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The legendary Italian artist was glad to sit down with Gamereactor to talk about the evolution of his trademark style for drawing women, the secrets behind HP & Giuseppe Bergman, working with Jodorowski, or the essence of pure artistic eroticism.
"Hi Gamereactor friends, I'm at the 26th Comicon in Napoli and this is a very special moment.
To me, personally, a fan moment because I'm here joined by Maestro Milo Manara.
You know, we have to thank you for 50 years of beautiful art."
"Me and my dad, personally, at home, are huge fans of your work.
So, first of all, thank you so much for your work, for your art and for being here with us.
I wanted to ask you, first question, you're known for probably the best women in the medium, in comics.
So, how would you say your technique for drawing women has evolved since the beginning?
We think it's incredibly difficult what you did back then and what you are still doing today."
"Actually, I mean, the technique has evolved in the sense that, of course, when I was young, I was very bad at drawing.
And I hope I have improved with drawing and with the technique.
Of course, you should know that I attended art high school.
So, I started drawing, you know, when I was 14 and 15 with models, so living models."
"And in history, from Praxiteles on, all artists, great artists, but even, you know, beginners, you know, or non-successful artists, have always used the paradigm of women's body as a symbol of beauty, but not only beauty, of harmony, of perfection and a synthesis of life.
So, in a way, I mean, in a drawing, since we only have 2D, we only have two dimensions, the profile, the contour of a woman's body is a great journey."
"It's charged with emotion and every drawing is the same.
It is charged with the same emotion.
It is so, it's a passion, you know, it's a journey of passion.
And this is true from Praxiteles on for all artists."
"Fantastic. Who were your models for HP & Giuseppe Bergman?
HP, very easy, very straightforward: Hugo Pratt.
I mean, actually, he did his self-portrait.
You know, I tell you this story."
"I mean, we were on the bus at Lido in Venice.
You know, you can only get to Lido in Venice by ferry or by boat.
But then once you're there, actually, he lived in Malamocco, his house was in Malamocco.
So, we took a bus to go to his house."
"And on that bus, I told him my idea of using him as a model for a character.
And on the bus ticket, he drew himself.
He did a self-portrait and gave it to me and told me, draw me like that.
And I cherish this. It's a perfect memory. I still keep it in my notes."
"And for the other character, you know, that one is a sort of projection of myself and Alain Delon.
At that time, actually, that publication was destined to France for the French market.
And at that time, there was this sort of rivalry of dualism between Alain Delon and [Jean-Paul] Belmondo.
And Belmondo was the model for Blueberry."
"I mean, and I wanted an anti-hero.
And so, it was easy. It was so easy to think of Alain Delon.
And, of course, he's also a handsome man.
So, it was really very easy."
"So, these are more or less the models, physically, of those characters.
And I met Alain Delon, you know. I met him. I met him.
He was the president of the jury of Miss Italia, you know, the beauty contest at that time.
And I was one of the members in the jury."
"So, we spent a week together.
And he knew, he was aware of these comics.
And it was so funny, I mean, to meet him.
Okay, I wanted to ask you about working with Alejandro Jodorowsky."
"I know and I love Los Borgia.
How did you explore with it a sort of a darker tone in a dark time of the history of Italy and Spain?
Well, it has been really a great pleasure, actually, to work on that project.
First of all, it is the only story that I've colored, personally."
"I penciled and colored the story.
And it was really great that Jodorowsky asked me to be involved in this story that is set in the heart of Renaissance.
Pope Alessandro Borgia, Alessandro Borja, was appointed as a Pope in 1492."
"That is also the year conventionally when America was discovered.
But it is also by convention the year that separates Middle Age and Modern Age.
It's the end of the Middle Age and the beginning of Modern Age.
And it's the story that, in a way, depicts this transition, this passage."
"It's the period where sins, corruptions were sort of forgiven to those in power.
Borgia had a daughter and a son before becoming Pope, but he was Cardinal anyway.
So, actually, as we can see also now, those who are in power are forgiven all sins, all sorts of sins, especially those that have to do with sex, with sexual relationships."
"And it is as if there was a corruption that is tolerated.
And even worse, the awareness that there will be no issue, that it will make no difference, that there is a moral and a law for those in power and a different one for common people.
And Alessandro Borgia was actually a sort of symbol."
"He shamelessly got to the utmost level of authority, also politically, not only in religion.
And the fact that Jodorowsky asked me to be involved was really exciting for me.
And actually, I could look at those sources.
There are lots of iconographic sources for Renaissance, lots of paintings, not in the case of the Middle Age, of course, but for Renaissance."
"And so I used the palettes, the same palette of colors of Renaissance.
Of course, we are talking about Jodorowsky's Borgia, not necessarily historical ones.
Okay, the closing one, the final one, l'ultima.
How do you think pure eroticism is perceived nowadays?
There is a difference between pornography and eroticism, at least for me."
"And actually, Woody Allen said that pornography is the eroticism of the other person.
It means that, and it is true, it's genius, it's not only funny, it is true.
Because what is erotic for me is not necessarily erotic for you, it may be pornographic for you.
And actually, in my opinion, eroticism is the cultural processing of sex in society."
"And pornography is only a display of sex, without any cultural processing, without any cultural dimension.
And in current society, nowadays society, pornography is gaining ground, is more successful, it has the lion's share.
It is very accessible, way more accessible than it used to be on the Internet nowadays, regardless of your age.
Anyone can have access to pornography."
"And this is true not only for eroticism and pornography, but for every phenomenon.
It seems to me that in current society there is a lack of cultural processing in general, of any phenomenon.
There is an immediate resorting to violence.
Violence corresponds to a lack of cultural processing in case of conflict, whether interpersonal or international conflicts."
"If you process the source of the disagreement culturally, you can talk.
You talk and you solve your issues and you fix your issues.
Nowadays there is no cultural processing of sorts, and I think that eroticism in this case is paying the price.
I can't see it in society, in cinema, in literature, in comics."
"There is no cultural processing in general, but in the case of eroticism and pornography, pornography is in a way gaining ground.
And actually it seems that in all the cultural production nowadays, there is no need for eroticism.
Eroticism is no longer essential.
There is only violence in nowadays stories, investigations, murders, homicides, and policemen and commissioners, etc., who do the investigations."
"Eroticism is sort of stepping back, it is pushed back, not like in the 70s and in the 60s, in the 1970s and in the 1960s, where there was a liberation of society and eroticism was a component of this liberation.
And nowadays, I have to repeat myself, there is pornography everywhere, there is violence everywhere.
Because of this lack of culture."
"Thank you so much. Grazie mille. I love your answers. Thank you."
