Between the late ’60s and the late ’80s Italy went crazy for “sexy fumetti," a home-grown genre of adult comics with a unique brand of twisted humour, violence, and up-front sexuality. Wilder and weirder than you can imagine, they were some of the most outrageous and shocking comics ever produced, and their eye-catching, highly provocative covers could be seen on every news stand and kiosk in the country. One of the most talented and prolific of the cover artists at Edifumetto – the foremost Italian producer of adult comics during this period – was Alessandro Biffignandi, whose work featured horror, fantasy, and sci-fi elements alongside plenty of naked female flesh. This book is a collection of some of the sexiest examples of Biffignandi’s cover art for Edifumetto, which is highly coveted by collectors today.
About the Author
Born in Rome in 1935, Alessandro Biffignandi developed an interest in drawing and cartoons at a very young age. After school he attended art college, where he became fascinated by cinema posters, and on graduating he became an apprentice with the great Italian poster illustrator Averardo Ciriello. At the age of 20, Biffignandi was head-hunted by the studio of Augusto Favelli, which at that time was Italy's biggest producer of film posters. In the 1960s, he moved to Milan and created cover artwork for the D’Ami studio, an art agency that produced comic strips for the UK market, including the famous Fleetway war comics. From 1970 until the early ’80s, he produced hundreds of high-quality covers for the adult comic titles published by Edifumetto – including Zora la Vampira, Cimiteria, and Biancaneve, after which he left the world of comics to concentrate on magazine and book illustration. He died in 2017 soon after the publication of this book.
Reviews
‘Highly recommended to fans of pulp art, pop culture, and for anyone curious to see more of what we were missing in the Italian comic world…’ - Starburst
3 Reviews
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A terrific book and companion to the first volume in the ...
A terrific book and companion to the first volume in the series. I would have liked to have learned more of the background on Biffignandi, but that's a very small quibble in an otherwise gorgeous book. Can't wait for future volumes in this series... HINT! HINT!
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I love this book
I love this book, and the first book in the series featuring the works of Taglietti. These books collect the best of what the 1970s and 80s horror fumetti have to offer, considering the interior art is not worth remembering. But the covers in this book, by Biffignandi, are just amazing. Not for children or the squeamish, this book is nonetheless a beautiful tribute.
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Another serving of wild Italian pulp art
Last year I read and reviewed Sex and Horror: The Art of Emanuele Taglietti. I enjoyed it and when I learned the publisher was releasing a book on Allesandro Biffignandi, another Italian artist who produced covers for the erotic horror comics of the 1970's and 1980's, I decided to check it out. Biffignandi's work is similar to Taglietti's (indeed, both contributed to the same magazines). Worth noting is the feature Candida la Marchessa, involving a noblewoman turned thief after her fortune is lost. She comes across as a more sinister version of American pulp's Domino Lady. Cimiteria is a beautiful revived corpse who gets into supernatural adventures with her hunchback lover. Biffignandi also did erotic parodies of Zorro and classic literary works. All in all, if you like wild art that combines sex, nudity, violence and horror, this will be something you will want to see.
