Risso, Eduardo 1959–

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Risso, Eduardo 1959–

PERSONAL: Born 1959, in Leones, Argentina.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, DC Comics, 1700 Broadway, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10019-5905. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Illustrator, 1981–.

AWARDS, HONORS: Eisner Awards, 2001, for best serialized story, 2002, for best penciller/inker and best continuing series, Harvey Awards, 2002, for best artist and best series, Yellow Kid Award, all for 100 Bullets.

WRITINGS:

ILLUSTRATOR; COMIC-BOOK SERIES COLLECTIONS

Brian Azzarello, 100 Bullets, DC Comics (New York, NY), 2000.

Warren Ellis, Transmetropolitan: I Hate It Here, DC Comics (New York, NY), 2000.

Brian Azzarello, 100 Bullets: Split Second Chance, DC Comics/Vertigo (New York, NY), 2001.

Brian Azzarello, Jonny Double, DC Comics (New York, NY), 2002.

Brian Azzarello, 100 Bullets: The Counterfifth Detective, DC Comics/Vertigo (New York, NY), 2003.

Brian Azzarello, Batman: Broken City, DC Comics (New York, NY), 2004.

Brian Azzarello, 100 Bullets: Six Feet under the Gun, DC Comics/Vertigo (New York, NY), 2004.

Brian Azzarello, 100 Bullets: First Shot, Last Call, DC Comics/Vertigo (New York, NY), 2004.

Brian Azzarello, 100 Bullets: Samurai, DC Comics/Vertigo (New York, NY), 2004.

Illustrator for comic-book series J. C. Benedict, Chicano, and Alien Resurrection, all for Dark Horse Comics, and for Heart Throbs, Flinch, Weird Western Tales,; Batman: Gotham Night, Adventures of Superman, Borderline, Green Lantern: Secret Files, Heavy Metal, Je suis un vampire, Lectures Macabre Parque Chas, Simon, Une Adventure Americane, Tangled Web, Iguana, Transmetropolitan, Video noire, and Winter's Edge. Illustrator for Fulu, by Carlos Trillo, Puertitas, 1989; and America's Pastime, by Brian Azzarello, 2001. Illustrator for periodicals, including Glénate and Vécu.

SIDELIGHTS: Eduardo Risso is a prolific illustrator of comics who began his career in South America and has also drawn for U.S.-based comic-book publishers, most notably DC Comics. He often collaborates with writer Brian Azzarello, and their works include the comic-book series 100 Bullets series. Collected into several book-length volumes, the series focuses on a shadowy figure named Agent Graves. In each story, Graves visits a person whose life has been ruined and offers them a chance for revenge in the form of a dossier on the person who betrayed them, together with an untraceable gun and one hundred bullets.

A Publishers Weekly reviewer disliked the storylines in the series story-arc collected as 100 Bullets: Split Second Chance, but noted that "the book's real pleasures can be found in the drawings of artist Eduardo Risso, whose shadow-filled, stylized renderings of urban anomie manage to convey unexpected nuances of emotion." Another Publishers Weekly contributor noted that Risso's illustrations for 100 Bullets: Six Feet under the Gun are "scary and seductive." The reviewer went on to comment that Risso is "excellent at giving characters a distinctive look."

Chris Barsanti, writing in Kirkus Reviews, called 100 Bullets: First Shot, Last Call an "undeniably original piece of work." 100 Bullets: The Counterfifth Detective was reviewed by Gordon Flagg in Booklist, the critic noting that "The elegant simplicity of Risso's shadowy, atmospheric art perfectly suits Azzarello's sparse, hardboiled scripts; this is one of the most effective writer-artist teams in comics." In a review of 100 Bullets: Samurai for the Washington Post, Douglas Wolk advised that a careful rereading of the storyline "makes all the pieces fall into place in the greater mosaic of the series, where justice and retribution are nothing but ephemeral fantasies for the pawns in a game of power." Wolk went on to note that "Risso and colorist Patricia Mulvihill make Samurai seem even bleaker and more jagged."

Russo has also joined Azzarello in collaborating on the comic-book series published in graphic-novel form as Batman: Broken City. Writing in Booklist, Ray Olson found the plot involving the perennially popular caped crusader non-cohesive, but he added that "Risso's dazzling, dynamic artwork … makes all loose ends negligible."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, May 1, 2003, Gordon Flagg, review of 100 Bullets: The Counterfifth Detective, p. 1531; September 1, 2004, Ray Olson, review of Batman: Broken City, p. 76

Kirkus Reviews, October 1, 2004, Chris Barsanti, review of 100 Bullets: First Shot, Last Call.

Publishers Weekly, May 7, 2001, review of 100 Bullets: Split Second Chance, p. 226; February 9, 2004, review of 100 Bullets: Split Second Chance, p. 60.

Washington Post, September 12, 2004, Douglas Wolk, review of 100 Bullets: Samurai, p. T13.