Benito Jacovitti

Benito Jacovitti (March 19, 1923 - December 3, 1997) was an Italian comic artist.

Benito Jacovitti was born in Termoli, Molise in the southern part of the country. He was still a kid when he started drawing on the pavement of the village's streets. The son of a railwayman, Benito entered Macerata's art school at age 11, graduating to Firenze's art institute five years later. Here he received the nickname "lisca di pesce" ("fishbone") because of his thin figure, that he will use as his signature during his career.

In 1939 Jacovitti started working for "Il Vittorioso", a Catholic comic magazine targeted at young adults that only published Italian artists. There he created several characters: Pippo, Pertica e Palla, Oreste il guastafeste, Chicchiricchì, Giacinto corsaro dipinto, Jack Mandolino, La signora Carlomagno, adaptations of classic like "Ali Baba" and "Don Quixote," and parodies of famous comics like "L'onorevole Tarzan" and "Il mago Mandrago". During this period, he also contributed cartoons to the satirical weekly "Il Travaso delle idee".

Starting from 1949, Jacovitti produced a series of cartoons for school diaries, named "I Diari Vitt" (short for "Vittorioso") and published by A.V.E. These books made him a household name among kids and parents, and he kept producing them until 1980. In 1956 he began working for the newspaper "Il Giorno", where he created his best known character, the cowboy Cocco Bill, as well as the private eye Tom Ficcanaso.

Ten years later Jacovitti left "Il Giorno" to join "Il Corriere dei Piccoli", a popular weekly publication for kids, for which he created Cip l'Arcipoliziotto, Zorry Kid, Tarallino Tarallà and others.

In 1973 he published "Gionni Peppe" on the magazine "Linus", followed in 1981 by "Joe Balordo".

Jacovitti's unique artstyle is immediately appealing to both kids and adults: his characters sport huge noses and feet, his pages are chock full of details and all sort of objects and weird creatures born from his untamed creativity. While most of his production was geared toward humor and parody, Jacovitti did not shy away from more controversial material like the erotic book "Kamasutra" and political cartoons.

During his career, Jacovitti created more than 60 characters and produced around 150 books, making him one of the most prolific and original artists in comic book history.

External links

* [http://muuta.net/CoccoBill Cocco Bill and other characters bibliography]
* [http://www.lambiek.net/artists/j/jacovitti.htm article from Lambiek Comiclopedia]
* [http://www.jacovitti.it/ Jacovitti's offical site (now on line)]