Thrilling fumetti of the 1960s - Italian Comics Part I
Danger: Diabolik - not the film but the comic
Lucianno Panella gives us the first part in his history of Italy's finest anti-hero.
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Till 1962 comics were considered children readings in Italy but in that year the whole country was shaken by the birth of a new character, who would prove his long lasting influence not only on Italian comics but also on Italian culture: Diabolik.
Diabolik is a young, beautiful man, resembling Robert Taylor, the Hollywood film star of the '50s, and as the name suggests, is a completely negative character, which was something completely new for the time.
Diabolik was created by two school teachers, the sisters Giussani who, maybe in reaction to the Italian conformist climate of those years, decided to create a character who had to be bold and brave, like the traditional 'good' heroes of the comics, but whose energy and courage would be completely devoted to crime.
Diabolik, called 'the genius of crime', is primarily a thief. He lives in a luxurious hideaway in Clerville, an improbable Anglo-Saxon town, where the inhabitants have bizarre half Italian half English names, like Marina Palmer or Michele Cester.
Diabolik is rich, drives a Jaguar and has a sophisticated laboratory where he works the special masks he frequently uses for his crimes. He easily kills, and does it with pleasure: in particular he likes stabbing, strangling or poisoning his victims. He is always successful and is always persecuted by police inspector Ginko, who never succeds in catching him.
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Diabolik has no moral values except his absolute faithfulness to his fiancée Eva Kant, a beautiful blonde heiress was robbed by him in one of the first episodes, but then fell in love with him and became his assistant.
Diabolik and Eva, when off duty, lead the quiet life of a middle class couple: they read newspapers sitting on the sofa, sunbathe by their swimming pool, sometimes they go on holiday abroad. The success in their stories is due perhaps to the completely fantastic element mixed with precise details of contemporary life and with an accurate style in describing fashion and cars.
Diabolik was to become the first and the most famous character of the Italian "Fumetti": he was criticized, banned by parents organizations, satirized on TV.
In 1966 the singer Jonny Dorelli created the TV comic character of Dorellik, un unlucky thief and sang the song "Arriva La Bomba", recently remixed by Gent International on their debut LP 'G 15'.
In 1966, as a consequence of a big press campaign against violence in comics, sisters Giussani began to soften Diabolik stories. He began killing only other criminals, and when possible he began avoiding it, preferring narcotics to daggers.
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Years went by, and what happened to Diabolik? Old age has softened him but he is more popular than ever. Like an old movie star, his face is used for advertisements, festivals, cd covers. He renounced violence, then he stopped killing, and with the time he became more and more 'politically correct' to the point that two years ago Diabolik and Eva were used for a state advertisement campaign against people abandoning animals! The man who was known as the 'genius of crime' begging people not to abandon their pets in summer!
[Published 19 September 2002]
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| Max Galli | sep 21 2002 7:53AM |
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| Good feature about "our man in Clerville". Despite he(Dk)is a bit of a middle class cat in his 4ts, he's still an original comix icon. | |
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