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Promising great variety and an exploration of all sides of crime and Italian society, Augusto De Angelis' third Commissario De Vincenzi thriller, written in 1936, has different challenges for the commissioner and as such takes on a different tone from Il banchiere assassinato and Sei donne e un libro . It's in a different social milieu and, as such, he has to adapt his usual investigatory approach. De Vincenzi still prefers the psychological examination of witnesses and suspects, but rather than coming to the scene and attempting to track back to find a killer, he is very much involved in an ongoing investigation. At first however it's a case of arriving at a crime scene and getting a sense of the environment he is working in. It's at a book fair which, as an avid reader, is not unknown to him, but the victim of strangulation found in one of the booths has an unusual background. Giobbe Tuama is of American Irish background (Giobbe is the Italian for 'Job' in th...

The second Commissioner De Vincenzo novel by Augusto De Angelis again deals with crime that takes place not on the lower levels of society, but involving those in seemingly more respectable positions. It might be such subjects that made the author unpopular with the authorities - if you can call being arrested, interrogated and beaten to such an extent that it led to his death as being 'unpopular'. The very fact of writing crime novels and thereby showing an ugly side to Italian society was however enough to be deemed 'anti-fascist'. Unlike the Agatha Christie-like staged first De Vincenzi investigation Il banchiere assassinato , written in 1935, De Angelis here gives the evidence-first Milan police commissioner rather a more challenging situation with a larger group of people to come up with motive for murder, which makes even investigating or finding a suspect even harder. The nature of the murder that begins the investigation into Sei donne e un libro  ('Six Wome...

Post-apocalyptic stories were concerning enough before the COVID pandemic. La terra dei figli ('The Land of the Children') was written and drawn by Gipi in 2016, and reading it now that we have all became aware of the reality of what could happen and how quickly a virus could spread across the globe, it’s surprising how effectively his story captures the whole sense of fear that comes with the recognition that things have changed irrevocably. What makes it even more concerning is the realisation that even having come though such a global shock is the apparent inability of humanity to learn from its mistakes. All of this just makes La terra dei figli even more ominous. In Gipi’s graphic novel, the old world is long gone or, considering how quickly a global catastrophe can strike happen, perhaps not that long gone, but definitely gone. The initial impression Gipi gives us of this world is a rather bleak and feral one. We are introduced to two youths in an unpopulated savannah l...

You don't need to think too hard to figure out that a semi-autobiography by an artist called My Badly Drawn Life has a fair degree of self-deprecation. And bad drawings. The intention, from the random manner that the stories in the book are related, is almost as if Gipi feels embarrassed to give the stories and his life the respectability of beautiful drawings. Although unconventional, he is certainly capable of that - and there are examples of that in the book, mostly in the colour sections - but when it comes to speaking about what a dork he was as a youth, he prefers to leave it sketchy and a bit of a mess. Which sums up those events perfectly. Published in English translation by Fantagraphics, its ideal home, the US publisher often publishing international foreign language translations of works equivalent of the Drawn & Quarterly sad sack loser indies of Joe Matt, Julie Doucet and Chester Brown. Written and drawn between 2006 and 2007, what is special about Gipi is (much l...

Sergio Bonelli's editorial for Dylan Dog, Color Fest 1 , published in August 2007, highlights it as the start of a new direction, the original creator Tiziano Sclavi stepping back from writing duties and giving other writers and artists - some new, some familiar with the character of Dylan Dog - some fresh new ideas and interpretations. And that's what we get in a great variety of styles and artwork in the first Color Fest, a 130 page issue containing four new stories, some of which work well, others not so much, but all very definitely in the established character of the London based Investigator of Nightmares and his sidekick Groucho. Dylan in Wonderland Story, script -  Giovanni Gualdoni Art -  Bruno Brindisi The opening story in the collection is a simple one that nonetheless operates on different levels, as you would expect to be the case of someone who often delves into the dark places between this reality and the one of nightmares. This childhood nightmare takes place i...

Regular readers of Dylan Dog will know that he doesn't have much luck with women. Hold on, let me rephrase that: Dylan manages to hook up with a beautiful woman almost every month, but they don't last any longer than the gap between monthly episodes. The beauty he loses in issue 175 is however perhaps more painful than any of the others. At the start of Il seme della follia (The Seed of Madness) Dylan is not only in despair at having lost another girlfriend even before the episode had really started, one moreover that seemed to be perfect for him in every way, but the way Amber has been taken from him is truly horrendous. Stopping off for a quick canoodle in the woods, Dylan and Amber are beset for no apparent reason by a group of youths wearing horror masks. Dylan is badly beaten and tied to a tree where he witnesses Amber tied to another tree in front of him, petrol poured over her and set alight. The doctor treating Dylan's wounds recommends he sees a psychiatrist, and ...

Having recently read Carlo Lucarelli's Carta Bianca , a thriller set in the dying days of Mussolini's Fascist Italy, and looking for something to follow on in my Italian reading, I thought the next stage might be an idea to go back and read one of the originals, an author of crime thrillers who was actually writing during this period. Written in 1935 Augusto De Angelis's first novel Il banchiere assassinato (The Murdered Banker) features his most famous creation Commissioner Carlo De Vincenzi, who would go on to feature in some 20 novels. Despite the popularity of his work, De Angelis found his books banned by the Fascists, was arrested by the authorities in 1943 and died soon after his release from a beating he received while held there. De Angelis's treatment wasn't unique. It's not as if the first Commissioner De Vincenzi investigation ( la prima inchiesta ) could be considered politically motivated or anti-Fascist. The Fascist party objected to all crime fi...

