Mario Zucca

Portraits, caricatures, editorial, maps, patterns, animation… with skills as versatile as those of Mario Zucca, you can end up working in so many different ways. However, if there’s one thing this Philadelphia artist excels at it’s creating massively detailed environments where hundreds of different characters are doing a whole range of things. You’ll stare and stare at one of his images, drawn in by the artist’s subtle jokes, Easter eggs and the sheer amount of activity going on. And Mario is nothing if not an active illustrator. Vastly experienced, he’s worked for major publishers, broadcasters, agencies, corporations and even sports leagues around the world. Raised on a diet of Marvel Comics, and later influenced by somewhat crazier cartoonists such as R Crumb, Daniel Clowes and Charles Burns, becoming a freelance illustrator was a natural move for Mario. Today, Mario is inspired by diversity, and it’s something that’s reflected in his images. Different ages, ethnicities, socio-economic groups, fashions and hairstyles all live together in his artwork, and this variety carries on into the architecture, machinery and environments he draws.