Edizioni Alpe (also known for a time in the late 1940s as Edizioni Subalpino) was an Italian publishing house founded in 1939 and active until the late 1980s. Based in Milan, it published a series of magazines focusing on popular fiction genres—romance, science fiction, mystery—and the genre for which it was best known,

comics a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicate ...

History

The company was founded in 1939 by the journalist and writer Giuseppe Antonio Caregaro. One of its earliest and most successful comics was the ''

Cucciolo Cucciolo is the title character of an Italian long-lasting comic book series. Background Cucciolo, together with the inseparable friend Beppe, are a couple of comic characters created in 1940 by Giuseppe Caregaro as writer and Rino Anzi as art ...

'' series created by Caregaro and drawn by Rino Anzi.Chendi, Carlo and Badino, Sergio (eds.) (2008)
''Strips of land, strips of paper''
p. 185. Tunué. Although Alpe primarily concentrated on comics, it also published popular fiction magazines after Caregaro took over Edizioni Economiche Italiane and its back catalogue in 1940. Alpe became a

limited liability company A limited liability company (LLC for short) is the US-specific form of a private limited company. It is a business structure that can combine the pass-through taxation of a partnership or sole proprietorship with the limited liability of a ...

in 1944 with Caregaro as its managing director, but much of the editorial supervision and administration was carried out by the writer Leonello Martini.

Carlo Chendi Angelo Carlo Chendi (10 July 1933 – 12 September 2021) was an Italian cartoonist. Since 1952, Carlo Chendi wrote hundreds of stories with characters from Disney comics. Early life Chendi moved at a young age from Ferrara, to Rapallo, in Lig ...

, who worked for Edizioni Alpe in the early 1950s, recalled that the postwar years were difficult ones for Alpe and other Italian comics publishers. The distribution system was hampered by an inadequate transport network in Italy and there was a chronic shortage of paper.Badino, Sergio (2006)
''Conversazione con Carlo Chendi: da Pepito alla Disney e oltre''
pp. 24–26. Tunué. The editorial offices were originally located in a single basement room on Via Carlo Poma in Milan. With the success of ''Cucciolo'', which by the early 1950s was selling almost as well as Mondadori's ''

Topolino ''Topolino'' (from the Italian name for Mickey Mouse) is an Italian digest-sized comic series featuring Disney comics. The series has had a long running history, first appearing in 1932 as a comics magazine. It is currently published by Panini ...

'', the company was on a more secure financial footing and was able to move into a four-room apartment in nearby Via Piolti de' Bianchi. Caregaro rented out one of the rooms to

Giorgio Rebuffi Giorgio Rebuffi (7 November 1928 – 15 October 2014) was an Italian comics artist. Born in Milan, Rebuffi started his career in 1949 when, still being a university student at the Faculty of Medicine, he created the character Sceriffo Fox ("Sheri ...

who used it as his studio for several years. By that time Rebuffi had become the primary artist for the ''Cucciolo'' series and for ''

Tiramolla Tiramolla is an Italian comic book character created in 1952 by Roberto Renzi and Giorgio Rebuffi. Tiramolla (English language, English: Stretch-Spring) is a bizarre Superhero that resembles a stick figure with extensible slender body, oval face ...

'', which was to become Alpe's longest-running comic. After Caregaro's death in 1963, his son inherited the company but showed little interest in running it. Martini took over as its managing director followed in 1976 by Teresa Comelli who had been a secretary and administrator with the company since its early postwar years. However, the innovation and experimentation which had marked the company's output during Caregaro's lifetime gradually diminished. Alpe became increasingly dependent on republishing earlier comics and eventually ceased operating in the late 1980s.Boschi, Luca (2007). ''Irripetibili: le grandi stagioni del fumetto italiano'', p. 16. Coniglio Editore.

Edizioni Alpe comics, writers and artists

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Pugacioff Pugacioff (also spelled Pugaciòff) is the title character of an Italian comic series created by Giorgio Rebuffi. Background Pugacioff was created by Rebuffi in 1959 as a supporting character in the comic series '' Cucciolo'', then he became pr ...

'' *'' Serafino'' *''

'' *''

Whisky & Gogo Whisky & Gogo is an Italian comic series created by Luciano Bottaro. It debuted in 1959, published in the comics magazine ''Cucciolo'', and in a short time it named an eponym comic book series, published in Italy by Edizioni Alpe. The series, set ...

'' Writers and artists *

Renzo Barbieri Renzo Barbieri (10 March 1940 – 23 September 2007) was an author and editor of Italian comics as well as the founder of the publishing house Edifumetto. In 1980 he wrote ''Il Manuale del Playboy'' (Manual for Playboys), a textbook about wher ...

Luciano Bottaro Luciano Bottaro (16 November 1931 – 25 November 2006) was an Italian comic book artist. Bottaro's characteristic style is highly appreciated in Europe - many countries publish his comics (such as France, Germany, Greece, Spain, Portugal, and ...

* Andrea Bresciani *

Alfredo Castelli Alfredo Castelli (born 26 June 1947) is an Italian comic book artist and writer. Biography Born in Milan, Castelli began his comic book career at an early age, creating the strip '' Scheletrino'', a humor series for Italian comic book ''Diabolik' ...

Alberico Motta Alberico Motta (6 October 1937 - 23 May 2019) was an Italian cartoonist and illustrator. Life and career Born in Milan, Motta started his career at just 14 years old, collaborating with some children magazines published by Edizioni Alpe. He made ...

References

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History

Edizioni Alpe comics, writers and artists

References

Further reading