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| Italian comics | |
|---|---|
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| Earliest publications | 1908 |
| Publishers | Edizioni Alpe Sergio Bonelli Editore Panini Comics Star Comics Edifumetto |
| Publications | Il Corriere dei Piccoli Topolino Corto Maltese Valentina Diabolik |
| Creators | Antonio Rubino Hugo Pratt Guido Crepax Magnus Sergio Bonelli |
| Series | "Bilbolbul" "Tex Willer" "Dylan Dog" "RanXerox" "Martin Mystère" |
| Languages | Italian |
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Italian comics, also known asfumetto[fuˈmetto],plural formfumetti[fuˈmetti], are comics that originate in Italy. The most popular Italiancomics have been translated into many languages. The termfumetto (literallylittle puff of smoke) refers to the distinctiveword balloons that contain the dialogue in comics (also callednuvoletta, "little cloud", inItalian).
InEnglish, the termfumetti can refer tophoto comics, regardless of origin or language.
Italianfumetto has its roots in periodicals aimed at younger readers and in the satirical publications of the 19th century. These magazines published cartoons and illustrations for educational and propagandist purposes. The first illustrated satirical publication appeared in 1848, inL'Arlecchino, a daily paper published in Naples. Other noteworthy examples of satirical papers of the period includeLo Spirito Folletto published in Milan, Turin'sIl Fischietto andIl Fanfulla, established in Rome in 1872.
As far as publications for kids, some of the most significant titles of the period areIl Giornale per i Fanciulli (1834),Il Giovinetto Italiano (1849), andGiornale per i bambini (1881).
In 1899Il Novellino debuted. The paper was the first to publish Outcault'sYellow Kid in Italy in 1904, but the first Italian comic did not appear until four years later.
On December 27, 1908, the first mainstream publication primarily for comics,Il Corriere dei Piccoli,[1] appeared on Italian newstands. The first issue introduced readers to the adventures ofBilbolbul byAttilio Mussino, featuring a little black kid who is considered the first Italian comic character.[2][3]
Despite being officially considered the birthplace offumetto, theCorrierino, as it was nicknamed, did not useballoons in the stories that it publishes, opting instead for captions in verse. Regardless, the sequential narration and the recurring characters made the publication the first Italian comic magazine.
The most prolific comics illustrator beforeWorld War I wasAntonio Rubino. Both Mussino and Rubino based their strips on parodies of school learning: Bilbolbul is a parody ofidioms, while "Quadratino" (literally "Little Square") is a parody ofgeometry.
Il Corrierino introduced American comics to an Italian audience: "Happy Hooligan" was renamed "Fortunello", "The Katzenjammer Kids" became "Bibì e Bibò",Bringing Up Father was "Arcibaldo e Petronilla", "Felix the Cat" became "Mio Mao".
FollowingIl Corrierino's spectacular success (reaching 700 000 copies), several other periodicals appeared during the following years:Il Giornaletto (1910),Donnina (1914),L'Intrepido (1920), andPiccolo mondo (1924).
The fascist regime was quick to recognize the potential for propaganda through the new medium. During the 1920s several periodicals published educational comics for Italian youth, includingIl Giornale dei Balilla (1923) andLa piccola italiana (1927).
The three most popular characters of the period, reprinted for decades onCorrierino, were:
Beginning January 1, 1939, the publication of foreign comics was forbidden, and Italian material was required to follow a strict standard, exalting heroism, patriotism, and the superiority of the Italian race. To work around these restrictions, some publishers simply renamed American heroes with Italian names. The only exception to the censorship wasTopolino, the Italian name forMickey Mouse, published byNerbini starting on December 31, 1931. Apparently, the reason behind this special treatment forWalt Disney's character wasBenito Mussolini's children's passion for the little mouse. In 1935 Nerbini soldTopolino toMondadori, which published it with great success until 1988.
In 1932 Milan publisher Lotario Vecchi startedJumbo, a weekly magazine that many consider the first true Italian comics publication. The magazine reached a circulation of 350,000 copies, sanctioning comics as a mainstream medium with broad appeal.
In 1937Il Vittorioso appeared, aCatholic magazine entirely composed of Italian comics. It was an attempt to compete with similar secular publications[6] likeL'Avventuroso (1934),Il Monello (1933), andL'Audace (1937).
The end of World War II marked a flurry of activity in the Italian comic press: many titles that were forced to suspend publication during the war came back to saturate the newsstands, joined by new publications often backed by improvised publishers looking for a quick buck. Finally this oversupply of comic material resulted in a crisis of the traditional comic magazine. Among the numerous publications of the period wereL'Avventura (1944), a Roman magazine that presented American adventure strips likeMandrake,L'Uomo Mascherato (The Phantom), andFlash Gordon. Another Roman publication appeared in 1945:Robinson, a first attempt to target a more adult audience. It introduced several American characters likePrince Valiant,Tarzan,Secret Agent X-9,Rip Kirby,Li'l Abner andDick Tracy.Robinson lasted until 1947, publishing 90 issues.
