Giuseppe Bergman is an Italian comics series by

Milo Manara Maurilio Manara (; born 12 September 1945), known professionally as Milo Manara, is an Italian comic book writer and artist. Career After architecture and painting studies, he made his comics debut in 1969 drawing for ''Genius'', a Fumetti neri ...

, which was first published in 1978. It stars a Candide-like anti-hero who appeared in four

graphic novel A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...

s which are an ironic deconstruction of adventure stories and comic books as a medium.

History

The first adventure, later collected for publication as ''HP et Giuseppe Bergman'' (''The Great Adventure'' in Catalan's English translation), was originally serialized in the Franco-Belgian comics magazine ''

À Suivre ''À Suivre'' or ''A SUIVRE'' (English translation: "To Be Continued") was a Franco-Belgian comics magazine published from February 1978 to December 1997 by the Casterman publishing house. Along with the comic book magazines ''Spirou (magazine), ...

'' beginning in 1978. Giuseppe Bergman appears as a dissatisfied 20-something longing for adventure. Seeking it, he responds to the advertisement of a mysterious company which sends him to HP, "the adventure master”: a caricature of and homage to famed Italian cartoonist

Hugo Pratt Ugo Eugenio Prat, better known as Hugo Pratt (15 June 1927 – 20 August 1995), was an Italian comic book creator who was known for combining strong storytelling with extensive historical research on works such as ''Corto Maltese''. He was ind ...

. Bergman finds himself confronted by hoodlums, rioters, white slavers, drug addicts, revolutionaries, and natives, but his adventures are bumbling disasters as he is consistently unprepared for the situations he encounters. In later adventures, collected in the graphic novels ''An Author in Search of Six Characters'', ''Dies Irae'', ''Perchance to Dream'', and ''To See the Stars'', Bergman's frustrating adventures take him through Africa, India, and the world of European art. Themes of art and

illusion An illusion is a distortion of the senses, which can reveal how the mind normally organizes and interprets sensory stimulation. Although illusions distort the human perception of reality, they are generally shared by most people. Illusions may oc ...

, fantasy and frustration, responsibility and

human nature Human nature is a concept that denotes the fundamental dispositions and characteristics—including ways of thinking, feeling, and acting—that humans are said to have naturally. The term is often used to denote the essence of humankind, or ...

run through the stories. ''Bergman's Odyssey'' published by Manara in Italian in 2004, was translated into English, and included in The Manara Library Volume 5 Further Adventures of Giuseppe Bergman in 2013.

Sources

1978 graphic novels 1978 comics debuts Italian graphic novels Adventure comics Satirical comics Metafictional comics Italian comics titles Bergman, Giuseppe Bergman, Giuseppe Bergman, Giuseppe {{Italy-comics-stub