Silvestri began his career drawing issues for
DC Comics and
First Comics. He joined Marvel Comics in the mid-1980s (having earlier guest pencilled for Marvel as early as 1982 on Master of Kung Fu issue 119), and became the penciller on
Uncanny X-Men from 1987 to 1990. In 1992, Silvestri became one of the original seven artists (along with
Jim Lee,
Whilce Portacio,
Rob Liefeld,
Erik Larsen,
Todd McFarlane, and
Jim Valentino) to form the breakaway comics company
Image Comics. Silvestri's stable of titles was published under the imprint
Top Cow with the first title released being
Cyberforce. Besides his art, Silvestri was also scripter (and co-plotter) on the Top Cow title
Codename: Stryke Force. Many of Silvestri's stories were scripted by his brother,
Eric Silvestri. Disputes among the Image partners led to Silvestri briefly leaving the publisher in 1996, but he returned after Liefeld severed his own ties with Image. Top Cow's successes include the titles
Witchblade,
The Darkness,
Inferno Hellbound (publication of which was interrupted for unknown reasons), and
Fathom. Silvestri produced the story and preliminary character sketches for the 1997
video game Fighting Force. In 2004, Silvestri made a brief return to Marvel to pencil several issues of
X-Men, collaborating with writer
Grant Morrison. Later in the year, he launched a new Top Cow title,
Hunter-Killer with writer
Mark Waid. He provided covers for the Marvel Comics mini-series,
X-Men: Deadly Genesis by
Ed Brubaker and
Trevor Hairsine. In June 2006, Top Cow released
Cyberforce #0 featuring art by Silvestri. In late 2007 (cover date December), he pencilled the
X-Men: Messiah Complex one-shot, as well as many covers in the crossover of the same name that followed. Silvestri executive produced the
anime adaptation of
Witchblade. He continued his work on
X-Men, penciling the first installment, in the form of the Uncanny X-Men/
Dark Avengers one-shot crossover
Utopia in 2009. That same year, he contributed to the crossover miniseries
Image United, penciling all the characters he created during his run at Image that featured in the story. In 2012, Silvestri was one of several artists to illustrate a variant cover for
Robert Kirkman's
The Walking Dead #100, which was released July 11 at
San Diego Comic-Con. In November 2022, DC Comics published the limited series
Batman & The Joker: The Deadly Duo, written and drawn by Silvestri. ==Personal life==