Diabolik undisputed protagonist of Lucca Comics & Games

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Corrado Roi celebrates the sixtieth anniversary of the “king of terror” with an exhibition
D.to the truth of illusion in manga to the solitary righteousness of superheroes, from extreme satire to the most disillusioned criticism while the Lucca Comics & Games opens with the usual expanse of covers and a crowded and varied schedule of appointments. For decades now, the genre chosen by nonconformist authors such as Labadessa and Zerocalcare to compete hard with reality has achieved linguistic autonomy equal to any other literary expression. On the other hand, it was Will Eisner and Hugo Pratt who conceived their works respectively as graphic novels and drawn literature.

Diabolik, who are you?

In addition to hosting international masters, the anniversaries will have a large echo during the festival, starting with the sixtieth anniversary of the “king of terror”, the ruthless Diabolik, created by Angela and Luciana Giussani. To celebrate it, until Tuesday 1 November, at the Chiesa dei Servi, 64 tables from the reprint of “Diabolik, who are you?”, Signed by Corrado Roi. The remake of the famous number 107 was entrusted to the noirist directly by the Giussani sisters and published by Lo Scarabeo edizioni d’Arte. The thick black brushstrokes of Roi, in an almost impressionist style, reveal the origins of the cynical and impregnable thief in all their restlessness. It is one of the iconic episodes of the Diabolik saga, which from the affirmation in the newsstands of the “brightly colored” feuilleton has occupied a prominent place not only in the history of Italian comics, but also among the phenomena of costume.

The black tarot cards

Lo Scarabeo has also created a special series of the “Tarot of Diabolik”, a limited edition of 1962 copies – the year of the character’s birth – the first 60 with a silver case. The real Tarots were born in 1995 as a deck of only Major Arcana, designed by Sergio Zaniboni and colored by his son Paolo, named “The Black Tarots”. The number cards, on the other hand, have been added for this occasion.

The blood and the china

Another novelty that Corrado Roi will lend himself to autograph to fans visiting the Lo Scarabeo stand is “Dracula. The Order of the Dragon ”, a prestigious version of Stoker’s Gothic masterpiece. With the screenplay by Marco Cannavò, the cartoonist has reinterpreted the vampire by imprinting the horror of the original novel in the dark depth of his chine. Between the tone of the blood and the weight of the shadow, a Transylvanian count stands out moved to bite by an accentuated amorous individualism, the same that infected the romantic era. And that more intimately is also infecting ours.