Posted By Dan Greenfield on Feb 14, 2025 | 2 comments

FRANCO’s FREE FOR ALL FRIDAYS!

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Hey, it’s the second installment of FRANCO’S FREE FOR ALL FRIDAYS — or FRANCO FRIDAYS, for short. This new weekly column by multiple Eisner-winner Franco (aka Franco Aureliani) is exactly as it sounds — a lot of groovy thoughts and stories about all sorts of things related to comics. Check out last week’s first installment for Franco’s introductory piece. You’ll dig it. And you’ll dig this. — Dan

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By FRANCO

“I don’t believe in reincarnation, and I didn’t believe it when I was a hamster!”

Man, I wished I was a superhero!

As a kid, the thrill of picking up a new comic book and checking out the amazing feats of Spider-Man or Batman was all I looked forward to on weekends. It was the only time I would get to spend with my Dad as he worked long hours. On Saturdays I would go with him to work, where he was a cook at our family’s Italian restaurant in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

I would bus tables and serve pizza slices but in the afternoon, after the lunch crowd slowed down, I would gather any tip money and a few bucks from my dad and rush down to the corner pharmacy where they had a spinner rack full of new comic books.

Those ’70s Spider-man comics when he fought not only Green Goblin or Mysterio, but also the little known bad guys like the Cyclone:

Or the Mindworm:

Mindworm was scary back then! Those were great stories (written by Gerry Conway, with art by Ross Andru) and would leave me with lasting impressions. I would read them over and over again, just spend hours poring over those things. Reading the stories, making up my own, spending hours drawing. Some of the best times I spent as a kid. Most of these were basically stories within the covers. And the next month I would get the next adventure.

It wasn’t until I picked up this 1981 New Teen Titans gem by Marv Wolfman and George Perez that it really hit me:

“Man, would I love to work on comic books.”

The thought was always there. “Wouldn’t it be cool? It would! But how?” I would figure that part out later. For now, just draw. And I did. All the time. I would come up with stories. I had to — I went back to that store with the spinner rack the next month and the following issue of Titans was sold out! And there was no way of getting it! It wasn’t like there was a comic store near me back in those days. And whoever heard of back issues? Because in the days of spinner racks there was no guarantee you would get to finish the story. It wasn’t until years later that I read the issue that comes after this.

So I did the only thing I could. I would keep drawing and keep coming up with my own stories. Even though there was a time in my life where I gave up the notion and tried to follow a different career path in film and TV, I would still doodle.

Here’s a sketch from my way back old-time sketch book:

Yeesh! Misproportioned everything! But still, I was drawing. Drawing made me happy.

And you know what happens when you keep working on it? When you have a desire to do something? You do anything to make it happen. You put the effort in. You reinvent yourself when you have to.

Or “reincarnate,” if you prefer.

For me, it paid off:

Tiny Titans written by me with Art Baltazar

Teen Titans Go! cover by me

A commission

Not bad for a hamster.

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Want more of FRANCO’s FREE FOR ALL FRIDAYS? Come back next week!

Want a commission? Send an email to blindwolf2@aol.com. You can also click here to find other work. 

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MORE

— Introducing… FRANCO’s FREE FOR ALL FRIDAYS. Click here.

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Franco and his forehead have traveled the world and he writes and draws stuff. Franco is the creator, artist and writer of Patrick the Wolf Boy and Aw Yeah Comics! Franco has worked on books/comics, including Tiny Titans and Superman Family Adventures. Franco was also a high-school teacher and is one of the principal owners of Aw Yeah Comics retail stores. Dan made Franco add that he has won three Eisners.