The Lives of the Most Excellent Cartoonists

The Lives of the Most Excellent Cartoonists

The author Giuliano Piccininno, thanks to his many years of militancy in the field, takes the reader on a journey through the multi-various, and sometimes still unknown, world of comics. In this exploration he is approached by two figures: Giorgio Vasari, famous painter, architect and art historiographer ante litteram, and Calendula, personification of the muse of comics and balancing element that completes a formidable narrative trio and acts as a counterpart, keeping the two Masters in the equanimous binary of the story.

It is the first time that the illustrious from Arezzo appears in a graphic novel, an excellently outlined Vasari, task, stately at times and cheerfully out of context, who suddenly materializes in the comic's author's studio, asking him for enlightenment on this art unknown to him. Calendula, on the other hand, whose name takes its cue from the medicinal plant that was once believed to have magical powers, is a graceful figure that is both carefree and shrewd at the same time

It is therefore from the encounter between these three different but well-matched characters that light, funny and exciting pages flourish. A journey into comics, enriched by continuous and pleasant references to the history of art.

One cartoon after another, the illustration of the various genres and various comic techniques follow one another, as well as continuous references and analogies. Thus The dream of Constantine, Piero della Francesca's masterpiece, becomes a useful tool to show the differences between comics and painting, while the superheroes with fantastic powers are nothing more than superhomini, whose photonic rays are very reminiscent of lightning bolts of Olympian memory. If Vasari is clearly aware of doing the work of a historian and not a trivial compiler, placing the individual at the center of the story, Piccininno performs an operation that is in many ways similar, outlining in a very human way the figures of the "comic artists" he narrates with his skillful hand of an expert draftsman.

A work that also lends itself to an alternative reading, between homages, facts, characters and events to be found like in a small treasure hunt. A playful investigation during which you find yourself discovering something funny, unexpected or surprising that can lead you to review and re-read some pages from a different point of view. All this is possible thanks to the power of comics.