Dossier: Crime Comics in Italy: Seriality, Intermediality, Authorship (46-47, 2025)

2024-10-18

In the frame of the PRIN 2020 research project entitled “Atlante del Giallo - Storia dei Media e Cultura Popolare in Italia (1954-2020)”, Atlante del Giallo – History of Media and Popular Culture in Italy (1954-2020), funded by the Italian Ministry for Research and the University, the research team at the University of Chieti-Pescara invites scholars and researchers to submit original articles for a special issue of the academic journal La Valle dell'Eden, focusing on Italian crime comics.

While crime comics owe much of their development to the United States, the genre in Italy has evolved along a unique path, forming its own identity rooted in popular culture, enriched by both national and international influences. Starting with police stories such as Dick Fulmine (1938) and the so-called fumetti neri (italian pulp crime comics) such as Diabolik (1962), the genre has successfully integrated comedic elements through Jacovitti’s works, including Cip l'arcipoliziotto and Jack Mandolino. It has also fostered significant intermedial relationships with television, as evidenced by the cult program SuperGulp. In the 1970s, Italian crime comics adopted a heightened sense of realism, influenced by American hard-boiled narratives, introducing complex antiheroes and realistic urban settings. Significant examples from this period include Il commissario Spada by Gianni De Luca, Alack Sinner by Carlos Sampayo and José Muñoz, and Sam Pezzo by Vittorio Giardino.

Sergio Bonelli Editore, Italy's foremost publisher of serialized comics, also played a pivotal role, contributing works that blurred the boundaries between serialized and auteur comics, such as Julia - Le avventure di una criminologa and Il Commissario Ricciardi. In recent years, numerous comic artists have continued to explore the crime genre through the graphic novel format, further intertwining intermedial relationships between literature, comics, and television. A notable example of this is the comic adaptation of Carlo Lucarelli’s novels featuring Inspector Coliandro.

Despite the richness and variety of Italian crime comics, this field has received surprisingly little attention in academic research. Although comic studies in Italy have grown over the last few decades, the field remains underexplored relative to the significance and influence of this medium in the country’s cultural landscape. Most research has focused on other genres, such as auteur comics or children’s comics, leaving the systematic analysis of crime comics largely neglected. Existing studies tend to be fragmented, concentrating on individual authors or specific works, without offering a comprehensive or in-depth examination of the genre. This gap represents a significant shortcoming in Italian scholarship, considering the influence of crime comics not only on the development of the medium but also in shaping the collective imagination. The absence of a thorough bibliography and established critical discourse on this subject restricts our understanding of the intermedial and transmedial dynamics that have characterized Italian crime comics and their interaction with the broader social and cultural context.

 

This special issue aims to investigate the evolution, distinctive features, and intermedial relationships of crime comics in Italy, exploring their role in shaping national identity from the post-war era to the present day. The objective is to examine how these narratives have both influenced and reflected contemporary cultural, media, and social phenomena, with particular attention to the peak period of Italian comic production from the 1960s to the 1990s, while also considering earlier and more contemporary contexts.

Suggested Topics

We welcome contributions that address, but are not limited to, the following topics:

  • History and Development of Crime Comics in Italy: Analysis of the origins, evolution, and transformations of the genre in Italy.
  • Cultural and Production Contexts: Examination of the sociocultural and industrial factors influencing the production and dissemination of crime comics in Italy.
  • National Peculiarities and International Comparisons: Exploration of the distinctive characteristics of Italian crime comics and their interactions with international productions.
  • Representation of Italian Reality: Discussion of works that best reflect and interpret Italian social, political, and cultural reality through the crime genre.
  • Key Publishers and Journals: Analysis of the role of key publishers and journals in the development and promotion of crime comics.
  • Influential Authors and Series: Study of the authors and series that have shaped the evolution of the genre, contributing to its innovation and popularity.
  • Intermediality and Transmediality: Examination of the interconnections and influences between crime comics and other art forms and media, including cinema, television, literature, and new media.

 

Send the proposal to federico.pagello@unich.it, matteo.pollone@uniupo.it, lorenzodipaola85@gmail.com and eden@unito.it in the form of a short abstract (maximum 2000 characters including spaces, in Italian and English) accompanied by a brief biographical note of the author/author (maximum 500 characters including spaces). The deadline for submission of proposals is December 10th, 2024; if accepted, the deadline for delivery of the full essay will be May 30th, 2025.

 

Reference

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Bono, G. e Gori, L. (1997).  Dick Fulmine. L’avventura e le avventure di un eroe italiano, Milano: Motta.

Brunoro, G. (2004). Jacovitti in giallo: polizieschi, noir e hard-boiled del più surreale umorista italiano, Viterbo: Stampa alternativa.

Busi Rizzi, G., Di Paola, L., & Dal Canto, R. (2024). “Mon Semblable, Mon Frère: Identity Needs, Imaginary, and Aesthetics in Marco and Antonio Manetti’s Diabolik Trilogy”. Cinergie – Il Cinema E Le Altre Arti, 13(25), 117–129. https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2280-9481/18922

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