Dick Fulmine is the title character of an action comic book series. He was created in 1938 by the sports journalist (writer) and Carlo Cossio (artist).

Background

The character, an

Italian-American Italian Americans ( it, italoamericani or ''italo-americani'', ) are Americans who have full or partial Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeast and industrial Midwestern metropolitan areas, w ...

, is an undercover agent of the Chicago police, who often engages in fisticuffs. Fulmine was inspired by the boxer

Primo Carnera Primo may refer to: People *DJ Premier (born 1966), hip-hop producer, sometimes goes by nickname Primo *Primo Carnera (1906–1967), Italian boxer, World Heavyweight champion 1933–1934 *Primo Cassarino (born 1956), enforcer for the Gambino cri ...

.Franco Fossati, ''I grandi eroi del fumetto'', Gramese, 1990, pp. 90–91Claudio Carabba, ''Il fascismo a fumetti'', Editore Guaraldi, 1973, p. 54 Fulmine's juttingjaw was a reference to the popular and propagandistic physiognomic iconography of

Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 194 ...

.Pietro Favari, ''Le nuvole parlanti: un secolo di fumetti tra arte e mass media'', 1996, p. 214 Dick Fulmine achieved a great popularity in the Fascist era, and in reason of its success the comic underwent several interventions by the MinCulPop (the Fascist Ministry of Popular Culture) in order to make his stories more nationalistic and moral. In 1942, MinCulPop even forced authors to change the facial traits of the title character in order to make him more handsome, an event that was justified in the comics telling that the character had been subjected to plastic surgery. With the outbreak of World War II, Dick Fulmine underwent an even more marked evolution to respond to changing political demands, turning from being a detective into a belligerent Italian soldier. Following the war, the character's success start to decline, and the series was interrupted in the second half of the 1940s. In 1955 it was terminated.

References

Italian comic strips Fulmine, Dick Fulmine, Dick 1938 comics debuts 1955 comics endings Crime comics Fulmine, Dick Fulmine, Dick Fulmine, Dick {{comics-char-stub