Matteo Pizzolo Explains Calexit’s Exclusive Faction Flag Variant Covers
The Black Mask Head Honcho Walks Us Through Robert Anthony Jr.’s Designs
Art by Robert Anthony Jr.
Publisher Black Mask is no stranger to provocative topics, from teen gun violence to police-sanctioned anti-black racism, but cofounder Matteo Pizzolo, artist Amancay Nahuelpan and colorist Tyler Boss may have hit peak firebrand status with Calexit, their take on Californian secession following the election of a recognizably caustic, bigoted president. While the series was in the works before November, Pizzolo, Nahuelpan and Boss have leaned into the real-world parallels of their sci-fi-influenced speculative fiction, even managing to hit Brietbart’s ever-outraged front page.
With one issue on shelves, Paste has an exclusive look at the “faction-specific” variant covers—available only on tour within the geographic zones designated in the book—and commentary about designer Robert Anthony Jr.’s flag concepts and Calexit’s factional divisions from Anthony Jr. and Pizzolo.
Commentary from Calexit writer Matteo Pizzolo and designer Robert Anthony Jr.
Symbolism and iconography are critical to any political movement, government or military force, and so we set out to design emblems and flags for each faction in Calexit.
The flags were designed principally for story purposes, but we’re also creating a set of limited edition #1 covers featuring them. Each cover will only be available in shops where that faction is geographically located, so only shops within Mulholland Resistance territory will have the MR cover, while shops in Sovereign Citizens territory will have the SCC cover, etc.
Mulholland Resistance
Mulholland Resistance is an insurgent group fighting back against the occupying forces of U.S. Homeland Security. MR originally formed in the Mulholland hills north of Hollywood, where caverns were expanded by the U.S. military following the bombing of Pearl Harbor. MR has retained its locally inspired name even as its movement spreads throughout the occupied zones of California.
In terms of the designing, obviously you’ve got the bear from the Bear Flag Revolt right here, but fiercer than the bear we’ve come to know from the popular California Republic flag. That flag is from a time when California seceded from Mexico, so the bear harkens back to California’s revolutionary spirit from a time before it was even a part of the U.S.A. We felt the ferocious bear is intrinsic to the DNA of California’s rebel spirit, and so an extremist rebel group like the Mulholland Resistance would take a great deal of inspiration from it.