From Mickey the mountaineer to the erotic heroine Druuna, from the classics by Castelli and Micheluzzi to the Art Book by Scott Hampton: the most awaited comic volumes at the Book Fair

Lucca Comics remains number one in our country (and among the top three in the world) but in Northern Italy the most important comics fair is the Turin Book Fair, with all the major publishing houses in the sector.

After the pandemic, Panini is also back (with Disney characters and Marvel superheroes – Spider-Man, Avengers and DC – Batman, Superman) and Bonelli of Tex, Dylan Dog and Zagor.

And there are really numerous interesting comic book volumes presented at the Salone, including novelties and reprints.

Panini focuses on anniversaries, such as the 150th anniversary of the death of Alessandro Manzoni with the Topolibro (Mickey mouse-sized volume but hardcover, the first was released at the 2018 Salone) with ‹‹I promessi paperi›› and ‹‹I promessi mice›› , Disney parodies of ‹‹ The Betrothed ›› released respectively in 1976 and 1989. The Disney parodies will be the protagonists of a conference tomorrow (5.15 pm, Comics Room) with the screenwriters Alessandro Sisti and Marco Nucci and the illustrator Paolo Mottura.

Another anniversary is the seventy years since the conquest of Everest and will be celebrated with the volume edition of a modern classic, ‹‹Mickey Mouse and the passage to Kor Torgat (2013), written by Roberto Gagnor and drawn by Giorgio Cavazzano and with the introduction signed by the writer Paolo Cognetti, author of ‹‹The eight mountains, with which he won the Strega prize in 2017.

‹‹I’m from Valsusa, and although I’m not a climber I’ve often gone on trips and treks: I love the mountains, their challenges, their climate – says Gagnor who tomorrow at the Salone at 10.45 am will lead a workshop on comics with Mottura. – I therefore wanted to put Mickey in front of the extreme, of nature: big, beautiful and scary. Mickey and Goofy brave a Himalayan mountain accessible only via a dangerous and temporary passageway, to rescue their Zapotec archaeologist friend. But in the climb they will have to contend with Gambadilegno and, above all, with Nature. I am very proud of the story, above all because a Disney Master like Cavazzano surpassed himself, allowing me to tell with his incredible cartoons a Mickey Mouse facing his limitations, his fears, but also facing his nobility of mind ›› .

Della Bonelli stands out ‹‹Grand Guignol››, a reprint of the classic story of Dylan Dog released in 1989, during the golden age of the character, written by its creator Tiziano Sclavi and drawn by Luigi Piccatto. It will also be a way to remember the artist from Asti (1954-2023), who died last March, and has always been a pillar of the series (there are still unpublished stories about him).

A historical author of Bonelli is the screenwriter Alfredo Castelli, creator of Martin Mystère, the scholar of “mysteries” such as Atlantis and UFOs (number 400 comes out in June), but also the author of many other comic stories and also of various essays on the medium. At WOW, the Comics Museum in Milan, an exhibition dedicated to him was inaugurated last Saturday, Castelli & Friends (it will last until 17 September), but the Salone also celebrates him with the release of a volume with a Hemingway-like title: ‹‹49 short stories›› (not 49 short stories).

Published by the Turin-based Allagalla, it collects, as the title suggests, several of his short stories without fixed characters released between 1971 and 1978, in which the Milanese screenwriter, who even then was already writing adventures of hundreds of pages for other Bonelli characters such as Zagor and Mister No (Martin Mystère would only arrive in 1982) shows his skill and creativity (and he would later rework certain ideas into the adventures of his mysteri expert).

A master of comics was also Attilio Micheluzzi (1930-1990) whose volume reprint of ‹‹Air Mail›› (Edizioni NPE) is being released at the Salone, starring the pilot Clarence Man, known as Babel, who flies across the States on behalf of a not very reassuring postal company, in a short saga which is an affectionate and at the same time ironic homage to the classic adventure.

