EXCLUSIVE: Giancarlo Esposito, star of series including Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad, is staying in the criminal underworld with his latest project.
Esposito, coming off another turn as the sophisticated boss of a meth empire in Netflix’s The Gentlemen, is launching his first graphic novel.
He has co-created The Venetian, a story of commitment and sacrifice set against the backdrop of Venice’s criminal underworld.
Coming out via Gallery 13, part of The Gallery Books Group, a division of Simon & Schuster, the graphic novel was co-created by screenwriter Matt Wheeler and writer, storyboard artist Jay Martin.
Wheeler is working with Esposito on his next series, six-part crime thriller Parish for AMC, where he is a co-exec producer. He recently wrote the sequel series The Italian Job for Paramount+ and penned a series adaptation of Guy Richie’s Rocknrolla that was previously in development at UCP and Dark Castle. He was also showrunner of CBS’ Hawaii Five-0 and co-created CBS summer series Salvation.
Jay Martin wrote and illustrated his first graphic novel Lost Boy, which was published by Dark Horse Comics in 2023 and his upcoming graphic novel, Yellow, set in a dystopian America, is slated for release in spring 2024 by Dark House.
Charlie Olsen at InkWell Management brokered the deal on behalf of Esposito, Wheeler, and Martin.
Esposito said, “I am excited to be a part of this profoundly dynamic project, The Venetian. An action-packed character driven graphic novel. It’s an unusual original story that exemplifies my deeply rich Afro Italian heritage.”
Wheeler said, “I am thrilled to be realizing a longstanding dream of creating a graphic novel. And that I get to build this character and world from the ground up with one of the iconic actors of our time, Mr. Giancarlo Esposito—is truly special. Jay Martin is also not bad at drawing and coloring, so I’m very excited to see what we come up with.”
“A modern noir set in the crumbling Venice underbelly with Giancarlo’s protagonist at its heart. This is the kind of thing every artist dreams of bringing to life on the page,” added Martin.
Esposito is repped by Sugar23, CAA and Jackoway Austen Tyerman. Wheeler is repped by Sugar 23, IAG and Jackoway Austen Tyerman. Martin is repped by Scott Goldman at Frankfurt Kernit Klein.