The Multimedia Archive of the Image opens in Cagliari

Great news for comics and animation fans: on May 12th in Cagliari the Multimedia Archive of Image (Archivio Multimediale dell’Immaginario, AMI) was presented to the press. Produced by the fervent activity of International Comic Center (Centro Internazionale del Fumetto, CIF), the AMI archive gathers an incredible amount of multimedia material, most of which is related to the comic world: magazines, series, comic books, graphic novels and essays on the history and characteristics of the visual medium. 

A room in the AMI archive
(source: falzarego35.eu)

You can find complete collections of Corriere dei Piccoli of 1940 and from 1960 to 1972, the first editions of the Supereroi issues by Editoriale Corno, the anastatic reprints, that is accurate reproductions of the original copies, of magazine Linus from 1965 to 1980 and the complete collections of anthological magazines Totem, Comic Art, Pilot and Eureka. It also features a section of international comics from all over the world, such as China, Russia, Brazil, Argentina and many others. Regarding animation, there are essays and movies on DVD, together with documentation on television, multimedia material and literary essays. The heritage of secondary material isn’t lacking: stickers, playing cards, tarots, illustrated and satirical magazines from mid 19th century to the 1960s such as Illustrazione Italiana, Illustrazione Popolare, Lo spirito Folletto, Il Giornalino della Domenica and photo story books such as Avventuroso Film.

This archive is inside the International Comic Center, in the library hub Polo Bibliotecario Falzarego 35 with other five socio-cultural realities: the Center for Documentation and Women Studies, the LGBT and Queer Media Library, the Documentation Center for performing arts Marco Parodi, the Performing Arts and Crafts Library and the Center of multimedia documentation fo the humid areas. The library hub headquarters are in Via Falzarego 35 in Cagliari, which for fifty years (from the early 1950s to the early 2000s) hosted one of the city’s most important primary schools, Edmondo De Amicis school. From 2018 it hosts the International Comic Center, adding other cultural activities through the years. 

In the presentation of the AMI archive, attended by Cagliari’s Councilor for Culture Maria Dolores Picciau and Pasquale Mascia, coordinator of the Office for the Historical Archive and Libraries and of the Municipal Library System, writer and director Bepi Vigna explained:

“Our International Comic Center collects material and traces of the popular narrative production that fostered our imagination. Basically, we propose a new way to approach history involving everyone. Because we are what we dreamed, we are the books we read, the films we watched, the music we listened to. We are the games we played as children… We are our memories. Through comics and books, in the pages of illustrated magazines, in films and tv series, in songs we loved, we can find what can help us understand ourselves better and estimate the world changes we went through and understand its value system.”

Presentation of the AMI archive with Pasquale Mascia, Maria Dolores Picciau and Bepi Vigna
(source: falzarego35.eu)

Bepi Vigna, director of the International Comic Center, was born in Baunei (Ogliastra, Sardinia) in 1957. He worked for many years as a lawyer until the founding in Cagliari of the group Bande Dessinée with Antonio Serra and Michele Medda. The three wrote comic scripts for Sergio Bonelli Editore, and in 1989 they proposed to the editor Nathan Never, SBE’s first sci-fi series, which debuted in 1991 and is currently quite popular in Italy and in many other countries. In 1995 one of the series’ secondary characters became the protagonist of her own spin-off, Legs Weaver, published from 1995 to 2005. In 1990 he published with the newspaper L’Unione Sarda the book Luoghi ed esseri fantastici della Sardegna, written with Giampiera Caprolu on the legendary creatures of Sardinia. In 1993 Vigna founded in Cagliari the region’s first school of comics, which now is part of CIF. He is also the author of essays on comics, cinema and popular traditions, short stories and novels. In 2006 he started directing the Sardinian magazine of comic and illustration Backgroiùund and the cinema magazine Teorema. He directed several short films and documentaries, such as Imago Sardiniae, a documentary in three parts about the history of Sardinian comics in the 20th century. 

Part of the archive is dedicated to Sardinian comics: the cataloging of material recently started and for each author a personal box is prepared. The curator of the census of documents Elisabetta Randaccio states:

“In the boxes where the works of Sardinian artists are cataloged you can find great surprises: not just publications, newspaper articles, but also painting works, original scripts for comics and graphic novels in an extraordinary overview of Sardinian creativity in comics. Cataloging through boxes and cards facilitates very much consultation and study of the materials.”

