EXTRACTS: WESTERNS Fleetway Picture Library Classics © 2020 Book Palace Books * 272 PAGES IN FULL EDITION

3 Introduction WESTERNS An artist who tackled many genres with equal ease, Ruggero Giovannini is mainly remembered in England for the many western, adventure and historical comic strips he drew in a realistic style, packed with plenty of action on each page. But as with many of his Italian counterparts from the 1950s working for the British market, he did more than comics and worked as an illustrator for other children’s magazines. Born in Rome in 1922 (a city where he would live for most of his life), Giovannini graduated from art school in 1940 and soon after worked as a journalist and movie poster artist. By 1945 he switched to drawing comics for Il Vittorioso (a Catholic comics journal distributed mainly in churches). For said journal, his first strip was ‘I Seguaci di Aldechi’ which was followed by ‘Le Avventure di Jim Brady’ (which also saw publication in France through the Impéria publishing house). Giovannini’s long collaboration with Il Vittorioso would last until 1969. During this time, he did many comic strip adaptations of movies, chief among them, ‘Mister V’. He would also do series set in the Wild West, Medieval times, Ancient Rome, the Renaissance period and Modern times. ‘Mister V’ would prove popular with the young Italian readers until the 1950s, when Giovannini also wrote and drew the pirate series ‘Il Pirata Mascherato’ in 1950. Mostly a realistic artist, Giovannini had been inspired early on by the American cartoonists Milton Caniff and Will Gould (no relation Dick Tracy artist Chester Gould). Although many readers might frown upon the Will Gould reference (his best known work being the detective strip ‘Red Barry’, with its rather clumsy rendering of human figures), Gould had a way of telling a story which was fast-paced, occasionally using heavy shadows, accompanied with his quickly rendered, yet effective, inking. This style would prove an inspiration to many young Italian comic artists during the 1940s, chief among them, Hugo Pratt who Gould as his main influence. In 1946, under the pen-name Roger Jonnys, Giovannini did some stories of Arsène Lupin (famous French fictional outlaw known as the ‘gentleman thief ’) for Edizione Lampo. During the 1950s, aside of his work for Il Vittorioso , and through both Studio Giolitti and Roy D’Amy’s art agency in London, he began working for the British market as well. Giovannini drew series such as ‘Dick Daring’ and ‘Robin Hood’ for Thriller Picture Library , the Western strip ‘Kansas Kid’ (known as Tex Tone in France) for Cowboy Picture Library , and by during the 1960s did a full-colour adaptation of ‘The Three Musketeers’ for Look and Learn , and the Western series ‘Jim Canada’ and ‘Wild Bill Hickok’ for Radio Fun . He also did other Western series for Top Spot , drew ‘The Adventures of Macbeth’ in Ranger , and the Ancient Rome gladiator series, ‘Olac the Gladiator’ for Tiger , as well as many full colour illustrations for Treasure and Tell Me Why . Giovannini also handled the art chores on a full-colour series for Express Weekly titled ‘Freedom is the Prize’ about gladiators’ revolting in Ancient Rome. This strip proved popular among readers, and was soon be re-named ‘Wulf the Briton’, after the series’ charismatic main character. However, due to a monetary disagreement with the Dami agency in London, Giovannini, along with many other Italian artists, abandoned ship, and the strip would eventually be taken over by British artists, chief among them, Ron Embleton. In 1962, while still working for the British market, Giovannini also collaborated for Corriere dei Piccoli , adapting Homer’s ‘The Iliad’, and ‘Terra che Scotta’ for Collection Tex . He would also adapt many other literary classics such as ‘Ben-Hur’ and ‘The Prisoner of Zenda’, and work on other important series such as ‘Olaf il Vikingo’. RUGGERO GIOVANNINI