Vittorio Giardino
Born in Bologna in 1946, at the age of 31 he abandoned the profession of electronic engineer to devote himself to comics.
After debuting in 1978 on some fanzines, in 1979 he published the first story of Sam Pezzo, a hard-boiled private detective, in Il Mago, a magazine of national importance. Sam Pezzo is the protagonist of his first book, published shortly afterwards also in France.
In 1981, for the magazine Orient Express, he created a more elaborate and complex character, both in drawing and writing, the former French secret service agent Max Fridman. The first adventure, Hungarian Rhapsody, was published in book form the following year and brought its author international recognition and his first important awards, such as the Yellow Kid at the Lucca Festival and the Prix Saint Michel in Brussels.
After three more books by Sam Pezzo, in 1984 he changed register with Little Ego, an ironically erotic reinterpretation of Winsor McCay‘s Little Nemo, with a sensual female protagonist, whose album would be released only five years later. In the meantime, he worked on Max Fridman’s second adventure, The Gateway to the East, which was published in 1986.
From that year on, he wrote several short stories of everyday life and focused on the theme of lies, eros and deception, for various newspapers and periodicals on current affairs, such as Il Messaggero, L’Espresso, Giochi, La Repubblica, etc.
These stories are collected in three albums of the Fatal Holidays series.
In 1991 he began working on another character of great commitment, Jonas Fink, who saw the light on the pages of the magazine Il Grifo. The story, set in communist Prague beginning in the 1950s, consists of three volumes. The first, L’Infanzia, was released in 1995, the second, L’Adolescenza, a year later.
With Jonas Fink he received the Alph’Art award at the Angoulême Salon (1995) and the Harvey Awards at San Diego Comic Con. (1998).
In 1999 he returned to the character of Max Fridman with No Pasarán, a three-volume story about the Spanish Civil War. The first was released in 2000, the second two years later, the third in 2008.
Shortly before (October 2005) the album “Eva Miranda” had been published, based on a story by Giovanni Barbieri, a comic soap-opera complete with commercials.
In 2008 he was awarded the “Grand Master of Comics” award at the Lucca Festival.
In 2010 he published “The Prudent Adventurer”, fragments of Max Fridman’s biography in the form of an illustrated novel.
In 2018, after an interval of more than twenty years, he published the third and final part of Jonas Fink’s story.
Four years later, he brings together short scattered stories, made over a period of forty years, in the volume “Tratti in salvo”.
Vittorio Giardino also works in the field of illustration (Vogue, Je bouquine, Mosquito, Viaggi, etc.) and posters; he creates lithographs and serigraphs.
His books have been published in France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Holland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Poland, Czech Republic, Croatia, Greece, China, Japan, USA, Argentina, Brazil.
Among the most important comic books available in Italy are:
- Sam Pezzo – un detective, una città (Rizzoli Lizard)
- No pasarán (Rizzoli Lizard)
- Viaggi, sogni e segreti (Rizzoli Lizard)
- Jonas Fink (Rizzoli Lizard)
- Tratti in salvo (Rizzoli Lizard)
- La doppia vita di Max Fridman (Rizzoli Lizard)
- Il sorriso dell’Eros (Rizzoli Lizard)
