Edited by Vincenzo Mollica & Antonio Vianovi (Glamour International Productions)
No ISBN
Born on Christmas Eve 1946, Italian electrician Vittorio Giardino changed careers at age 30. Working for many European comics magazines initially, his first collection, Pax Romana, was released in 1978. He has worked slowly but consistently on characters like detective Sam Pezzo, saucy Winsor McKay homage Little Ego, the cold-war drama Jonas Fink and diffident super-spy Max Fridman as well as general fiction tales, producing over 35 albums to date.
In 1986 the Italian outfit which produced the stylish Popular Arts magazine Glamour Illustrated released a number of fabulous art-books collecting the works of some of the biggest names in European narrative storytelling, which had limited distribution in Britain thanks to the specialist importer Titan Distributors, and this is probably the very best of them.
This glorious 200 page tome (48 of them a full-colour high-gloss insert) simultaneously translated into French and English, displays the incredible ability and versatility of an incomparable creator, with excepts from printed works, extensive sketch and working drawing sections a full publication record to date, notes and an appreciation by Gianni Brunoro.
As you would expect there is a large amount of beautifully drawn flesh on display, as well as some of the most clean and sublime narrative art produced in the last half century. Extended excerpted sequences from Sam Pezzo, Little Ego, and Max Fridman show Giardino’s unique ability to inform and suggest with nuanced expression and gesture, and his scrupulous devotion to research and historical accuracy whilst his straight cartooning reveals a sly, dry sense of humour.
This is beautiful book desperately in need of updating and re-release, and Giardino is a world class storyteller that English speakers have too long been deprived of…
No copyright notice so let’s assume © 1976-1986 Vittorio Giardino. All Rights Reserved. If anybody knows better please let me know and we’ll amend the entry.