Procopio is the title character of an eponymous Italian comic strip series created by

Lino Landolfi Lino Landolfi (6 April 1925 – 11 February 1988) was an Italian cartoonist. Born in Rome, Landolfi attended various art schools including the Accademia where he studied painting, sculpture, decorating and scenery. He debuted as a cartoonist in 19 ...

.Franco Fossati, ''I grandi eroi del fumetto'', Gramese, 1990, pp.190-191. The comic started in 1951 in the comics magazine ''

Il Vittorioso ''Il Vittorioso'' (Italian for "The Victorious") was a weekly comic magazine published in Italy from 1937 to 1966. History and profile The magazine was born on the initiative of the Azione Cattolica association as a catholic response to the secu ...

'', where it was published until the magazine's closure in the late sixties. Procopio debuted as a

squire In the Middle Ages, a squire was the shield- or armour-bearer of a knight. Boys served a knight as an attendant, doing simple but important tasks such as saddling a horse or caring for the knight's weapons and armour. Terminology ''Squire'' ...

of a medieval knight. The author then turned him into a multi-faceted character who played many different roles, using the trick of a contemporary Procopio who at the start of every episode recounts the adventures of his ancestors (all called Procopio and all with the same characteristics and traits). In a 1958, in an Italian survey carried by

RAI TV (), commercially styled as since 2000 and known until 1954 as (RAI), is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many terrestrial and subscription television channels a ...

, Procopio resulted as the most popular character of the children's literature and comics. In 1966, Procopio was protagonist of a series of vinyl records titled ''Le fiabe di mago Procopio''; the same year he was subject of a novel, ''Procopio di Terracupa'', written by the same Landolfi. Procopio also appeared in a short-living series of B&W animated shorts.

References

Italian comic strips Italian comics characters 1951 comics debuts 1968 comics endings Humor comics Historical comics Fictional Italian people Fictional swordfighters in comics Comics characters introduced in 1951 Comics adapted into animated series Comics adapted into television series {{comic-strip-stub