51a Asta Little Nemo - Omaggio a Micheluzzi / Maestri del Fumetto

TALKING ABOUT
MICHELUZZI…
Santo Alligo
Twenty-eight years after the premature death of Attilio Micheluzzi,
a new exhibition, a catalogue and the following auction
will celebrate the great Istrian author. The exhibition and the catalogue
have been made possible thanks to the Micheluzzi family,
who agreed to put on sale several arts out of the first of four Air
Mail adventures: a great opportunity for Attilio’s admirers.
Recently I have had the pleasure to spend a few hours in
Milan with Giovanna Ressia Micheluzzi (my dear Giovanna), and
with Giustina (Attilio’s youngest daughter). We talked about him
going back over his original boards that the family preserves in a
closet; I asked them a few questions. I hope something new and
personal about the artist and the man came out.
Attilio Micheluzzi with Giovanna Ressia,
Torre del Greco, 1988
After graduating in architecture, did Attilio start working in
Naples?
Giovanna: «No, he graduated and he soon left for Africa with
two of his colleagues, to build a hotel in Dakar, Senegal, after a
Marlboro commission; he had the job thanks to a friend, who was
the fiancé of the Swiss Marlboro’s owner».
Why did he move from architecture to comics?
Giovanna: «Attilio has always sketched comics, since he was
a child, adventurous stories with his texts too».
What brought him to change his job completely?
Giovanna: «When he came back to Naples from Libya, after
Gheddafi’s measure, along with other Italians. After many years
of absence, he took part to many public selections without obtaining
anything, until someone told him “Have you not understood
it yet? All orders have been placed, it is useless for you to come
here without someone sponsoring you”. Attilio was not registered
to any political party, at that time you had to belong to the Socialist’s
one».
These beautiful coloured boards set in prehistory, when did he
realize them? Did someone commission them to him?
Giovanna: «he made them in 1975, without any commission;
he wanted to do something for kids, so he created Herbaceus, a
smart prehistoric child».
In the end, the architect understood that he could not provide
for himself and his family with architecture only, so?
Giovanna: «Attilio used to have a good line, so he started drawing
comics, after taking contact in Milan with “Corriere dei Ragazzi”:
it was 1972. At the beginning he signed himself Igor Artz
Bajeff, as he felt not confortable with this new job».
Why did he choose such a strange name?
Giovanna: «Attilio was of Slavic origins, and the name was totally
invented».
He used to read a lot, didn’t he? One can see it from the flow of
his texts. What were his favourite writers?
Giovanna: «First of all, the Russians: Tolstoj, Turgenev, Gogol,
Dostoevskij, Puskin, etc., then the French ones: Balzac, Flaubert,
Proust, Maupassant, Stendhal, and so on. Well, he liked classics
very much. Petra Chérie is influenced by the mitteleuropean setting
from the end of 19th century».
10 TALKING ABOUT MICHELUZZI...