounding action and suspense.

GEEKING ALLY

The Weekly Pull: ‘Black Beetle: Night Shift’
   Pulp heroes, noir and fantastic art; this might just be the best $3 you spend all week!

COMPLEX
Review
Using heavy inks, deep colors, and powerful composition, Francavilla brings the fictional world of Colt City to life in style.

COMICS! THE BLOG
You Read These With Your Eyes!
   Artist Francesco Francavilla wears his pulp influences on his sleeve. From his colouring choices, to his sense of panel design, the majority of his work feels like it emerged from the radio drama days of old, when characters like The Shadow and The Spider reigned supreme.

ROBOT6
Food or Comics? | Black beans or Black Beetle

UPROXX
Early Panels: Three Comics To Look Forward To Tomorrow
Francavilla knows his way around the pulps and the art is every bit as gorgeous as you’d expect.

BLOODY DISGUSTING

Review: ‘Black Beetle’ #0 3/5★
A fun book to read. It’s got a strong aesthetic narrative to it.

CHUD.COM
THOR’S COMIC COLUMN 12/28
It’s stunningly visual with a great sense of design.

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What a great way to end 2012 and start the New Year.
Happy New Year to you all! Look for more Black Beetle action on the shelves all year long, starting this January with NO WAY OUT #1! :)

Cheers,
Francesco

Dig Deeper into The Black Beetle

Hello Black Beetle Friends,

This past week I took care of a few interviews about our favorite pulp hero: The Black Beetle. I want to thank all the press for giving a spot to BB, specially now that the first issue is solicited in Previews so you guys can pre-order it (see below the info on how to get the Black Beetle cover).

Here's the second interview which went up yesterday on the fan-favorite ComicVine website thanks to Tony Guerrero(thanks, Tony :)).

Here's an extract:


CV: Will the 24-page story be the beginning of more adventures for the Black Beetle? Do you have more stories to tell?

FF: I most definitely have plenty more stories to tell. Some are already outlined in detail; others are simply at plot or idea stage.
NIGHT SHIFT (the 3-part Black Beetle story that will appear in Dark Horse Presents starting with #11 in April) is an introductory story, accessible to everyone, that will hint at things that make The Black Beetle universe so interesting.
I am halfway through another story, KARA BOCEK, that ‘aired’ on my Pulp Sunday blog last year and which I plan to release in print when it’s completed.
And a few ‘lucky’ fans got a little taste of BB in the NO WAY OUT limited ashcan I put out a couple of years ago (now sold out). When it’s finished, NO WAY OUT will be on a much larger scale in terms of BB stories (full length GN).
And there is plenty more after that. It all comes down to how well received NIGHT SHIFT will be now that BB is reaching a wider audience, so make sure to buy Dark Horse Presents #11 and praise The Black Beetle.

CV: If you could do a crossover with the Black Beetle and any other character, who would be the best fit and who would be your dream team up (if they're not the same)?

FF: Given the nature of the character and the time settings, The Black Beetle could easily cross over with Mike Mignola’s awesome Lobster Johnson, if we want to stay in the Dark Horse territory, or more generally with The Shadow or the early 1930/1940s Batman.

You can read the whole interview on the ComicVine page.

DHP #11 comes with two covers; if you want to make sure to get The Black Beetle cover (shown on the left) , pls preorder the book at your LCS using the code FEB12 0052.

Dark Horse Presents #11 (with the Black Beetle cover) will be on sale on APril 18.

Cheers,
Francesco

Artwork © 2011 Francesco Francavilla
KARA BOCEK, BLACK BEETLE & COLT CITY created by, ™ and © 2006-2012 Francesco Francavilla