Vittorio Giardino (born December 24, 1946) is an Italian comic artist.

Biography

Giardino was born in

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...

, where he graduated in electrical engineering in 1969. At the age of 30, he decided to leave his job and devote himself to comics. Two years later his first short story, "Pax Romana", was published in ''La Città Futura'', a weekly magazine published by the Italian Communist Youth Federation and edited by Luigi Bernardi. In 1982 Giardino created a new character: ''Max Fridman'', an ex-secret agent involved in the political struggle in 1930s Europe. His first adventure, ''Hungarian Rhapsody'' was serialized in the first four issues of magazine ''

Orient Express The ''Orient Express'' was a long-distance passenger train service created in 1883 by the Belgian company ''Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits'' (CIWL) that operated until 2009. The train traveled the length of continental Europe and int ...

'', bringing Giardino in the limelight of the international comic scene. Max Fridman adventures have been published in 18 countries. Some of the prizes the series won include Lucca Festival's ' and Brussels' '' St. Michel''. Starting in 1984, Giardino produced a number of short stories for the Italian magazine ''

Comic Art ''Comic Art'' was a magazine, founded and edited by Todd Hignite, which surveyed newspaper comic strips, magazine cartoon panels and comic book art, both historical and contemporary. History and profile ''Comic Art'' was established in 2002. Th ...

'', where he introduced ''

Little Ego ''Little Ego'' is a comic strip written and drawn by Vittorio Giardino, as well as the title character of the strip. ''Little Ego'' first appeared in ''Glamour International Magazine'' #12 (January 1984). Publication history After its debut in ' ...

'', a young and sexy girl inspired by

Winsor McCay Zenas Winsor McCay ( – July 26, 1934) was an American cartoonist and animator. He is best known for the comic strip ''Little Nemo'' (1905–14; 1924–26) and the animated film ''Gertie the Dinosaur'' (1914). For contractual reasons, he worke ...

Little Nemo Little Nemo is a fictional character created by American cartoonist Winsor McCay. He originated in an early comic strip by McCay, ''Dream of the Rarebit Fiend'', before receiving his own spin-off series, ''Little Nemo in Slumberland''. The f ...

who stars in one-page dreamy erotic stories. In 1991 Giardino created a new character, ''Jonas Fink'' for the ''Il Grifo'' magazine. Jonas is a young Jew in 1950's Prague whose father is arrested by the communist police. He and his mother have to cope with the discrimination and oppression of the

Stalinist Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the theory o ...

regime. The book, collected as ''

A Jew in Communist Prague ''A Jew in Communist Prague'' is a series of graphic novels created by Vittorio Giardino. They feature the main character Jonas Fink. They were published in the United States by NBM, but in 2018 the NBM editions are out of print (with NBM website ...

'', won the Angoulème ''Alfred'' prize for best foreign work in 1995 as well as a

Harvey Award The Harvey Awards are given for achievement in comic books. Named for writer-artist Harvey Kurtzman, the Harvey Awards were founded by Gary Groth in 1988, president of the publisher Fantagraphics, to be the successor to the Kirby Awards that were ...

at San Diego in 1999. Giardino detailed art style recalls the Belgian

ligne claire ''Ligne claire'' (French for "clear line", ; nl, klare lijn) is a style of drawing created and pioneered by Hergé, the Belgian cartoonist and creator of ''The Adventures of Tintin''. It uses clear strong lines sometimes of varied width and n ...

, while his writing owes to hard boiled and spy story authors like

Dashiell Hammett Samuel Dashiell Hammett (; May 27, 1894 – January 10, 1961) was an American writer of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories. He was also a screenwriter and political activist. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade ('' ...

and

John le Carré David John Moore Cornwell (19 October 193112 December 2020), better known by his pen name John le Carré ( ), was a British and Irish author, best known for his espionage novels, many of which were successfully adapted for film or television. ...

Works

* ''Pax Romana'' (1978) * ''Da territori sconosciuti'' (1978) * ''Ritorno felice'' (1978) * ''La Predella di Urbino'' (1978) * ''Encomiendero'' (1978) * ''Un cattivo affare'' (1978) * ''Sam Pezzo: Piombo di mancia'' (1979) * ''Sam Pezzo: Nessuno ti rimpiangerà'' (1979) * ''Sam Pezzo: Risveglio amaro'' (1980) * ''Sam Pezzo: La trappola'' (1979) * ''Sam Pezzo: Merry Christmas'' (1980) * ''Sam Pezzo: L'ultimo colpo'' (1980) * ''Sam Pezzo: Juke box'' (1981) * ''Max Fridman: Rapsodia Ungherese'' (1982) * ''Sam Pezzo: Shit City'' (1982) * ''Sam Pezzo: Nightlife'' (1983) * ''L'ultimatum'' (1983) * ''C'era una volta in America'' (1984) * ''A Carnevale...'' (1984) * ''Circus'' (1984) * ''A Nord-Est di Bamba Issa'' (1984) * ''Max Fridman: La Porta d'Oriente'' (1985) * ''

'' (1985-1989) * ''Umido e Lontano'' (1987) * ''Sotto falso nome'' (1987) * ''Candidi segreti'' (1988) * ''Safari'' (1988) * ''Fuori stagione'' (1988) * ''Quel brivido sottile'' (1988) * ''Il ritrovamento di Paride'' (1988) * ''Little Ego: Beduini'' (1989) * ''La terza verità'' (1990) * ''Jonas Fink: L'infanzia'' (1991) * ''Vecchie volpi'' (1993) * ''La rotta dei sogni'' (1993) * ''Troppo onore'' (1993) * ''Restauri'' (1992) * ''Il maestro'' * ''Isola del mito'' (2000) * ''Jonas Fink: L'adolescenza'' (1998) * ''Max Fridman: No Pasaràn'' (1999) * ''Max Fridman: Rio de Sangre'' (2002) * ''Max Fridman: Sin ilusión'' (2008) * ''Jonas Fink. Una vita sospesa'' (2018)

Tomasz Kamusella Tomasz Kamusella FRHistS (born 24 December 1967) is a Polish scholar pursuing interdisciplinary research in language politics, nationalism and ethnicity. Education Kamusella was educated at the University of Silesia in Katowice, Faculty of P ...

. 2021
Antisemitism in Communist Czechoslovakia
''Wachtyrza''. 22 Feb.]

References

External links

Publisher's websiteComic art fan's site, showing samples
{{DEFAULTSORT:Giardino, Vittorio 1946 births Living people Artists from Bologna Italian comics artists