Sara Pichelli is an Italian comics artist best known for first illustrating the Miles Morales version of Ultimate Spider-Man. After starting her career in animation, Pichelli entered the comic book industry working for IDW Publishing before joining Marvel Comics in 2008 after getting discovered in an international talent search. After having worked on several Marvel titles, such as Namora, Pichelli was hired as the main artist on the second volume of , which premiered in September 2011. Pichelli won a 2011 Eagle Award for Favorite Newcomer Artist.
Career
Pichelli was born in Porto Sant'Elpidio, Italy. She began her career in animation, working as a storyboard artist, animator and character designer. She said of this work, "It wasn't really for me. I felt like a tiny cog in a machine." She started working in the comic book industry after meeting comics artistDavid Messina. Prior to that, she was not particularly interested in comics and preferred animated films and anime. She worked as a layout assistant for Messina and worked on such titles as the Star Trekcomic book series produced by IDW Publishing, including such editions as ' and '. In 2008 she submitted her work to the Chesterquest international talent search and was named one of the finalists by Marvel Comics editor C. B. Cebulski, which led to her working for Marvel. She illustrates for Marvel from her home in Rome. Pichelli started working for Marvel Comics in 2008 with the limited seriesNYX: No Way Home, followed by a brief run onRunaways with writer Kathryn Immonen in 2009. She worked with Immonen again on the ' limited series, released in December 2009, which focused on the X-Men character Pixie. Pichelli provided art for one storyline in the I Am An Avengeranthology series, which ran from 2010 to 2011, then joined the team working on ' starting with the October 2010 issue #15. After that series ended, Pichelli contributed to the 2011 limited series Ultimate Fallout, where she illustrated the first image of the Spider-Man character as portrayed by Miles Morales in the Ultimate Marvel universe. Pichelli took on regular art duties on the relaunched with Morales as the protagonist, starting in September 2011. In August 2018, Pichelli and writer Dan Slott launched a new Fantastic Four series.
Technique and materials
Pichelli uses a Cintiq 12wxgraphic tablet. When illustrating Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man, she added more screentones to her illustrations to give what she called "a more 'pop' feeling to the book", as she believed it would be more fitting to that series. In creating the visual look of characters, Pichelli approaches the design by giving thought to the character's personalities, including the background that may have influenced them, and the distinctive traits that the characters exhibit, such as the clothing they wear, their body language and expressions. She followed this approach when creating Miles Morales.
Reception
Pichelli won a 2011 Eagle Award for Favorite Newcomer Artist, over fellow nominees Rafael Albuquerque, Fiona Staples, Sean Murphy and Bryan Lee O'Malley. Marvel Comics senior editor Mark Paniccia said of Pichelli: "Every time I see new pages from Sara she continues to grow as an artist. She's amazing now and I can't imagine where she'll be a year from now." Marvel Comics editor Tom Brevoort called her "a real breakout talent" and "a top talent primed to explode in a major way". David Brothers of ComicsAlliance praised her attention to detail and said he particularly likes the way Pichelli draws hair, facial expressions and body language: "The first two add a lot to the atmosphere of the comics she draws, and the third cranks her storytelling up to another level." IGN writer Jesse Schedeen called Pichelli's art in Ultimate Fallout "energetic, cinematic, and just flamboyant enough to offer a change of pace from the rest of the Ultimate Fallout stories".
