An attractive new comic book based in the 1920s is nearly halfway to its funding goals with 16 days to go in its crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter. Portland writer Sunshine Barbito and São Paulo, Brazil-based artist Debora Carita have teamed together to recreate New York of a century ago and the Mafia’s rise to power in the pages of Mafiosa, an original comic book story. Launching via Kickstarter if fully funded by July 18, 2019, Mafiosa will debut as a 28-page issue, featuring variant covers by Kirbi Fagan (Mockingbird, Shuri) and Eisner Award winning artist Francesco Francavilla (Detective Comics, Afterlife with Archie).
Mafiosa is the story of a woman on her way to becoming not just a moll but a crime boss in her own right. Following the rise of Nicoletta Marchesi, the youngest of five children in a family of first generation Sicilian Americans who have established a crime syndicate in Brooklyn in the early 1900s, writer Barbito takes on gender roles with the background of mob life. When Nicoletta confronts her father and announces her desire to join the family business alongside her brothers, a family conflict is formed, and Nicoletta is sucked into the savagery of a life of crime.
Carita’s interior artwork has a nicely crafted noir vibe. The Kickstarter book will be a self-contained story, with Mariacristina Federico as colorist and lettering by Clem Robins. Take a look at these previews of some of the concept sketch art for the Kickstarter campaign and some gorgeous, completed pages for Mafiosa:
