Witchblade 72 p18 splash by Francis Manapul

I must confess I had stopped reading Witchblade when Francis Manapul joined as the regular artist. After hearing some good buzz regarding the art, I had to agree that this new artist had something frensh to offer inside the Top Cow mold and tracked his run down. He obvioulsy evolved past those early influences since :)

Another piece to come from the JMB collection.

What I really like here beside the quite in your face full splash element, is the storytelling aspect. Manapul choose to depict Witchblade jumping out of a moving car and while the image is static by definition, I think the sense of movement/speed/tension is amazing. The driver looking back at her, the speed lines and her looking so determined to do what she has to with her body tensing to jump from the car, the tiny figure of the vilain in the driver's mirror, all the little pièces of debris.... Great work!

Plus Francis introduced the visual concept that she could do much more with her power than spikes and blades, such as the bat wings here. He was also paying a lot of Mucha attention to her hair :)