Fumetti

Today I'm introducing you to 'Diabolik'. He's a fictional character featured in Italian comics. He was created by sisters Angela and Luciana Giussani in 1962. His stories appear in monthly black and white digest-sized booklets. The character was inspired by several previous characters from French and Italian pulp fiction, primarily Fantômas.

Diabolik, called 'The King of Terror', is primarily a thief. He lives in a luxurious hideaway in Clerville, an improbable Anglo-Saxon town, where the inhabitants have bizarre half Italian half English names, like Marina Palmer or Michele Cester.

Diabolik is rich, drives a Jaguar and has sophisticated criminal methods including the use of special masks that allow him to assume the identity of his criminal victims. The masks are nearly flawless imitations of facial features that he creates in a home laboratory. He's also a smart and well-conditioned athlete who prefers to commit crimes using knives, bare hands or poisons instead of guns. He is always successful and is always pursued by police inspector Ginko, who never succeeds in catching him.

Diabolik displays absolute faithfulness to his fiancée Eva Kant, a beautiful blonde heiress was robbed by him in one of the first episodes, but then fell in love with him and became his assistant.

Diabolik and Eva, when off duty, lead the quiet life of a middle class couple: they read newspapers sitting on the sofa, sunbathe by their swimming pool, sometimes they go on holiday abroad. The success in their stories is due perhaps to the completely fantastic element mixed with precise details of contemporary life and with an accurate style in describing fashion and cars.

In 1966, as a consequence of a big press campaign against violence in comics, sisters Giussani began to soften Diabolik stories. He began killing only other criminals, and when possible he began avoiding it, preferring narcotics to daggers. The victims of his crimes, when they are not criminals themselves, are often kidnapped and later released.

In 1968 Diabolik appeared on the screen with the title "Danger: Diabolik" starring John Philip Law and Marisa Mell. The film had little commercial success but a definite impact on subsequent films. This was the first comic strip character to transition to the big screen in cinematic history.

What has happened to Diabolik since 1962? Old age has softened him but he is more popular than ever. Like an old movie star, his face is used for advertisements, festivals, cd covers. He renounced violence, then he stopped killing, and with the time he became more and more 'politically correct' to the point that two years ago Diabolik and Eva were used for a state advertisement campaign against people abandoning animals! The man who was known as the 'genius of crime' begging people not to abandon their pets in summer!

Between the podcast episodes I'll provide you with examples of Diabolik's entry into popular Italian culture. Enjoy the series!

Buon divertimento!
Buon ascolta!