Dylan Dog turns 35 years old! The nightmare investigator debuted in the newsstands on September 26th 1986 and since then he accompanied readers every month through the decades to this day. Recently we talked about Dylan Dog’s current cover artists, this time I want to celebrate the anniversary of the series with the cover artists of the “classic” era: Claudio Villa and Angelo Stano.
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| Cover of Dylan Dog n.1 by Claudio Villa |
Claudio Villa debuted in the comic world after graduating from art school, drawing for edizioni L.U.G. the medieval miniseries Enguerrand e Nadine and the sci-fi comic Gun Gallon. In 1982 he started collaborating with Sergio Bonelli Editore (back then called Daim Press) for issues 11-12 of the series Martin Mystère, for which he drew nine stories in total. After working on four stories the publishing house commissioned a test to draw pages for Tex, which he passed successfully, working later on a script written by founder Gian Luigi Bonelli.
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| Cover for "Le vie dei colori" by Claudio Villa |
In 1986 he was contacted by Tiziano Sclavi for the character design of a new character, Dylan Dog. Sclavi provided Ville with all the material gathering the “creative process” and reference images for the faces that inspired him. His first attempts weren’t very satisfying: Dylan is a British man and his studies had traits that were <<kind of Hispanic with thick hair, sideburns and a big nose>>. Once they understood that Dylan is British, they decided to use Rupert Everett’s face as inspiration, and with a few adjustments we reached the definitive appearance of the character. Claudio Villa took care of the covers for the first 41 issues. In 1996 he wrote and drew in collaboration with singer songwriter Claudio Baglioni the story Le vie dei colori starring Dylan Dog, published in color in the magazine Tutto Musica e Spettacolo. In an interview with Lo Spazio Bianco in 2015 he stated that this was his first experience as a cover artist and it was very formative: <<The opportunity of working on the covers was a real gym>>.
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| Cover of Dylan Dog n.42 by Angelo Stano |
He then took care of the character design of Nick Raider, a character created by Claudio Nizzi that debuted in 1988. He took up the baton as cover artist for Tex after Galep in 1994, drawing many issues as well. In 2006 he drew the story Devil & Capitan America: Doppia Morte with the script by Tito Faraci, a production from Marvel Italia. From 2007 to 2011 he drew the covers for Tex’s Collezione storica a colori, a collection of Tex’s stories in color in collaboration with publisher group L’Espresso. Claudio Villa also works on covers for Bonelli comics’ international editions.
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| Tarot card of The Judgment drawn by Angelo Stano |
Angelo Stano got the art high school diploma in 1971 and debuted in the comic world in 1973 drawing an adaptation of From Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne according to Roberto Catalano’s script, published by Editrice Sole. He worked for several publishers, among which Ediperiodici, Edifumetto, Corrier Boy and Universo. He taught at Milan’s Scuola di Fumetto from 1981 to 1999. In 1985 he entered the team of authors that created Dylan Dog, drawing the first issue of the series, L’alba dei morti viventi. Then he worked on many stories of the series, and in 1990 he took up the baton from Claudio Villa as the series’ cover artist from issue 42. His last cover was issue 361, Mater Dolorosa, followed by the blank cover of Dopo un lungo silenzio, leaving the baton to Gigi Cavenago in issue 363. Occasionally he keeps drawing stories for the main title: his most recent one is issue 417, L’ora del giudizio, written by Barbara Baraldi and published in May 2021. During his career Stano also drew covers for the titles Speciale Dylan Dog (1990-2014) Maxi Dylan Dog (1998-2014), Dylan Dog Gigante y Almanacco della Paura.
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| Cover of Dylan Dog n.315 by Angelo Stano |
In 2012, Angelo Stano worked on script, drawings and cover of issue 315, La legione degli scheletri, an exceptional case because issues are usually a work of two authors plus the cover artist. In addition, in 1991 he drew the illustrations for the Tarocchi di Dylan Dog, tarot cards created in collaboration with publisher Lo Scarabeo that represent the major arcana with the characters of the series.
On occasion of issue 400, Claudio Villa and Angelo Stano came back to create special covers together with Gigi Cavenago and Corrado Roi, who was not a cover artist for the main title but he is one of the most memorable artists of the comic series.
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| Covers of Dylan Dog n.400 by Gigi Cavenago, Claudio Villa, Angelo Stano and Corrado Roi |
This time as well I will show my favorite covers to celebrate the artists of the classic era of Dylan Dog.
