The fantasy genre has its own geography, as well as history, which can help reveal the spirit of a culture. It is impossible, while reading Guido Buzzelli’s comics, not to think of Dante’s visions, of the hallucinations of Mannerism, of Baroque yearning for deathly matters, or of the gruesome destiny awaiting Pinocchio, or even the sense of alienation permeating such a huge part of Italian culture, from Ariosto to Savinio, from Buzzati to Fellini.

In its exploration of fantastic worlds, BilBOlbul could not miss an incursion inside Guido Buzzelli’s work, that, since 1967 – the year his masterpiece, La rivolta dei racchi, was published – has led to a series of epic comics, remarkable for their visual impact, narrative genius, and clarity of vision when it comes to describing society – at Buzzelli’s time as well as now.

The common theme of all of Buzzelli’s comics is powerlessness. He is constantly telling stories about the impossibility for human beings to control reality, and about how miserable we humans are, how attached to our little desires and lowest impulses.
Buzzelli is certainly a very acute observer of the world’s injustices, and he chooses to respond to existential powerlessness  with a dynamic artistic style, with the perfect rendition of human bodies, with a swirling narration and a taste for grotesque that has left a mark on Italian comics artists such as Jacovitti and Altan.
This exhibition presents more than 70 original works and various sketches, introducing the viewers to the world of ruins in which Buzzelli’s characters live. Through dystopian narrations, hallucinations and political engagement, this exhibition aims to make the public rediscover a great artist, visionary yet extremely aware.

with Matteo Stefanelli, Vittorio Giacopini, Maria Rita Bentini, Marco Corona
introduced by Enrico Fornaroli
moderator Emilio Varrà
in collaboration with Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna, Coconino Press – Fandango

Guido Buzzelli, the son of a painter, made his artistic debut at the age of nineteen, when his first caricatures were published in the newspaper Argentovivo. During the next ten years, he worked in comics, specializing in making cover illustrations for publications and adventure series.
In 1954, he moved to England, where he created the comic Angélique for the Daily Mirror. Back in Italy, he devoted himself to painting for a while, but at the end of the 1960s he returned to the comics field with a more personal production, La rivolta dei racchi. After this story was translated into French, it was published in Charlie Mensuel, which also published Buzzelli’s Les Labyrinthes, Zil Zebub, H.P. and many more.
Guido Buzzelli was given an award by the international Salon de Lucca in 1973, the same year he created the western Nevada Hill together with writer Jean-Pierre Gourmelen. Guido Buzzelli’s work was published in several French magazines throughout the 1970s.
In 1985, Buzzelli’s Zasafir appeared and he took up the famous western by Bonelli Editore, Tex Willer. Guido Buzzelli died in 1992, after a very productive and diversified career in comics.