The archive’s material comes from relations with national and international institutions such as the Institut National des Beaux-Arts and the Forum International de la Bande Dessinée de Tétouan (Morocco) and the literary festival Semana Negra de Gijón (Spain) among many others. Furthermore, great contributions come from donations of private collectors, such as former professor, author and musician Fulvio Caporale, honorary associate of the Center: among this material are an illustrated French newspaper from 1789 and a book of Roman Smorfia from 1810 with late 18th Century engravings. This archive will be an incredible resource for aficionados and students for their personal research and essays, a testament of Italian popular culture. 

You can visit the Multimedia Archive of Image by prior appointment by writing to the email address centrointernazionalefumetto@gmail.com.

Doll costumizing: the art of personalizing dolls

Dolls are one of the most versatile toys when it comes to children's imaginative games, however fantasy has no age and they keep being a wonderful canvas for adults as well. What happens when a doll collector is also an artist? The two passions join together and the result is a fascinating niche hobby commonly called doll customizing. The customization of dolls exists in many forms and degrees of modification: the range goes from any alteration between changing clothes or hair, painting a new face, and even creating a hybrid by putting together parts of different dolls or sculpting completely new parts! 

Kid Delf Hanael
by Hina Ichigo on Flickr

In the early 2000s the artists and collectors’ favorite objects were garage kits (resin kits that let you piece together and paint a figurine by yourself) and especially the great novelty of the time: the BJDs, that is Ball Jointed Dolls. These resin dolls, introduced by Japanese company Volks in 1999 and since then produced in different forms by many companies in the world, are characterized by their very versatile spherical joints that allow posing in many more positions than a classic doll like Barbie. Furthermore, the possibility to change the removable eyes and hair with the wigs greatly increases the level of customization, letting the artist change character or aesthetic whenever they want. 

MYOU DOLL BJD Unboxing and Dress Up by PINK DOLL

However, this type of dolls requires care regarding the conservation of the resin and the joints. Some types of resin can change color with time, especially if the doll is often exposed to natural light. Because of this it’s necessary to pay attention while choosing the place for the bjd. In addition, the doll’s limbs are kept in tension by a long double elastic, which normally allows it to pose in a solid and secure way. With the passage of time, the elastic loses strength, and it has to be replaced, by taking apart the doll and connecting again all the limbs with a new elastic. With the explosion of the internet's popularity in the same years, many online communities were born, where fans from all over the world could appreciate together a relatively niche interest.

In that period doll customizing was generally a challenging and a bit expensive hobby, but the debut of a particular line of fashion dolls (dolls mainly designed to be dressed up and represent fashions) revolutionized the landscape of this hobby. In 2010 Mattel launched the Monster High doll line, which is very peculiar for different reasons. The dolls represent characters with defined aesthetics and personalities (among their accessories they have a small diary with their story): daughters or relatives of iconic figures of the horror scene such as Frankestein or Dracula, these girls go to a school full of teen monsters, following the slogan “Be Yourself, Be Unique, Be a Monster”. The characters’ aesthetic brings together the horror themes with the charming creepy cute fashion: the dolls have particular clothes and accessories full of details based on each character.

The first group of dolls from Monster High's original line (2010)

Monster High dolls, being fashion dolls and thus designed as toys and not collectors’ items, presented a more compact and cheaper alternative to bjds. Infact, with the average size of a Barbie and double the articulations, these girls not only conquered the hearts of many children, but they also contributed to the accessibility of the hobby to a larger group of artists.

In the span of 12 years, the doll market was filled with models of different shapes and sizes, for the joy of fans. Likewise, the concept of customization evolved in different forms. The term used in the community is OOAK (One Of A Kind), which means a unique piece. One of the most known artists even outside of the community is Filipino artist Noel Cruz, known for his incredible skills with the paintbrush, which gives great realism and life to his dolls, most of which represent celebrities. For example, here is his work with the Beyoncé doll:

Beyoncé doll repainted by Noel Cruz (2013)

Dolls can represent a favorite character, a mythological creature (werewolves, fairies, minotaurs) or even a concept (seasons, zodiac signs, arcana of the tarots. Depending on the artist’s vision, in order to bring this idea to light you need to modify the dolls with clay, resin or other materials. On YouTube you can find wonderful examples of OOAK dolls by artists such as Dollightful, Hextian, Dollmotion, Kyros Workshop, Enchanterium, Valkitty’s World, Doe Deer Wonderland (who takes care of restoring vintages pieces), Kiat B. Saguru and many others. Here I propose some gorgeous works:

Smarágdi, empress of Venus by Valkitty’s World. Part of a collaboration themed after the solar system, this doll represents planet Venus and the emerald stone. The artist explains her process with trivia on the planet and the gem's symbolism. All her videos have Spanish audio with English subtitles.

