EXTRACTS: Illustrators issue 34 by Book Palace Books * 96 PAGES IN FULL EDITION

70 Any last words you’d like to add to our conversation? I’m going to reveal a little secret to you. As you know, ‘La Porte au Ciel’ was done as a two-part story. In the first part, the reader gets to know the characters, the place and the mysteries surrounding the story… but it’s in the second part that it takes a left turn and becomes a thriller. The atmosphere is more dramatic, and the lightness of the first episode has completely disappeared. I wanted the reader to notice that, but in a very subliminal way, without him, or her, being aware of why or how it happened… After giving it some thought, I came up with the solution to represent that change of pace: the key to the whole story was the sky. In the first episode, though it’s winter season, the sky is serene and clear. In the second episode, the sky is dark, oppressing, with gloomy clouds presaging a storm… Whenever you read a comic book, you pay attention either to the story or the drawings or the colours. It’d be interesting to do a “making of ” from a graphic novel. How the physiognomy of a character is chosen, the setting of the story… It’s what we wanted to transmit with the covers… that feeling of uncertainty. In the same book, Manu, the main character among the three girls, always wears a leather jacket. Obviously it doesn’t belong to her, but to a man, for it’s too big for her. In the story it isn’t explained or even implied, because it was never part of the original script. I thought of giving Manu that old leather jacket that belonged to her older brother with whom, following the death of their parents, she was very close. That small detail helped me make the character more real and authentic. You can follow Eugenio Sicomoro either on Facebook or visit his blog at eugeniosicomoroart.blogspot.com RIGHT: Tex , liquid watercolour on paper, 2010. Sicomoro’s version of the iconic Italian western comic book character created by Bonelli. As most Italian comic book artists, Sicomoro also worked for Bonelli, perhaps the oldest Italian comic book publisher still in existence. Tex © Bonelli