''Fumetti neri'' (Italian for "black comics") is a subgenre of
Italian comics, born in Italy with the creation of the ''
Diabolik
''Diabolik'' () is an Italian comic series created by sisters Angela and Luciana Giussani.
One of the most popular series in the history of Italian comics, ''Diabolik'' was created in 1962 and consists of more than 900 volumes, and has led to ...
'' character (1962).
Overview
The "Fumetti neri" name comes from "cronaca nera", the Italian name for crime news. Among the inspirations of the genre were the
film noir
Film noir (; ) is a style of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood Crime film, crime dramas that emphasizes cynicism (contemporary), cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of Ameri ...
, the French ''
feuilleton'' and Italian
horror film
Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with Transgressive art, transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements of the genre include Mo ...
s. In a local market dominated by comics devoted to a young audience, the immediate commercial success of ''Diabolik'' revealed a niche of adult readers interested in adult and sometimes exploitive themes, characterized by violence and sex references.
[Simone Castaldi. ''Drawn and Dangerous: Italian Comics of the 1970s and 1980s''. University Press of Mississippi, 2010. .]
The heroes of ''fumetti neri'' were more
anti-heroes or
villain
A villain (also known as a " black hat", "bad guy" or "baddy"; The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.126 "baddy (also baddie) noun (pl. -ies) ''informal'' a villain or criminal in a book, film, etc.". the feminine form is villai ...
s than traditional heroes, and Diabolik himself was very loosely based on the French''
Fantômas'' character. The subsequent main characters in these comics were all inspired by Diabolik and often had a K in their names. They included ''
Kriminal'' (a more violent version of Diabolik by
Magnus and
Max Bunker), ''
Satanik'' (a female version of Diabolik by the same authors but with supernatural and horrific elements) and ''
Sadik
Saadiq is an Arabic masculine given name. Originally a word in Arabic صديق which is translated as ''friend''. The Arabic word for friend is derived from the root ''sdk'' صدق which often refers to honesty, truth or loyalty. Variants of the n ...
''.
The large success of this genre led in 1965 to public campaigns against them, and even to trials and judicial seizures. As a result, from 1966 some comics remarkably reduced violence and erotic situations, and tried to open themselves to a younger and wider audience, while others, the so-called "vietati ai minori" ("prohibited to minors") exploited their status, increasing the levels of sex, and sometimes becoming openly pornographic.
Examples of these more explicit comics are
Vampirissimo,
Jacula,
Hessa,
Terror,
Messalina,
Maghella,
Oltretomba,
Lucifera,
Biancaneve,
Vartan,
Sukia,
Jolanda de Almaviva,
Yra, and
Frankenstein
''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' is an 1818 Gothic novel written by English author Mary Shelley. ''Frankenstein'' tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a Sapience, sapient Frankenstein's monster, crea ...
. By contrast, the surreally erotic ''
Valentina'' series created by
Guido Crepax (in 1965), whose transgressively heroine sports an iconic
bob hairstyle inspired by the American film actress and dancer
Louise Brooks, as well as Crepax's own wife Luisa, can be seen as a cerebrally refined relative of the ''fumetti neri'' genre, which held a widespread appeal to
intellectual
An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and Human self-reflection, reflection about the nature of reality, especially the nature of society and proposed solutions for its normative problems. Coming from the wor ...
s of the time.
In
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
, these comics were published in
digest size editions by the likes of
Elvifrance. In the
Netherlands
, Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
vast amounts of the erotic comics were published by Schorpioen, Nooitgedacht and Vrijbuiter during the 70s and 80s.
Legacy
It was in the scene set by the ''fumetti neri'' that
auteur comics (''fumetti d'autore'') published in magazines such as ''
linus''