After he graduated in artistic study, Messina worked in animation and graphic advertising as a visualizer. Since 2005, he has been working for the American comic-book market, mostly for IDW Publishing, for which he drew four Angel limited series (The Curse, Old Friends, Auld Lang Syne, Smile Time) as well as some related one-shots.

With writer Scott Tipton, he worked on four Star Trek limited series: Klingons, Intelligence Gathering, Mirror Image, and Spock; along with assorted other Star Trek-related covers and one-shots. Messina also he drew Star Trek: Countdown and Star Trek: Countdown to Darkness, the prequels to the J.J. Abrams movies, and the tie-in Star Trek: Nero and Star Trek: Khan.

Messina also illustrated the launch of the True Blood comic series, the crossover books Infestation and Infestation II with Abnett & Lanning, and Ryall and Swierczynski.

For Marvel Comics, Messina drew Ultimate Spiderman; Ultimate Comics Wolverine: Legacies; Wolverine and the X-Men; Uncanny X-Men; the relaunch of Cloak & Dagger with Dennis Hopeless; and Ironheart 2020.

Alongside Man of Action’s Joe Casey, Messina co-created for Image Comics a series called THE BOUNCE. For DC Comics, he did the art on Catwoman; Action Comics; Midnighter; Wonder Woman; and Red Hood: The Outlaws.

Of late, he worked on the relaunch of ROM the Space Knight, alongside Paolo Villanelli, Chris Ryall, and Christos Cage; and he drew the Star Trek event series, The Q Conflict. In addition to 3KEYS, Messina is currently working on Marvel’s Han Solo & Chewbacca series with writer Marc Guggenheim.