Giuseppe Bergman is an Italian comics series by Milo Manara, which was first published in 1978. It stars a Candide-like anti-hero who appeared in four graphic novels which are an ironic deconstruction of adventure stories and comic books as a medium. [1]
The first adventure, later collected for publication as HP et Giuseppe Bergman (The Great Adventure in Catalan's English translation), was originally serialized in the Franco-Belgian comics magazine À Suivre beginning in 1978. Giuseppe Bergman appears as a dissatisfied 20-something longing for adventure. Seeking it, he responds to the advertisement of a mysterious company which sends him to HP, "the adventure master”: a caricature of and homage to famed Italian cartoonist Hugo Pratt. Bergman finds himself confronted by hoodlums, rioters, white slavers, drug addicts, revolutionaries, and natives, but his adventures are bumbling disasters as he is consistently unprepared for the situations he encounters. In later adventures, collected in the graphic novels An Author in Search of Six Characters, Dies Irae, Perchance to Dream, and To See the Stars, Bergman's frustrating adventures take him through Africa, India, and the world of European art. Themes of art and illusion, fantasy and frustration, responsibility and human nature run through the stories. Bergman's Odyssey published by Manara in Italian in 2004, was translated into English, and included in The Manara Library Volume 5 Further Adventures of Giuseppe Bergman in 2013.
Eddie Campbell is a British comics artist and cartoonist. He was the illustrator and publisher of From Hell, and the creator of the semi-autobiographical Alec stories collected in Alec: The Years Have Pants, and Bacchus, a wry adventure series about the few Greek gods who have survived to the present day.
A graphic novel is a long-form work of sequential art. The term graphic novel is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comics scholars and industry professionals. It is, at least in the United States, typically distinct from the term comic book, which is generally used for comics periodicals and trade paperbacks.
Ugo Eugenio Prat, better known as Hugo Pratt, was an Italian comic book creator who was known for combining strong storytelling with extensive historical research on works such as Corto Maltese. He was inducted into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 2005, and was awarded the 15th anniversary special Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême at the Angoulême Festival. In 1946 Hugo Pratt became part of the so-called Group of Venice with Fernando Carcupino, Dino Battaglia and Damiano Damiani.
Maurilio Manara, known professionally as Milo Manara, is an Italian comic book writer and artist.
Richard Veitch is an American comics artist and writer who has worked in mainstream, underground, and alternative comics.
Andrea Pazienza was an Italian comics artist and painter.
Italian comics, also known as fumetto, plural form fumetti, are comics that originate in Italy. The most popular Italian comics have been translated into many languages. The term fumetto refers to the distinctive word balloons that contain the dialogue in comics.
Panini Comics is an Italian comic book publisher. A division of Panini Group, which also produces collectible stickers, it is headquartered in Modena, Italy. The company publishes comic books in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Mexico, Peru, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom, as well as manga in several non-English-speaking countries through the Planet Manga publishing division.
À Suivre or A SUIVRE was a Belgian comics magazine published from February 1978 to December 1997 by the Casterman publishing house. Along with the comic book magazines Spirou, Tintin, Pilote, and Métal hurlant, it is considered to have been one of the major vehicles for the development of Franco-Belgian comics during the 20th century.
Les Humanoïdes Associés is a French-American publishing house specializing in comics and graphic novels, founded in December 1974 by comic artists Mœbius, Jean-Pierre Dionnet, Philippe Druillet, and financial director Bernard Farkas.
The catch-all term adult comics typically denotes comic books, comic magazines, comic strips or graphic novels that are marketed either mainly or strictly towards adult readers. This can be because they contain material that could be considered thematically inappropriate for children, including vulgarity, morally questionable actions, disturbing imagery, and sexually explicit material.
Catalan Communications was a New York City publishing company that existed from 1983 to 1991. Operated by Bernd Metz, it mainly focused on English-language translations of European graphic novels presented in a series of high-quality trade paperbacks, or rather comic albums, a European book format American comic book readers were at the time not accustomed to, neither for their physical dimensions nor for their contents aimed at a mature readership, and who at the time had the tendency to use the diminutive term "Euro-comics" to refer to the then-unfamiliar format.
Erotic comics are adult comics which focus substantially on nudity and sexual activity, either for their own sake or as a major story element. As such they are usually not permitted to be sold to legal minors. Like other genres of comics, they can consist of single panels, short comic strips, comic books, or graphic novels/albums. Although never a mainstream genre, they have existed as a niche alongside – but usually separate from – other genres of comics.
Nantier Beall Minoustchine Publishing Inc. is an American graphic novel publisher. Founded by Terry Nantier in 1976 as Flying Buttress Publications, NBM is one of the oldest graphic novel publishers in North America. The company publishes English adaptations and translations of popular European comics, compilations of classic comic strips, and original fiction and nonfiction graphic novels. In addition to NBM Graphic Novels, the company has several imprints including ComicsLit for literary graphic fiction, and Eurotica and Amerotica for adult comics.
Rutu Modan is an Israeli illustrator and comic book artist. She is co-founder of the Israeli comics group Actus Tragicus and published the graphic novels Exit Wounds (2007) and The Property (2013).
Notable events of 1978 in comics.
Kim Thompson was an American comic book editor, translator, and publisher, best known as vice president and co-publisher of Seattle-based Fantagraphics Books. Along with co-publisher Gary Groth, Thompson used his position to further the cause of alternative comics in the American market. In addition, Thompson made it his business to bring the work of European cartoonists to American readers.
Jack Katz is an American comic book artist and writer, painter and art teacher known for his graphic novel The First Kingdom, a 24-issue epic he began during the era of underground comix.
Gullivera or Gulliveriana is a stand-alone erotic graphic novel written and illustrated by comic book creator Milo Manara. It was first published in 1996 by French publisher Les Humanoïdes Associés, and has since been translated into several languages. The comic is a parody of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels.