The life of DAF Daniele Afferni is one of art and comics.
After graduating from the “Scuola Superiore di Arti Applicate del Castello Sforzesco di Milano” art institute, he applied his visual skills in both the adv market – working for the renowned Armando Testa agency – and fine arts. Afferni’s early oil paintings and illustrations already feature weird creatures framed in boldly unreal perspectives.
During these years he has also worked as storyboard artist for important directors such as Gabriele Salvatores, Wim Wenders, Nicolas Roeg.
In the early 2000s, Afferni founded ASC studios – still active as top-class suppliers of pre-production visuals and concept art.
Meanwhile, Afferni’s fine art feats led to exhibitions in London, Berlin, Milan and New York.
Afferni is an old-time comics lover, especially the superheroes ones with whom he literally grew up with since childhood, so - when he met the Avalanche storymakers collective in 2015 – he started producing his own sequential pages shortly after. Among others, “Batman Nero” – an experimental take on Batman, Silver Medal Comic Art category at A.I. Annual 2023 – and “Exhumation” – a gothic one-shot published on Aces Weekly, the comic magazine founded and edited by David Lloyd.
Afferni’s style – suggestive, energetic and oh-so-westerly – grabbed the attention of the Japanese game design studio Bushiroad in 2016, as they hired him to illustrate the official Dragoborne tie-in comic.
In the following years he was published by Metal Hurlant (Les Humanoides Associés) FR, by Heavy Metal Magazine US ( Heavy Metal's Megadeth Death By Design , Bronze Medal Comic Art category at A.I. Annual 2020), by David Lloyd’s Aces Weekly again, and by various US game and trading cards publishers including Marvel Renditions: Spiderman by Upper Deck, FFG X-Men Mutant Insurrection by Fantasy Flight Games and Varia by Guild House Games.
He also took part as Concept Designer at “Dreadful Bond” , an independent horror game supported by the famous horror director Dario Argento.
In recent times, he’s working on an ongoing basis for the digital publisher, INTERPOP COMICS, featuring as comic and cover artist.
Daniele Afferni is currently working professionally in both movie productions and comics, and he is recently hired as Head of Visual Development in a big international cinematographic production (the film is still in pre-production “confidential” mode).
Moreover, he’s teaching Anatomy and Perspective at the prestigious Scuola Internazionale di Comics in Milan.
Client List
Les Humanoides Associés - Metal Hurlant FR
InterPop Comics US
InterPop Comics US
Heavy Metal Magazine US (Megadeth: Death by Design - Bronze Medal Comic Art category at A.I. Annual 2020)
Macroverse US
David Lloyd Aces Weekly UK,
Bushiroad Intl. - Dragoborne comic saga JP
Batman Nero Fancomic (Silver Medal Comic Art category at A.I. Annual 2023)
X-Men Insurrection by Fantasy Flight Games US
Varia Card and Comic by Guild House Games US.
Upper Deck US