Xerneas the legendary pokemon by Dollightful. Part of a collaboration that reimagines the three legendary creatures of video games Pokémon X and Pokémon Y, this doll twice as tall as a regular Monster High piece presents an incredible number of body modifications that include all the aforementioned tools, and even the use of a small electric LED circuit for the horns! A project so big that its demonstration is split in two parts you can watch here: part 1 and part 2.

Olivia Aves the owl girl by Dollmotion. This hybrid doll was created with the techniques of head shrinking with acetone and plastic dyeing, with the addition of beak and wings. Olivia is one of the characters of original series Divus, animated with the stop-motion technique (which we talked about in other occasions). In fact, most of Dollmotion’s creations appear in the Divus series, which you can follow on its own YouTube channel.

“Porcelainpunk” doll by Kiat B. Saguru. Inspired by the steampunk aesthetic and the intricate and delicate designs of porcelain objects, this robot charms with her sweet smile and eyes full of wonder together with the story created for her by the artist.

After the more articulated dolls, here are the dolls turned into wonderful sculptures: year of the tiger doll by Hextian. Great fan of the culture and aesthetic of the Drag Queen world, Hextian loves to create strong silhouettes with exaggerated forms. His detailed and elegant dolls are inspired as well by works of fashion designers such as Thierry Mugler and the aesthetic of 2000s doll brand Bratz.

Futuristic Cyberpunk Shero by earthtolylah. Using dolls and resin figurine kits as a base, the artist creates complex, dynamic and unique sculptures. Part of the album “Tell me a fable”, this original character is a futuristic superhero with masks, cables and especially neon colors that react to the blacklight, creating a spectacular effect.

Closer to the concept of restoration is the idea of customizing dolls with the goal to create the illusion that they are factory made this way. Did your character not get a doll in the line dedicated to their film or series? Well, you can make it yourself, with the right materials! The couple of aficionados of dolls and mahou shoujo genre Cosmo and Luke have been showing for many years their collection on their YouTube channel and website Latte e Cartoni (formerly curemoon.com), together with their custom dolls. For instance, Luke managed to create dolls of the Sailor Starlights warriors from the series Sailor Moon Sailor Stars, which were never produced in Italy by Giochi Preziosi, using other pieces from the same line and clothes created with the closest material possible to those of the official products.

Sailor Starlight dolls by Luke of Latte e Cartoni (source: flickr of CureMoon.com)

Through the years, Luke created with this method a great number of dolls from series such as Sailor Moon, Pretty Cure, Wedding Peach and Mermaid Melody Pitchi Pitchi Pitch for his collection and on commission as well. In a relatively recent video, Luke and Cosmo showed the three official dolls of Mermaid Melody by Giochi Preziosi (the protagonists Lucia in pink, Hanon in light blue and Rina in green) accompanied by the custom dolls of the rest of the group present in the series. The fact that you cannot recognize the factory made piece from the hand made one is proof of great skills and attention to details. The YouTube channel, among other content related to cartoons and toys, presents a few tutorials that can be watched in this playlist.

Any modification, from the smallest to the most complex, transforms a doll into a unique piece. That’s the beauty of this hobby: there is not one single way to customize, but infinite possibilities at the service of the fantasy of someone who keeps playing and imagining.

A dream that ended too soon: the periodical Mangaka

Cover of issue n.1 of Mangaka

Japan Magazine was not the only periodical dedicated to the manga world that charmed me in the past. In the summer of 2009, after a day at the beach, in a newsstand I found a magazine called Mangaka, with a very colorful cover, and a subtitle saying “the only magazine that publishes your manga”. I was instantly fascinated and bought it. Inside it had a few short stories of European manga authors, with articles about techniques and interviews with manga authors. I hoped to find the following number, but I never found it: convinced I had found something that could fill the void left by Japan Magazine, I kept hoping to have luck and find an issue in the future. Years passed, and during a research on the internet I finally found an answer to my doubts: the magazine, published by Coniglio Editore in 2009 bimonthly, finished its publishing journey after the first two issues. The publisher itself doesn’t exist nowadays, it unfortunately closed down in 2011.

