''Gli Aristocratici'' ("''The Aristocrats''") is an Italian comic strip series created in 1973 by

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' ...

and Ferdinando Tacconi.

Background

The comics was first published in 1973 by the comics magazine ''

Il Corriere dei Ragazzi The ''Corriere dei Piccoli'' (Italian for "Courier of the Little Ones"), later nicknamed ''Corrierino'' ("Little Courier"), was a weekly magazine for children published in Italy from 1908 to 1995. It was the first Italian periodical to make a r ...

''. It features a group of gentlemen thieves who donate to charity the money of their thefts. During their stories they also encountered famous literary and cinematographic characters such as Sherlock Holmes,

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...

Inspector Clouseau Inspector Jacques Clouseau (), later granted the rank of Chief Inspector, is a fictional character in Blake Edwards' farcical '' The Pink Panther'' series. He is portrayed by Peter Sellers in the original series, and also by Alan Arkin in ...

.Franco Fossati, ''I grandi eroi del fumetto'', Gramese, 1990, pp. 30–31 The series obtained a moderate success in Italy and was translated in 18 foreign countries. In 1983 it generated a spin-off, ''Agente Allen'', published by ''

Il Giornalino ''Il Giornalino'' is an Italian comics magazine published in Italy. History and profile ''Il Giornalino'' was founded by the Catholic publisher Edizioni San Paolo of Alba in 1924. During its history, the magazine has published the Italian tran ...

''. ''Gli Aristocratici'' also appeared, as supporting characters, in a number of stories of ''

Martin Mystère ''Martin Mystère'' is both the title and protagonist of an Italian comic book. Created by writer Alfredo Castelli and artist Giancarlo Alessandrini, it was first published in Italy by Sergio Bonelli Editore in 1982. Dark Horse Comics has publi ...

''.

Characters

The main characters in the comic are: * The Earl, a British gentleman and also the leader of the group, * Moose, an Irish strongman, * Alvaro, an Italian charmer and also a master of safes, * Fritz, a German inventor, * Jean, the Earl's adopted daughter * Michael Allen, who works at Scotland Yard, and who sometimes tries to catch the Aristocrats and who sometimes needs their help. He is in love with Jean.

References

Italian comics titles Comics characters introduced in 1973 Italian comics characters 1973 comics debuts Humor comics Crime comics Fictional gentleman thieves

The Earl ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

Moose The moose (in North America) or elk (in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is a member of the New World deer subfamily and is the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is the largest and heaviest extant species in the deer family. Most adult ma ...

Alvaro

Fritz Fritz originated as a German nickname for Friedrich, or Frederick (''Der Alte Fritz'', and ''Stary Fryc'' were common nicknames for King Frederick II of Prussia and Frederick III, German Emperor) as well as for similar names including Fridolin a ...

Male characters in comics {{Italy-comics-stub