Walter Molino (5 November 1915 – 8 December 1997) was an Italian comics artist and illustrator.

Life and career

Born in

Reggio Emilia Reggio nell'Emilia ( egl, Rèz; la, Regium Lepidi), usually referred to as Reggio Emilia, or simply Reggio by its inhabitants, and known until 1861 as Reggio di Lombardia, is a city in northern Italy, in the Emilia-Romagna region. It has abou ...

, Molino made his professional debut as illustrator and caricaturist in 1935, collaborating with the newspaper ''

Il Popolo d'Italia ''Il Popolo d'Italia'' ("The People of Italy") was an Italian newspaper published from 15 November 1914 until 24 July 1943. It was founded by Benito Mussolini as a pro-war newspaper during World War I, and it later became the main newspaper of ...

'' and the children's magazines ''

Il Monello ''Il Monello'' (meaning ''The Rascal'' in English) was a weekly comic magazine for kids and teens published in Italy from 1933 to 1990. History and profile ''Il Monello'' was founded in 1933 by the Del Duca brothers and initially offered only ...

'' and ''

L'Intrepido ''L'intrepido'' is a 2013 Italian comedy film directed by Gianni Amelio. It was screened in the main competition section of the 70th Venice International Film Festival and in the Special Presentation section at the 2013 Toronto International Fi ...

''. In 1936 he started working for the satirical magazine ''

Bertoldo ''Bertoldo'' was a biweekly magazine of surreal humour that ran from 14 July 1936 to 10 September 1943 under Italian Fascism. The magazine was based in Milan. While the '' Becco Giallo'' magazine put out courageous political satire against the f ...

'', and in 1938 he debuted as a comic artist with the series ''Virus, il mago della Foresta Morta'', with texts of

Federico Pedrocchi Federico Pedrocchi (1 May 1907 – 20 January 1945) was an Italian comic book artist and writer. He sometimes used the pen name Costanzo Federici. He founded the magazine ''Paperino e altre avventure'' (''Donald Duck and Other Adventures'') in 1937 ...

.Still with Pedrocchi he created the comics series ''Capitan l'Audace'' for the magazine ''

L'Audace ''L'Audace'' (Italian for "The Bold") was a weekly children and comic magazine published in Italy from 1934 to 1944. History and profile Founded by Lotario Vecchi in January 1934, the magazine was published by S.A.E.V, except for a short time in ...

'', ''Maschera Bianca'', and a number of other characters. Since 1941 Molino became the official cover-illustrator of ''

La Domenica del Corriere ''La Domenica del Corriere'' was an Italian weekly newspaper which ran from 1899 to 1989. It came out every Sunday free with ''Corriere della Sera'', but was also sold separately. It was famous for its cover drawings, and its issues are still col ...

'', succeeding to

Achille Beltrame Achille Beltrame (18 March 1871 in Arzignano – 19 February 1945 in Milan), was an Italian painter and illustrator. Biography He initially studied in Vicenza, but then enrolled in the Brera Academy. In 1899, he began working as an illustrato ...

. He also collaborated with the women's magazine ''

Grand Hotel A grand hotel is a large and luxurious hotel, especially one housed in a building with traditional architectural style. It began to flourish in the 1800s in Europe and North America. Grand Hotel may refer to: Hotels Africa * Grande Hotel Beir ...

'', as cover-illustrator and artist of "cineromanzi", i.e. comic stories, generally of romantic or melodramatic genre, whose comic characters resembled famous film actors. In 2020, his illustration of a speculative "Singoletta" vehicle from a December 1962 article in La Domenica del Corriere went viral due to it being seen as a solution for

social distancing In public health, social distancing, also called physical distancing, (NB. Regula Venske is president of the PEN Centre Germany.) is a set of non-pharmaceutical interventions or measures intended to prevent the spread of a contagious disea ...

. Erroneously, it's frequently cited as a depiction of the year 2022 when the original illustration gives no exact date.

Life and career

References

Further reading