Prague: from Tex to Pentothal, the history of Italian comics

The great tradition of Italian comics is the protagonist of the 19th Edition of the Week of the Italian Language in the World held at the Italian Cultural Institute in Prague. A series of initiatives will inform visitors about all there is to learn about comics, a literary genre that has millions of fans all over the world and in Italy boasts a tradition of the highest order. For the occasion, a new section dedicated to Italian comics will be inaugurated at the Library of the Institute, many of which were published by the historic Milanese publisher Sergio Bonelli. Among the titles that will become part of the catalog is in particular the entire set, complete with all the albums and special issues, of the western series dedicated to Tex Willer, a character who has accompanied entire generations of enthusiasts, and has become a true icon of Italian comic strips. A masterpiece conceived by the great mind of Gianluigi Bonelli and drawn by the pencil of Aurelio Galleppini. The entire collection was donated by the publisher of Via Buonarroti with the support of the Bonelli family. The conference room of the Institute will host a meeting entitled “Tex Willer, an Italian Phenomenon”, with presentations by screenwriter Mauro Boselli and cartoonist Giorgio Giusfredi. Instead, the conference by journalist and essay writer Luigi Di Fonzo will be dedicated to the talented author of comic books Andrea Pazienza. Di Fonzo, who is the author of the book “Andrea Pazienza, my name is Pentothal”, will discuss the artistic and literary influences thanks to which the great Italian artist, who was twenty at the time, shaped the character of his first official work: Pentothal. The work narrates the dreams and hardships of a provincial artist who at the age of 19 arrives in Bologna to study at the Department of Music and Performing Arts (Dams) founded by the semiologist Umberto Eco. This is actually an autobiography in the form of a comic that Pazienza created between 1975 and 1977 and that became the work that shaped an entire generation and an icon of the 1977 Movement.