The artist behind the current Eisner Award-nominated Daredevil series just shared a comic he drew as a child of the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen to inspire fans. The two-panel strip is shown as one of a two-part image with a Daredevil cover he drew right next to it. The stark contrast shows how far the artist has come from a child who dreamt of drawing Daredevil comics, to the professional artist drawing them for a living.
Born in a small town near Venice in 1975, Italian artist Marco Checchetto has worked with Marvel for a number of years on multiple projects. Before his ongoing contribution on Daredevil Vol. 6, Checchetto was arguably best known for his work on Marvel’s Star Wars comics. The Marvel Comics artist drew for Shattered Empire, Obi-Wan and Anakin, and Captain Phasma. While adding to the lore of Star Wars was a self-proclaimed dream come true for the artist, Checchetto confirmed he is living out a true childhood fantasy bringing the latest Daredevil adventure to the page.
On June 29, 2021, Marco Checchetto posted a photo on his Twitter page showing how far he had come in his career as an artist. Pictured next to the cover he drew for Daredevil #21, Checchetto posted a two-panel comic strip of Daredevil facing off against a well known villain of Hell’s Kitchen. With the speech bubbles written in Checchetto’s native Italian, the dialogue loosely translates to Daredevil getting the drop on the villain Gladiator AKA Melvin Potter after Murdock tracked him to an alleyway near the pier. Gladiator cries out, “DEVIL” in response to Daredevil’s arrival.
While the comic is clearly the unpaid artwork of a hopeful child, style and talent is easy to spot while taking a look at the strip, with suspected influence from Jack Kirby himself. One Twitter user commented on Checchetto’s shared picture with a panel of the artist’s childhood comic shown next to a Kirby-drawn Avengers comic, asking the artist if he was inspired by Kirby when drawing the comic. Checchetto offered no reply though the commenter’s point was well made as the two art styles are clearly similar. Even if he did derive some inspiration from the King of Comics as a child, Checchetto has made his style all his own in the current era of Marvel Comics.
From drawing seemingly Kirby-inspired childhood artwork to cultivating an iconic style all his own, Marco Checchetto proves that dreams can come true especially in the art world. As a child Checchetto drew a Daredevil comic for fun, and now he is responsible for the look and tone of the character and has been for years. Marco Checchetto is a living inspiration to fans who wish to follow in his footsteps proven true by the posted example of how far he has come in his artistic career with Marvel Comics.
