Marco Checchetto on Fulfilling a Lifelong Dream of Drawing for Marvel - Marvel Entertainment

How did you first get involved with Marvel?

I used to work for a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series for children, produced and published only in Italy, when my editor asked me what I thought about creating the same kind of stories but with Spider-Man as the main character. I was so happy, I couldn’t believe it. The first step was to talk first with Marvel Italy and then to Marvel USA to see if it could be workable. I did a single sample page (pencil, ink, and colors) the night before the meeting with Marvel Italy. They then sent my page to Andy Schmidt in the USA, who was the editor of the X-MEN series at that time. Three days later, he called me to draw a Deadpool short story in MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS #10.

What do you feel like was the tipping point in your career as an artist? When was it (or what was it) that got you to this point of being one of Marvel’s rising star artists?

There was a precise moment when I realized I had improved as an artist, and that was my work on PUNISHER.

There were three main reasons: The first was [Editor] Stephen Wacker’s faith in me when he asked me to relaunch such an important series. I will always be grateful to Stephen for that. Working from Greg Rucka’s scripts also considerably improved my storytelling. It was a very hard school. And finally, moving on to digital drawing (on PUNISHER #5).

I hardly ever enjoyed inking my pencils. My inks ruined my pencils [and] I couldn't find the right tools. Working in digital allows me to work more precisely and with no limits whatsoever.

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