Francesco Guccini and comics: perhaps not everyone knows that…
Sprea Editore brings to newsstands a special from the magazine “Vinile” entirely dedicated to Francesco Guccini and titled with his name (on sale for 12.90 euros). Edited by Michele Neri and Vito Vita, the special makes use of numerous collaborations and contributions, including those of Vito Vita, Pier Farri, Federico Guglielmi, Alex Devetzoglou, Mario Giammetti, Deborah Kooperman, Vince Tempera, Alberto Marchetti, Alberto Menenti, Alessandra Vita, Flaco Biondini, Lavinia Mancusi, Franco Settimo.
Courtesy of Michele Neri and the publisher we report below one of the chapters of the book, the one signed by Alberto Menenti and dedicated to the comics collaborations of Francesco Guccini.
The most passionate supporters of Francesco Guccini know that his relationship with the world of comics has been much more than sporadic, and that the singer-songwriter has actually frequented it in many roles: as an inspiration, as a character, as the author of the subjects and texts.
Guccini was designed and introduced into their tables by artists such as Andrea Pazienza, Milo Manara and many others, and many illustrious designers have interacted with him in various ways. Some episodes are memorable, such as the multi-level collaboration with Franco Bonvicini, aka Bonvi, a cartoonist from Modena who tragically passed away in 1995. .
Many remember “Cronache del postobomba”, a collection of dystopian comic stories, at times dramatic and disturbing, about a humanity that survived a nuclear conflict on which Bonvi, with the contribution of Guccini’s texts, worked until 1993, creating a total of 74 stories, collected in two volumes published by Granata Press. Equally famous are the tables of “Stories from Deep Space”, on which Bonvi and Guccini worked together as far back as 1969: a science fiction saga in which the designer and the singer-songwriter also appear as protagonists of the story, the former in the role of a blond adventurer of space that prefigures Han Solo from Star Wars, the second represented by a robot that somehow brings to mind the C1-P8 of the same series, which however – we remember – saw the light only in 1977!
However, not everyone knows that Guccini was also the inspiration for many of the jokes of the first Sturmtruppen, and that he recently signed the preface to the re-edition released by Rizzoli/Lizard of the volume “Province Nightmares”, in which the stories, originally created by Bonvi in 1981 , including one designed by Silver, Lupo Alberto’s father, plus others from the early ’90s.
Guccini also collaborated with the designer Magnus, born Roberto Raviola, who passed away in 1996, helping to give consistency and character to the character of The Stranger, to which the designer dedicated himself from 1975 until the year of his death. Guccini also participated in the screenplay of the first episode of the series, the story entitled “Few hours at dawn”.
Other works to mention in the non-occasional comics bibliography of the singer-songwriter and writer are the graphic novel “Life and death of the brigand Bobini known as Gnicche”, with drawings by Francesco Rubino, released in 1980; the story “Barbùn vs reality” with Filippo Scozzari, from 1981; “Gerry Pompa”, with drawings by Massimo Cavezzali, contained in the volume “Caro diario. Tenco ’82 visual notebook”, edited by Vincenzo Mollica and Sergio Sacchi.
But what we like to mention most in this brief examination are the six pages of the story “Coup d’état”, created with the Roman designer Guido Buzzelli, which appeared in issue zero (no other issues will follow) of the magazine “Undercomics”, of which the house Dardo publishing house entrusted the management to Bonvi in 1973. A grotesque story, involving a middle-class character, who is arrested just for signing a petition against the war in Vietnam: when he realizes that it’s all a dream his reaction is to take it out on the protesters who parade outside his house .
Alberto Menenti
