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Bringing Longshot's Sexy Back- Talking To Jacopo Camagni

Published Sat, 16 Nov 2013 11:00:26 -0600

Joe Glass writes;

Last week saw the release of the first issue of new Marvel mini-series Longshot Saves the Marvel Universe from Christopher Hastings and artist Jacopo Camagni. I spoke to Jacopo Camagni about his work on the series.

This isn't your first time in the Marvel Universe, previously working on some of Marvel's all ages Marvel Adventures titles. Has there been much of a difference between that work and working on Longshot Saves the Marvel Universe?

I have always worked on magazines dedicated to a very young audience, so the main differences are in tone and in what I could draw. In Marvel Adventures the tone of the stories have always been very simple, sometimes childish and not very epic, there were also limitations on what I could draw (blood, types of weapons, nudity). With this mini-series, however, I was confronted with two new things: the fact that it is in continuity with the contemporary universe and stories, and a story that, contrary to what it may seem from the first issue, will prove to be more epic than expected.

Can you tell us a bit more about the tone of the new Longshot mini? It seems to have a very funny overtone to it.

The series has a tone that's light and fun, like a classic American comedy, but as the story progresses the tone becomes more epic. If I had to compare it to a movie I would say the first Ghostbusters, the same sense of humour and the same kind of epic in the finale.

A lot has been made of the new Longshot redesign. Why did you decide to go in that direction?

They have specifically asked me to think about a redesign of his look that could make it modern and at the same time attractive to both males and females. I decided for inspiration on a hipster haircut that I usually do to for one of my friends (yep, cut hair and do tattoos too sometime), and recently also often seen in fashion. The old Longshot had a mullet haircut, horrible, but it was identification of the historical period in which it was born. This hairstyle, in my opinion is exactly the same thing and really "now". About the sideburns, I love them (I have had the same for lot of years) and in my opinion there are too many superheroes shaved in the Marvel Universe ehehe.

I can't advance anything, but for some reasons the suit will change during the course of the story. At the end this mini-series will redefine its whole look. I hope that readers will appreciate it.

Were there many, or any, alternate directions that Marvel didn't want to go with?

They haven't given me any restriction on the redesign. They literally worshiped immediately my proposals and I haven't had to make any kind of change.

Longshot's history is one of the more complicated and convoluted character histories in comics. Was that hard to work with for you as the artist?

Longshot is a stellar character, I really like him. I think the biggest problems in working on a story of Longshot don't have to deal with the artist, but the scriptwriter. To create his stories I think it's like working on the movie Memento. You have to start from the end result you want to achieve and go back, trying to connect the dots to get to the 'beginning. Personally, in terms of graphics I haven't encountered big obstacles, in the fact that the powers of Longshot are not visible but are expressed in the randomness of events.

Are there any other characters at Marvel you'd love to work on?

I would always work on Young Avengers or X-Men. I'd like to carry on a mini-series, give it a "indie cut", stories which show the daily life that the characters live between one mega event and another. Show how they are not very different from us. It's a dream that I have always had.

Any more Marvel projects down the line after Longshot?

Give me a break! LOL

I just finished this mini-series after four months of intensive work, let me breathe a second, I need a vacation ehehe.

Can you tell us about your other projects in general?

I'm at work on a series of illustrations for a series of children's English books about football and time travel, I'm still working as character designer for a board game for Guillotine Games(the guys that made Zombiecide) which will be released the next year and I'm at work on a urban fantasy graphic novel with my partner in crime Marco B. Bucci.

Where can people find more of your work and/or buy some of your work?

You can find me on my official website, you can follow me on twitter or tumbler and my Facebook page.

Longshot Saves the Marvel Universe #1 is available now. And Jacopo is also contributing a page of artwork to an upcoming issue of my own comic, The Pride.

It's a really great read, and a lot of fun, so I heartily recommend picking it up. Longshot is not a character I've personally ever been especially enamoured of, but damn this book won me over straight away.

And he does look rather spiffing with that new 'do.

Written by Bleeding Cool contributor, creator of The Pride and co-writer of Stiffs, Joe Glass.

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