Some people are just magnets for trouble and Dylan Dog is definitely one of them, thankfully I suppose, as otherwise there wouldn't be an adventure for us every month. It wouldn't be entirely correct then to say that what happens in Il sonno della ragione (The Dream of Reason) is the strangest thing to happen to him (you need only look back at Dylan Dog 153 - La strada verso il nulla for example), but with the Edvard Munch inspired cover (why not Goya?) you have to consider that there is something in Il sonno della ragione that pushes him to the limit this time. It all starts when Dylan discovers an extremely thin entirely naked woman lying in an alley close to his home. It looks like a case of a drug overdose, but something strange passes through Dylan when he lifts her up to take her to the hospital. Even stranger is what Dr Oldbright discovers when the woman is put through a CT scan. The entire left hemisphere of her brain has been removed, and not recently either. As wel...

The original story for Dylan Dog 153, La strada verso il nulla (The Road to Nowhere), was developed by Italian crime writer Carlo Lucarelli ( Commissario De Luca ), the final script adapted by the creator of the series, Tiziano Sclavi. It's a classic horror tale, following the logic of a nightmare that feels impossible to escape from, touching on the usual horror movie references, but fully retaining the character of Dylan Dog with a self-referential tone not uncommon in Sclavi’s series. It's a classic Dylan Dog story, working in multiple levels, dark and reflective, touching and humorous, recognising the conventions and playing with them, and it's brilliantly illustrated. Dylan has just been dumped by his latest girlfriend, Louanne, despite Dylan believing they have had an ideal relationship for the whole month they were together (the maximum allotted time for a romantic relationship in this monthly series). It's an acrimonious breakup, the end of the road for them as...

The first novel in Carlo Lucarelli's Commissioner De Luca series is set during a very significant period, and it's undoubtedly something that contributes to its particular mood and character, or perhaps I should say that Lucarelli succeeds in establishing that particular character of a police murder investigation that takes place in April 1945, in the dying days of the war that precipitate the fall of Mussolini's Republic of Salò. It's not a political thriller, even if many of the characters are of necessity connected to the government, but it's also more than just background colour, the period and the politics making any murder investigation that involves an official just that little more difficult and dangerous. Indeed Carta bianca opers with commissioner De Luca finding himself having to duck as a grenade attack carried out on a funeral procession as he makes his way to a crime scene. Only recently transferred to political police headquarters of the Questore in R...

Dylan Dog Colour Fest 50 contains three short stories, reprinted and in some cases newly coloured, featuring Dylan Dog's sidekick and housekeeper, Groucho. I haven't read enough Dylan Dog to know exactly what role Groucho plays; he's a kind of valet, a cook, a companion, but not a great help in the supernatural investigation cases. His true purpose you feel, since he looks and behaves almost exactly the way you would expect Groucho Marx to behave, is to bring a sense of irreverence to the series and prevent things from getting too heavy. And occasionally he comes to the rescue, pulling Dylan out of difficult situations. The balance works well, fitting in with the general tone of Dylan Dog adventures, but in this Color Fest special he is largely given his own platform. The consequences, you can imagine are riotous and often very funny. La cosa misteriosa che vive dietri il frigorifico Story - Tiziano Sclavi, Art - Luigi Piccatto The first two stories are reprinted and ear...

When a 9 year old child turns up at 7 Craven Road talking of his fear of a monster in his closet, investigator of the paranormal Dylan Dog is understandably sceptical. Having seen all kinds of horrors in his time though, he says he will think about it further. When his assistant Groucho tells him that the boy left behind payment of £10,000, it spurs him to consider that the boy's fears and his call for help are genuine. Timothy Scare is clearly haunted by something, but rather than leap into battle fighting monsters, Dylan takes a more measured and cautious approach. Advisory almost, seeking to find the source of the boy's troubles. It's not difficult to see where those might lie. Timothy's parents are dead, victims of what lies in the wardrobe. A wealthy family with a manservant who looks after the boy in their stead, Christopher also has doubts about the boy's nightmares, but recognises that Timothy is a sensitive child with few friends who is bullied at school. C...

Dylan Dog is a comic series - a fumetto  in Italian - that has been running in Italy since 1986. Originally created by Tiziano Sclavi, it is still published monthly with additional specials, collections and colour editions. With each book running to almost 100 pages, some double that length, there are evidently different artist and writer teams needed which helps keeps the character and the series fresh with ideas and approaches. Published in digest format - a little like the Commando books that I used to read as a child - if not for Dark Horse publishing a few selected books in this and the Martin Mystery series in the same format in the 90s, Dylan Dog would probably remain largely unknown outside of Italy and some European countries where some of the books are translated. Those US translations featured new covers by Mike Mignola, appropriately since Dylan Dog is an investigator of the paranormal, or rather one who seems to attract all manner of horrors. Dylan Dog indeed descr...

Inevitably, considering Hugo Pratt's travels, living and working around the world, his collection of war stories written between 1969 and 1992 for Gli scorpioni del deserto (The Scorpions of the Desert) are far from typical. Actually, there's nothing inevitable about it of course, as the plotting, motivations of the characters and the wide perspective from all sides of the international conflicts are far from what is commonly found in wartime adventures and exploits. It's a measure of how great an artist Pratt is that even as an Italian national, his view of his home country's operations in North Africa is seen from the perspective of the allied forces and not from what we might expect as a tolerant or excusable view of ordinary Italian soldiers caught up in the conflict, but even the 'enemy' are given a fair hearing. Such an approach is not unlike those found in the adventures of his most famous character Corto Maltese then, and similar characteristics can be...