The discreet charm of the butterfly pierced by a pin. Federico Fellini, Milo Manara, and the comic book

ABSTRACT

Fascinated by the films of Fellini, the cartoonist Milo Manara offered the filmmmaker to adapt two of the scripts that he had never been able to bring to the screen. Thus, in the early 1990s, Journey to Tulum and Journey of G. Mastorna were published. Our main interest has not been in the analysis of the adaptation process. This article aims, on the contrary, to trace the origins of these projects, as well as the interests that, both artists, shared throughout the gestation and realisation of these comics books. We’ll find that Fellini was too a comic fan since his childhood and, in fact, draws some comics before WWII. We’ll also try to describe how, beyond the plot, Fellini’s cinema influenced the cartoonist and how the peculiar and poetic universe of the filmmaker was brought to the panels drawn by Manara.

KEYWORDS:

• Adaptation
• Federico Fellini
• Italian Cinema
• Milo Manara
• Mastorna
• Tulum

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. All translations are mine.

2. Considered the first weekly comic strips magazine in Italy. It began to be published as a weekly supplement to Il Corriere Della Sera in 1908 and it existed, to a certain extent continuously, until the mid-1990s.

3. Chandler, I, Fellini, 9.

4. Ibid., 9.

5. Mollica, ‘Fellini from the first to the last drawing’, 23.

6. During the first years, Nerbini did not have the publishing rights for the famous Disney mouse and, in order to avoid being sued, the character was given a slightly different appearance and it was called Topo Lino.

7. Mollica, ‘Fellini from the first to the last drawing’, 24.

8. Until the end of war, Fellini balanced his collaboration with the radio station in radio programmes, his projects as contributor for the newspaper Il Piccolo-Giornale d’Italia [The Little Italian Journal] and the humorous magazine Marc’Aurelio, and his first steps as scriptwriter.

9. Chandler, I, Fellini, 35–36.

10. This film will end up being Roma, Città Aperta (Roberto Rossellini, 1945).

11. Mollica, ‘Fellini from the first to the last drawing’, 15.

12. Fellini, Apuntes. Recuerdos y fantasías, 76.

13. Mollica, ‘Fellini from the first to the last drawing’, 18.

14. Fellini, Fellini por Fellini, 63.

15. Mollica, ‘Fellini from the first to the last drawing’, 37.

16. In fact, the two of them met in New York in November 1965 when Fellini visited the headquarters of the Marvel publishing house expressly to meet the already popular editor (Maggiore, 2010: 36).

17. Fellini, Fellini por Fellini, 162.

18. As it was admitted by Fellini in a letter that he sent to Moebius on 23 June 1979. Available on: Matteos, ‘La corrispondenza Fellini – Moebius’ [The correspondence Fellini – Moebius], WordPress (23 June 2012), https://fumettologicamente.wordpress.com/2012/06/23/la-corrispondenza-fellini-moebius/.

19. Mollica, ‘Fellini from the first to the last drawing’, 41.

20. Quoted in Mollica, ‘Parecía uno de tantos sueños’, 2.

21. He had written for Fellini, among other works, the scripts for films such as La Dolce Vita, 8 ½, Nights of Cabiria, Juliet of the Spirits, and Ginger and Fred.

22. Kezich, Fellini. La vida y las obras, 254.

23. Mollica, ‘Parecía uno de tantos sueños’, 2.

24. Malara, ‘La telefonata. Intervista al Maestro Milo Manara’, 101.

25. Fernando Ariel García and Hernán Ostuni, ‘El viajar es un placer’ [Travelling is a pleasure], Página|12 (28 December 2003), https://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/suplementos/radar/9-1153-2003-12-28.html.

26. The portfolio included illustrations that were a tribute to La Dolce Vita, 8 ½, City of women, Viaggio a Tulum – these four being black and white – and to Satyricon (colour).

27. Milo Manara, ‘El tercer ojo’, 41.

28. Kezich, Fellini. La vida y las obras, 353.

29. Ibid., 31.

30. Diego Jiménez, ‘Aprendí a dibujar copiando a Moebius’ [I learned how to draw copying Moebius], RTVE (5 May 2012), http://www.rtve.es/noticias/20120505/milo-manara-aprendi-dibujar-copiando-moebius/522185.shtml.

31. Mollica, ‘Fellini from the first to the last drawing’, 41.

32. Fellini, ‘Un día con Milo’, 34.

33. Mollica, ‘Parecía uno de tantos sueños’, 3.

34. There’s another Manara story that ‘doesn’t end’: the second of Giuseppe Bergman’s story (the original title was Le Avventure Africane di Giuseppe Bergman, 1980). The story ‘ends’ with a series of progressively shrinking panels until they are dot size, so that in fact there is no (visible) final panel.

35. Fellini, Fellini por Fellini, 171.

36. Alpert, Fellini. A life, 178.

37. Chandler, I, Fellini, 167.

38. Kezich, Fellini. La vida y las obras, 266.

39. Fellini and Manara, El viaje de G. Mastorna. La película soñada de Fellini, 113.

40. Chandler, I, Fellini, 291.

41. Fernet is a popular Italian digestive liquor that results from the maceration of different types of herbs, among them myrrh, rhubarb, camomile, cardamom, oregano, and saffron. It is a beverage of bitter taste, dark colour, intense scent and alcohol content varying between 39 and 45 degrees.

42. Mollica, ‘La carpeta en la que está escrito Mastorna’, 43.

43. Fellini and Manara, El viaje de G. Mastorna. La película soñada de Fellini, 103.

44. To prevent Manara from deviating even slightly from the idea that he had of the old character, Fellini organised a photoshoot in Cinecittá, in which he characterised Villagio as Mastorna so that the cartoonist could precisely represent the actor’s facial expression in his panels.

45. Fellini and Manara, El viaje de G. Mastorna. La película soñada de Fellini, 115.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gonzalo M. Pavés

Gonzalo M. Pavés, PhD in Art History and professor of Film History in the Department of Art History and Philosophy of the University of La Laguna ([email protected]). He currently teaches the subjects of Art and Visual Culture, History of Cinema and Aesthetic Film and history of comics at the Faculty of Humanities. In addition to having published several articles on musical cinema, film noir and comic, he is the author ofEl cine negro de la RKO. En el corazón de las tinieblas (T&B, 2003) and Perdición (Nau Llibres, 2020). In addition, he has coordinated the books Ciudades de Cine (Cátedra, 2014) and Frankenstein. Un mito literario en dialogo con la filosofía, las ciencias y las artes (Almuzara, 2018). And he has also participated in several collective books such as In pursuit Imágenes de la muerte: Estudios en arte, arqueología y religión (SPULL, 2005), Historia del Cine, 1970-1979 (Messenger, 2011), Trayectorias, ciclos y miradas del cine español (Laertes, 2017) or Imaginarios y figuras del cine de la postransición (Laertes, 2019). He has also served on the editorial board of several publications including the film magazine Rosebud and, more recently, Latente. Journal of History and Aesthetics of Film and Photography (ULL) and Neuróptica (UNIZAR). He was a film critic in the newspaper La Opinión de Tenerife between 2005-2008.