''The Company of the Gallows'' (original title: ''La Compagnia della Forca'') is an Italian

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

series written and drawn by

Magnus Magnus, meaning "Great" in Latin, was used as cognomen of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus in the first century BC. The best-known use of the name during the Roman Empire is for the fourth-century Western Roman Emperor Magnus Maximus. The name gained wid ...

from 1977 to 1979 (with the collaboration of Giovanni Romanini).

Characters

The Company of Monblanc (this is the real name of the company) is a seedy company of mercenaries led by Sir Percy of Montblanc, bumbling knight and young heir of Montblanc family. Other company members are: * Capitan Golia, magister militum, warrior * Annalisa of Montblanc, sister of Percy (and more skillful than him), archer * Bertrando, minstrel and slinger (physically resembling Romanini) * Messer Ciacco, sutler (and former executioner) * Ser Crumb, squire of Sir Percy (with a physical resemblance with

) * Crusca, scullery-boy The group is joined in some adventures by Doctor Nadir, a scholar of oriental sciences, with his friend King Frog (a frog), and Lattemiele, a cunning accountant. Oscuro Signore ("Dark Lord"), driven by a prophecy, is trying to destroy the company using his minions. Among them, Crocca, a female vulture which starts the series telling company's story and the defeat of Evil. Among the characters there are sages, corrupt monks, genies, dragons, dwarves, giants, fantasy and historical characters (York and Lancaster from the

War of the Roses The Wars of the Roses (1455–1487), known at the time and for more than a century after as the Civil Wars, were a series of civil wars fought over control of the English throne in the mid-to-late fifteenth century. These wars were fought bet ...

, Dracula).

Themes

The story is an epic quest without its basic elements: the group, the aim, the battles, a clear separation between the good and the evil, a strong protagonist who decides what to do. The style of Magnus pencils often retains funny and grotesque elements shown in '' Alan Ford''. The text, instead, is a mixture of sarcastic

Max Bunker Max Bunker, pen name of Luciano Massimiliano Secchi (born 24 August 1939), is an Italian comic book writer, and publisher, best known as the co-author of '' Alan Ford''. Bunker's career started in 1960 when he co-founded, together with his brothe ...

's style,

Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, ; 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works '' The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawl ...

fantasy elements, medieval history, classical Northern European and Middle Eastern traditions and lore, and personal travels (for example, Magnus' travel to

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

External links

UBC fumetti site page about the series

Page about the series on Enciclopedia del fumetto Slumberland

Italian comics titles 1977 comics debuts Italian comics Comics characters introduced in 1977 1979 comics endings Fantasy comics Comics set in the Middle Ages {{Italy-comics-stub