BARNABAS COLLINS by Francesco Francavilla

Francesco Francavilla.

I spent the weekend at the annual HeroesCon in Charlotte, N.C., most of which was devoted to the pursuit of sketches and signatures from the creators in attendance. By the end of the weekend, I managed to add a few more DARK SHADOWS themed drawings to my sketchbook, and plan to share them here over the next few weeks.

It seemed only proper, though, that I lead off with this beauty: BARNABAS COLLINS by artist Francesco Francavilla. Francavilla won the 2012 Eisner Award for "Best Cover Artist" for his work on DARK SHADOWS, THE LONE RANGER, THE BLACK PANTER and others, and created this sketch of Jonathan Frid for me from memory.

While I've been a little hard on Dynamite's various DARK SHADOWS comics, Francavilla has certainly not been part of those books' various problems. He's a terrific artist, one who manages to evoke influences as diverse as Jack Kirby, Eduardo Barreto and Frank Miller without looking very much like any of those guys (if that makes sense.)

You can see more of Francesco Francavilla's work at his official website, www.francescofrancavilla.com.