Myetzko

Myetzko

In the face of the brutality of warfare, reason is powerless. Myetzko, Saint-Acheul '17 and like an angry bear they tell the dramatic events of the Great War, setting them in a surreal dimension. Three stories that address the tragic scenarios of the first decades of the twentieth century from different perspectives. From the dynamic tables with biting strokes and unusual structures, an anti-militarist polemic emerges combined with a satire on the stupidity of some officers, which emphasizes the saving power of culture. Reality merges with magical and fantastic elements, in a work in which the peculiar characteristics of the storyteller and illustrator Sergio Toppi are recorded.

Originally published years apart from each other (Saint-Acheul '17 in 1975 on «Linus», Myetzko in 1994 on «Comic Art» n. 40 and Come un orso ferocito in 2004 on Possible Adventures, Edizioni Città by Mariano Comense), the three stories contained in this small anthology have as a common denominator the events of the First World War. A historical period towards which Sergio Toppi has always shown particular interest, so much so that he has chosen to refer to it several times in his works while adding the fantastic component. It is against the backdrop of this tragic conflict that the characters and vicissitudes put on paper by the Milanese cartoonist move at different times in his life. Three stories that demonstrate the author's great artistic talent, in the narration as in the graphic choices, starting from the intuitions of the script up to the free assembly of the tables, which makes the succession of the cartoon’s dynamic. With Myetzko, in 1994 Toppi also won the "Premio Signor Bonaventura". These works are now back in a new edition that sees them collected in a single large-format hardcover volume.

«Toppi's story highlights how, over a century ago, peoples fought against each other with the same, identical problems of today and which were the same ones outlined by the author in Myetzko. Well, the story seems to only overshadow one of those events which today, numerically multiplied, continue to occur in Ukraine: but the suspicion that (sur)takes us is that Toppi, with his comic strip, was sorcerously prophetic... Prospecting us in 1989 a history of events that seemed long gone and even forgotten to us. Instead, today's Ukraine presents them to us as completely current."

From the preface by Gianni Brunoro