EXTRACTS: British War Comics Illustrators Special © 2018 The Book Palace (144 PAGES in Full edition)

55 Alessandro Biffignandi From war to erotica, sexy thrillers to romance, this artist has illustrated it all as Diego Cordoba tells us in this account of his life. Some artists specialize in certain genres, others, an exceptional few, can do practically anything. Italian Maestro Alessandro Biffignandi is one of those rare exceptions: an illustrator who shone in different genres, from war to crime, erotica to romance. Alessandro Romano Biffignandi was born in 1935 in Rome, although he was from Lombardian descent. He took art lessons at the Liceo Artistico of Rome and while studying there decided to make some extra money by drawing comics for publisher AVE’s periodicals (publishers of weekly magazines from the Azione Cattolica producing comics with moral values befitting the Catholic doctrine) and worked for their pocket-sized weeklies Jolly and Capitan Walter . However Biffignandi preferred working in colour, and not in black and white, since he had always wanted to be a painter. Years later, in 1967, the Fratelli Spada bought the whole AVE archive and some of Biffignandi’s early work was reprinted within their collections. FACING PAGE: 'Blood Sport', cover to Battle Picture Library No. 553 (1971), tempera. ABOVE: The artist in the 1960s. BELOW: 'Sitting Duck', cover to Air Ace Picture Library No. 114 , tempera. Text continues on page 58 All war images © IPC Media