South Fellini is an American media and apparel studio established by

Tony Trov Tony Trov (born Anthony Trovarello 1983) is an American film maker, comic book creator and musician best known for as a co-creator of Philadelphia studio South Fellini. Early life Tony Trov is a native of Philadelphia PA and graduated from Girar ...

and

Johnny Zito Johnny Zito (born John-Paul Zito 1982) is a writer, film maker and artist best known for as a co-creator of Philadelphia studio South Fellini. Early life Johnny Zito is a native of Philadelphia and graduated from Saint Joseph's Preparatory School ...

in 2005.

History

Founding

Trov and Zito began to collaborate while attending

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist ministe ...

. South Fellini became the umbrella name for all creative projects made by the duo since 2005.

Comic books

In 2008, South Fellini won a comic book competition with their Girl Gang VS Zombie series Black Cherry Bombshells at

Zuda Comics Zuda Comics was DC Comics' webcomics imprint from 2007 until 2010. Some of the imprints series won awards and nominations from comic industry's Glyph Comics Awards and Harvey Awards. ''Bayou, Volume 1'' was also named one of the 2010 Great Graph ...

, a digital imprint of

DC Comics DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...

. Zuda Comics also purchased their second series about

South Philadelphia South Philadelphia, nicknamed South Philly, is the section of Philadelphia bounded by South Street to the north, the Delaware River to the east and south, and the Schuylkill River to the west."." ''City of Philadelphia''. Retrieved November 8, ...

vampires titled LaMorte Sisters. Continuing their time in the comic book industry, a self published book titled Carnivale Robotique was released for Indie Skip Week. Their series Moon Girl was the first series published by

Comixology Iconology Inc., d/b/a ComiXology (styled comiXology), was a cloud-based digital distribution platform for comics owned by Amazon, with over 200 million comic downloads . At its height it offered a selection of more than 100,000 comic books, g ...

and was printed to a graphic novel by

Red 5 Comics Red 5 is an independent comic book publisher, known for producing a combination of creator-owned and internally developed titles, including their best known title, ''Atomic Robo''. Red 5 was one of the first comics publishers to jump into digital ...

Films

Following their time in the comic book industry, the duo wrote and directed two feature-length horror comedies that were distributed by

Gravitas Ventures Gravitas Ventures is an American film distribution company owned by Shout! Studios. The company was founded by Nolan Gallagher in Los Angeles in 2006, and moved its headquarters from Los Angeles to Cleveland in 2019. It focuses on the distribu ...

. In 2013

Alpha Girls ''Alpha Girls'' is a 2013 comedy horror film directed by Tony Trov and Johnny Zito and starring Falon Joslyn, Nikki Bell and featuring Ron Jeremy and Schoolly D. Premise Hoping to make a fresh start, Morgan (Falon Joslyn) comes to a new school a ...

: A Satanic Sorority Slasher was released. Following the success of the film, American Exorcist was released in 2018.

Lifestyle brand

South Fellini opened their first brick and mortar shop on East Passyunk Avenue, South Philadelphia, in 2016. In 2019 South Fellini grabbed headlines for dressing

Bryce Harper Bryce Aron Max Harper (born October 16, 1992) is an American professional baseball first baseman and right fielder for the Philadelphia Phillies of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Washington Nationals. One o ...

of the

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. The Phillies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East Division. Since 2004, the team's home stadium has ...

on his first home game in Philadelphia. Later that year, South Fellini was in the news again for opening a second location in Fashion District Philadelphia that featured the mannequin prop from the 1987 film

Mannequin A mannequin (sometimes spelled as manikin and also called a dummy, lay figure, or dress form) is a doll, often articulated, used by artists, tailors, dressmakers, window dressers and others, especially to display or fit clothing and show off dif ...

. In 2021 a Free Blockbuster was launched at the Passyunk Avenue shop location.

Return to arts and media

During

COVID-19 lockdown During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of non-pharmaceutical interventions, particularly lockdowns (encompassing stay-at-home orders, curfews, quarantines, and similar societal restrictions), were implemented in numero ...

, South Fellini returned to producing media content, starting with podcast dedicated to Philadelphia history, titled ''Legends of Philadelphia''. In 2022, they began releasing an ongoing project of short animated cartoons titled ''Wild Jawns'' on

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

and

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

. The cartoon was inspired by their art installation collaboration with street artist Kid Hazo. In 2023, they began releasing a monthly multimedia

hauntology Hauntology (a portmanteau of '' haunting'' and ''ontology'', also spectral studies, spectralities, or the spectral turn) is a range of ideas referring to the return or persistence of elements from the social or cultural past, as if to haunt the ...

project called ''Hoagiewave'', which featured lost Philadelphia media with original music by Trov. The music was released as an album on

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a List of companies of Sweden, Swedish Music streaming service, audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. , it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services ...

Apple Music Apple Music is an audio and video streaming service developed by Apple Inc. Users can select music to stream to their device on-demand, or listen to existing playlists. The service also includes the sister internet radio stations Apple Musi ...

, and cassette.

Comics

DC Entertainment DC Entertainment is an American entertainment company that was founded in September 2009 and is based in Burbank, California. The company is a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery which manages DC Comics characters by working with other units ...

: *'' Black Cherry Bombshells'' (2008–2011) *''

La Morté Sisters Zuda Comics was DC Comics' webcomics imprint from 2007 until 2010. Some of the imprints series won awards and nominations from comic industry's Glyph Comics Awards and Harvey Awards. ''Bayou, Volume 1'' was also named one of the 2010 Great Graphi ...

'' (2009–2011)

*''Carnivale De Robotique'' (2010)

*'' Moon Girl'' (2011–2013)

Image Comics Image Comics is an independent American American comic book, comic book publisher and is the third largest direct market comic book and graphic novel publisher in the industry by market share. Its best-known publications include ''Spawn (comics) ...

*''D.O.G.S. of Mars'' (2012)

Films

*Fiesta Day –

Ford Fiesta The Ford Fiesta is a supermini car that was marketed by Ford from 1976 to 2023 over seven generations. Over the years, the Fiesta has mainly been developed and manufactured by Ford's European operations, and had been positioned below the ...

short film series *''

'' – 2013 *'' American Exorcist'' – 2018

Awards

*"Outstanding Achievement in Local Comic Art" – 2011 Philadelphia Geek Awards *"Feature Length Indie Film of the Year" – 2012 Philadelphia Geek Awards nomination *"Makers of the Year" – 2016 Philadelphia Geek Awards *"Best of Philly" – 2018

Philadelphia Magazine ''Philadelphia'' (also called "''Philadelphia'' magazine" or referred to by the nickname "Phillymag", once called ''Greater Philadelphia'') is a regional monthly magazine published in Philadelphia by the Lipson family of Philadelphia and its com ...

References

External links

*{{official website, http://www.SouthFellini.com/ Privately held companies based in Pennsylvania Passyunk Square, Philadelphia