Johnny Zito (born John-Paul Zito 1982) is a writer, film maker and artist best known for horror comedy '' Alpha Girls''.

Early life

Johnny Zito is a native of

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

and graduated from

Saint Joseph's Preparatory School St. Joseph's Preparatory School, known as "St. Joseph's Prep" or simply "The Prep", is an urban, private, Catholic, college preparatory school run by the Jesuits in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded in 1851. Curriculm Th ...

in 2000. Afterwards, he attended

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptists, Baptist minister Russell Conwell an ...

obtaining degrees in Film, New Media and Theology.

Career

Zito's early career began in print with political cartoons. Most notably for

Review Publishing ''Philadelphia Weekly'' (''PW'') is a website based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded as a newspaper in 1971 as ''The Welcomat'', a sister publication to the ''South Philadelphia Press''. In 1995, the paper became ''Philadelphia Weekl ...

. In 2008, along with co-writer Tony Trov, he won the March

Zuda Comics Zuda Comics was DC Comics' webcomics imprint from 2007 until 2010. Some of the imprints series won awards and nominations from comic industry's Glyph Comics Awards and Harvey Awards. ''Bayou, Volume 1'' was also named one of the 2010 Great Graph ...

competition with ''

The Black Cherry Bombshells ''The Black Cherry Bombshells'' is a webcomic from DC imprint Zuda Comics, created by Johnny Zito and Tony Trov, illustrated by Sacha Borisich and colors by John Dallaire. It was selected as winner of Zuda's March 2008 competition. In 2014, the ...

''. The duo's sophomore effort, ''La Morté Sisters'', was also purchased by Zuda Comics in 2009. Both comics were nominated for

Harvey Awards The Harvey Awards are given for achievement in comic books. Named for writer-artist Harvey Kurtzman, the Harvey Awards were founded by Gary Groth in 1988, president of the publisher Fantagraphics, to be the successor to the Kirby Awards that wer ...

in the Best Online Comic Category; 2009 and 2011 respectively. When Zuda Comics dissolved in 2010, ''The Black Cherry Bombshells'' and '' La Morté Sisters'' were migrated to the DC Online imprint along with several other popular titles. In 2009, Zito and Trov teamed with

Comixology Iconology Inc., d/b/a ComiXology (styled comiXology), is a cloud-based digital distribution platform for comics owned by Amazon, with over 200 million comic downloads . It offers a selection of more than 100,000 comic books, graphic novels, and ...

to digitally distribute a mini-series based on their self-published comic ''Carnivale De Robotique''. Zito and Trov's webcomic based on the public domain character Moon Girl was digitally distributed through Comixology before being printed by

Red 5 Comics Red 5 is an independent comic book publisher, known for producing a combination of creator-owned and internally developed titles, including their best known title, '' Atomic Robo''. Red 5 was one of the first comics publishers to jump into digital ...

in Spring of 2011. In 2010 they began digitally distributing a space-horror webcomic ''

D.O.G.S. of Mars South Fellini is an American film, graphic novel and apparel studio established by Tony Trov and Johnny Zito in 2010. History Starting in the comic book industry with DC Entertainment's Zuda Comics, South Fellini has also developed graphic novels ...

'' through Comixology. This webcomic was adapted in graphic novel form by

Image Comics Image Comics is an American comic book publisher and is the third largest comic book and graphic novel publisher in the industry in both unit and market share. It was founded in 1992 by several high-profile illustrators as a venue for creator-o ...

in 2011, and has been optioned as a film by High Treason Pictures. Zito and Trov's production company, South Fellini, released their first feature film, '' Alpha Girls'', in 2013 through

Gravitas Ventures Gravitas Ventures is an independent film distribution company owned by Anthem Sports and Entertainment. The company was founded by Nolan Gallagher in Los Angeles, California in 2006 and moved its headquarters to Cleveland, Ohio in 2019, where it f ...

. In 2015, production began on a second feature film, '' American Exorcist''. Zito has also designed T-shirts for Shirt.Woot, CBS, and Philadelphia's CheeseSteak Tees.

Comics

DC Entertainment DC Entertainment is an American entertainment company that was founded in September 2009 and was based in Burbank, California. The company is a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery that manages its DC Comics units and characters in other unit ...

: *''

'' (2008- 2011) *'' La Morté Sisters'' (2009- 2011)

*'' Carnivale De Robotique'' (2010)

*'' Moon Girl'' (2011- 2013)

*''

'' (2012)

Films

* '' Alpha Girls'' – 2013 * '' American Exorcist'' – 2018

Awards

* 2009: **

Harvey Award The Harvey Awards are given for achievement in comic books. Named for writer-artist Harvey Kurtzman, the Harvey Awards were founded by Gary Groth in 1988, president of the publisher Fantagraphics, to be the successor to the Kirby Awards that we ...

Nominee - Best Online Comics Work for ''

'' ** 48 Hour Film Project - Best Editing, Best Special Effects for '' The Kingpin of Pain'' ** Finalist Set In Philadelphia Screenplay Film.org for '' La Morté Sisters'' ** CBS Star Trek T-Shirt Design Competition - First place design;

References

External links

* American comics writers American comics artists American writers of Italian descent Living people 1982 births American webcomic creators {{webcomic-author-stub