Zerocalcare can be considered a young master: the fans will return to attack the Bao stand (his publisher) in the hope of having a little drawing on one of his volumes and the Roman author will be the protagonist of tomorrow’s meeting ‹‹Do you sleep sometimes? Zero own ›› (6.30 pm Auditorium Centro Congressi) in which he will talk about his creative processes. Among the most interesting Bao volumes at the Salone debuts ‹‹Il Contastorie›› by Teresa Radice and Stefano Turconi, a coming-of-age tale set in the Amazon in the 1960s.

A superstar is also Leo Ortolani, who achieved fame thanks to a comic but at the same time profound character like the superhero without superpowers but with superproblems Rat-Man, but has now emancipated himself from his creation. Sunday at 12.15 (Arena Bookstock) he will present ‹‹Space Trilogy›› (Feltrinelli Comics), a volume that brings together three of his graphic novels dedicated to the conquest of space, a theme that he grew up with TV series such as Space 1999 and Star Trek, and who gave Rat-Man’s mentor the face of actor Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard from Star Trek The New Generation) is very expensive.

Another great author, this time of international level, is the American Scott Hampton who works with the pictorial technique and whose artbook is presented by Edizioni Inkiostro di Rossano Piccioni (Hampton will be at the publisher’s stand every day)

‹‹Scott Hampton is one of the most interesting artistic names of this edition of the Salone – says Andrea Cavaletto, top screenwriter of Edizioni Inkiostro but also of Bonelli (Dylan Dog). – A real trump card for the publishing house, which makes its debut at the Salone. Hampton’s painting style is reminiscent of authors such as John Bolton and Bill Sienkiewicz. He has painted some of the most iconic characters of the most authorial American comics, such as the Sandman and John Constantine as well as Batman ››.

Cavaletto at the stand will sign the biopic of Kurt Cobain (drawn by Francesco Giani) and ‹‹Sympsosium Club›› (painted by the Turinese Attila Schwanz, pictorial author who owes much to the influence of Sienkiewicz).

Twenty years have passed since the very hot Salone of 2003 in which almost all the comics were relegated to a pavilion without air conditioning. But a constant is Milo Manara: the writer Neil Gaiman, among the guests of the Salon, announced the spin-off of his comic series Sandman with a short story drawn by the Venetian master. And on Sunday (5.15 pm Sala Rossa) he will present the first volume (of two) of his comic version of ‹‹The Name of the Rose›› by Umberto Eco (Oblomov La nave di Teseo). A challenge for the cartoonist, far from his erotic comfort zone (he arrives only in the last pages with the sexual initiation of the young monk Adso of Melk) and forced to draw medieval monks, a church and an abbey. But, at least for the first part, the challenge has been won, with splendid panels that often mention medieval miniatures.

A master of eroticism is also Paolo Eleuteri Serpieri, creator of the sci-fi heroine of Druuna. Last year a prequel series was born, by other authors, which tell what happened to her before the start of the series (begun in 1985).

The second, ‹‹Genesis››, published by Lo Scarabeo, (publisher of the entire Druuna series) written by Marco Cannavò and drawn by Corrado Roi and Andrea Jula, is being previewed at the Salone.

‹‹Telling the past of Druuna’s world was the classic undertaking to make your wrists tremble – says Cannavò. – I had to try my hand at an icon of international comics. I re-read the saga, I sent two subjects to Serpieri and we agreed on the line to follow>>.

The prequel has the parts drawn by Roi in black and white with green accents and those by Jula in color.

‹‹Roi’s part is set three centuries before the beginning of the saga, in a collapsing land as the spaceship-world is about to take off where Druuna will live her adventures that of Jula reconnects to the previous volume.

There are two new female characters, more modern heroines than Druuna, who is often a passive victim of circumstance”.

Lo Scarabeo, even if it publishes masters of Italian comics (in addition to Serpieri’s work it has in its catalog volumes by, among others, Hugo Pratt, Dino Battaglia, Aldo Di Gennaro) is above all a tarot publisher (among the most important in the world ) and today from 2 to 4 pm it will be possible to have the tarot cards read at the stand.

And maybe some aspiring cartoonist will ask if he has the chance to become, if not the new Castelli, Manara or Zerocalcare, at least a good professional.