Davide Toffolo (born January 17, 1965,

Pordenone Pordenone (; Venetian and fur, Pordenon) is the main ''comune'' of Pordenone province of northeast Italy in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region. The name comes from Latin ''Portus Naonis'', meaning 'port on the Noncello (Latin ''Naon'') River'. ...

, Italy) is an Italian author of comics books, including

graphic non-fiction Non-fiction comics, also known as graphic non-fiction, is non-fiction in the comics medium, embracing a variety of formats from comic strips to trade paperbacks. Comic strips and comic books Traditionally, comic strips have long offered factual ...

works, and musician.

Life and work

Davide Toffolo studied at the DAMS (Dipartimento di Arte, Musica e Spettacolo – In English: Department of Arts, Music and Entertainment) of the

University of Bologna The University of Bologna ( it, Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, UNIBO) is a public research university in Bologna, Italy. Founded in 1088 by an organised guild of students (''studiorum''), it is the oldest university in continuo ...

. When Davide Toffolo started to play music, his native town

was already one of the most important cities for the Italian punk rock scene which emerged in the late 1970s because of the closeness of the American military base in

Aviano Aviano ( fur, Davian; cim, Pleif) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Pordenone at the foot of the Dolomites mountain range in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, northern Italy. Aviano is home to the C.R.O. (Oncological Referral Center), a cancer rese ...

. Members of his band,

Tre Allegri Ragazzi Morti Tre allegri ragazzi morti (''Three cheerful dead boys'' in Italian, often stylized as TARM) is an Italian indie rock band formed in Pordenone, Friuli Venezia Giulia, in 1994. History Guitarist and comic artist Davide Toffolo started to play mus ...

(''Three happy dead boys''), are known for wearing a skull masks and not letting the fans take pictures or videos without the skull masks. In 2005 his band together with a few bands from the neighboring

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

, which has a similar punk rock tradition from the 1970s, went to an overseas concert tour in South America. It could be assumed that conversing with fellow punk musicians from

he had heard of the existence of

Gonars concentration camp The Gonars concentration camp was one of the several Italian concentration camps and it was established on February 23, 1942, near Gonars, Italy. Many internees were transferred to this camp from the other Italian concentration camp, Rab concen ...

for the first time, and decided to write the non-fiction comic book titled ''Italian winter'' about it in 2010. It is based on documents from official archives in Slovenia, collected by Paola Bristot, art historian at

.A blog post with quotations from correspondence between Davide Toffolo and Paola Bristot during her research and collecting documents
/ref>

Comic books

* ''Piera degli Spiriti'' (with Giovanni Mattioli), Kappa Edizioni, 1996 * ''Animali'' (with Giovanni Mattioli), Kappa Edizioni, 1998 * ''Fregoli'', Kappa Edizioni, 1998 * ''Fare Fumetti'', Vivacomix, 2000 * ''Carnera, la montagna che cammina'', Vivacomix * ''Intervista a Pasolini'', Biblioteca dell'immagine, 2002 * ''Anatomia di una adolescenza'', Vivacomix, 2005 * ''Il re bianco'',

Coconino Press Coconino Press is an Italian publisher of comic books, founded in 2000 in Bologna, Italy. They are notable for their translations of comic books from around the world, including the Americans Daniel Clowes, Jason Lutes, Simon Hanselmann and Adr ...

, 2005 * ''Très! Fumetti per il teatro'',

, 2008 * ''Lezioni di fumetto'', Coniglio editore, 2009 * ''L'inverno d'Italia'' (in English "Italian winter"),

, 2010

Comic series

* ''Fandango'', Cult Comix, 1999–2001 * ''Cinque allegri ragazzi morti''

References

1965 births Living people Italian comics writers {{Europe-comics-creator-stub