In 1945, one of the most original magazines of the period was born:L'asso di Picche published inVenice as a result of the work of a group of young Venetian artists, includingAlberto Ongaro,Damiano Damiani,Dino Battaglia,Rinaldo D'Ami, and above allFernando Carcupino andHugo Pratt. Their distinctive approach to the art form earned them the name of "Venetian School" of comics. Among the characters created for the magazine were Pratt'sL'Asso di Picche, Battaglia'sJunglemen, Draky andRobin Hood.
Inspired by the success of the CatholicIl Vittorioso, the Italian Communist party decided to use the comic medium for their own purposes: in 1949Il Pioniere was born. Aimed at a very young audience, the new publication presented fantasy material as well as adventures, with an eye to the social issues of the period.
OnIl Vittorioso began the career of the most famous satirical comic writer of post-war Italy,Benito Jacovitti.[7] However, his most popular character,Cocco Bill (1957), a parody ofWestern comics, was published in the newspaperIl Giorno and then in the other Catholic comic magazineIl Giornalino.
In 1954Il Disco Volante began publication. It is the Italian version of British weeklyEagle, and introducedDan Dare to the Italian public. In 1955Tintin appeared, adapted from the FrenchTintin magazine, which first presentedFranco-Belgian comics to the Italian public.
But the most significant phenomenon of the period was the appearance of comics books. Printed in a variety of formats, from strip size tobooklets to giant size, they presented collected stories from the periodicals as well as new adventures of Italian characters. It is on the comic books pages that heroesmade in Italy gained popularity, eventually overshadowing their American counterparts.
Among the host of Italian series that were created during these years,Tex Willer is without doubt the most renowned. Born on September 30, 1948, from the imagination ofGian Luigi Bonelli and from the pencil ofAurelio Galleppini,Tex Willer became the model for a line of publications that became known asBonelliano, from the name of the publisher. These comic books presented complete stories in 100+ black and white pages in apocket book format. The subject matter was always adventure, whether western, horror, mystery or science fiction. Thebonelliani are to date the most popular form of comics in the country.
Some of the series that followedTex Willer wereZagor (1961), atomahawk-wielding hero who protects the imaginary Darkwood forest in eastern US,Comandante Mark (1966), featuring a soldier in the American independence war, and more recentlyMister No (1975), about an American pilot who operates a small tourist flying agency in the Amazonian jungle, andMartin Mystère (1982), featuring an anthropologist/archaeologist/art historian who investigates paranormal phenomena and archaeological mysteries.
Another popular series,Diabolik featuring a criminal mastermind, has been published since the 1960s, and influenced later series such asKriminal andSatanik (seeFumetti neri). The latter was created in the 1960s by one of the most famous duos of comics history,Magnus &Bunker, whose most outstanding creation, however, is the humorous espionage seriesAlan Ford (1969).
Another famous author of humouristic strips isFranco Bonvicini, whoseSturmtruppen met wide success abroad.
In the 1970s and early '80s, many young intellectual artists centred around the famous student city ofBologna began to be influenced by the underground comic scene of the United States, typified by the work ofRobert Crumb.[8] Artists such asAndrea Pazienza,Filippo Scòzzari,Stefano Tamburini,Tanino Liberatore, andMassimo Mattioli published stories with dark and surreal themes, ranging from political activism, to struggles with drug addiction and thedisagio and disillusionment of youth culture in Italy. Many of the comics were extremely violent and sexual and attempted to stretch the comic genre to its vary limits in both style and "good taste." Satirical magazines such asFrigidaire andIl Male often printed these stories in episodic formats or as vignettes in their monthly publications.
Though read by a more restricted audience, in the past years comics series with the greatest critical success areCorto Maltese, by Hugo Pratt, andValentina byGuido Crepax. While the former is a kind ofsumma of the evolution into an adult form of the classic adventure comics, the latter gave birth to that special kind of erotic comics quite typical of the Italian scene, and whose main pupils have been in more recent yearsMilo Manara andPaolo Eleuteri Serpieri.
Italy also produces manyDisney comics, i.e., stories featuring Disney characters (fromMickey Mouse andDonald Duck universes). After the 1960s, American artists of Disney comics, such asCarl Barks andFloyd Gottfredson did not produce as many stories as in the past. At present American production of new stories has dwindled (Don Rosa publishes in Europe), and this niche has been filled by companies in South America, Denmark and Italy. The Italian 'Scuola disneyana' has produced several innovations: building the Italian standard length for stories (30 pages), apocket book format with 3 strips a page, reinterpreting famous works of literature in 'Parodie', long stories up to 400 pages.
Among the most important artists and authors areMarco Rota,Romano Scarpa,Giorgio Cavazzano,Massimo De Vita,Giovan Battista Carpi andGuido Martina. The best known Disney character created in Italy isPaperinik (known as Duck Avenger or Phantom Duck to English audiences).
Italy prints around 8000 pages of new Disney stories per year, exported worldwide (it makes up 50% of the total production). The main publication,digest sizeTopolino, prints only new stories every week, but there exist 32 different series of reprints going on, for 30 million of copies sold each year.Since the late 1990s,Disney Italia produced innovative series likePK (Paperinik stories with an American superheroes flavour),W.I.T.C.H. orMonster Allergy.
Sergio Bonelli Editore adventure comics
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