Ad for publishing on the magazine

Presented as a supplement to the title Scuola di Fumetto, Mangaka offered an incredible opportunity: the readers could send their own short stories to the editorial staff, and if it was published, the artist would have been paid 35 euros for each page! For me, a 13 year old kid, 35 euros per page seemed a fortune. Having the luck of seeing my drawings published in a magazine, and being paid as well? A dream! Here is the ad with the instructions to send by mail a story of one to four pages. Remember, it was the year 2009 and sending photocopies or digital scans on CD by mail was still more common and accessible than using e-mail.

Cover for issue n.2 of Mangaka

Unfortunately I don’t have the second issue, I would be very curious to see the works of non professional artists. The artists that collaborated on the first issue are:

• Joanna Zhou
• Åsa Ekström
• Marco Dominici
• Celia Machuca A. (script) + Elisabet Basanta 
• Federico Memola (script) + Teresa Marzia
• Giacomo Pueroni 
• Akane (Alicia Ruiz)
• Federica di Meo
• Enrica “Enrychan” Fastuca

Article about screentones

The articles talk about drawing techniques, fundamentals and tools, with easy writing for the beginners but at the same time very informative and interesting. For instance, a short article explains what are screentones, what is their function and where to find them in Italy.

In conclusion, the Mangaka periodical had the potential to be a point of reference and a stepping stone for beginner artists interested in the creation of manga, and it’s a shame that its publishing journey was that short. However, I am very glad I bought the first issue on that Summer day, fondly remembering the magazine to this day.

TOTTOI - A lost anime set in Sardinia now found again!

Once again Youtube recommended videos led me to a surprising discovery: a short promo for an animated Japanese tv movie whose setting felt oddly familiar, and the characters were having pane carasau for dinner! “Could it be? A Japanese animated movie set in Sardinia?” Yes, it could!

Tottoi is a movie produced in 1992, based on a 1980 novel with the same name by Gianni Padoan. Using a novel as source material wasn’t unusual for anime productions, with the creation of a subgenre of Japanese animation due to the World Masterpiece Theater: a collection of animated series produced annually from 1975 to 1997 and from 2007 and 2009. Even the 1974 series Heidi girl of the Alps, one of Hayao Miyazaki’s first animated works, is based on a Swiss novel! This was a very successful trend at the time, so in retrospect it’s not surprising that Tottoi was adapted into an animated movie. What is surprising though is that, despite Italy’s flourishing love for anime and the very frequent import of series for our country’s television, this movie never got an Italian release. Ironically, it has an English and Spanish official release but it’s relatively unknown in the country of its source material.

The book that inspired the movie was born from the pen of writer and ethologist Gianni Padoan in 1980. He wrote more than a hundred novels known world wide and translated in several languages, winning numerous awards for his works. As an ethologist he studied the behaviour of wolves, meanwhile he had been writer of several television and radio shows, and worked with a few magazines specialized in history.

The film accurately follows the narration of the book: in the 1970s Antonio (Tottoi), a 14 year old kid, lives with his family in Germany. After his mother’s death, his father decides to go back to his native town in Sardinia to raise his two children in a healthier environment. So Tottoi and his little sister discover Dorgali and the maritime village Calagonone. During an exploration of the caves of Bue Marino, Tottoi finds a Mediterrean monk seal. This animal was believed to be extinct, but this specimen came back to the cave to give birth to a seal pup on a beach inside the cave. Accompanied by a local naturalist, Tottoi manages to befriend the seals, calling the newborn Zabaione (Eggnog) due to a yellow spot on the belly. Through the course of the film Tottoi and his friends defend the seals from an American business man that wants to capture them for his zoo in Florida.

A Mediterrean monk seal

 

The seal Zabaione in the film

The film keeps the book’s message of protection and preservation of the environment, representing very accurately the Sardinian landscapes and traditions such as su ballu tundu, a traditional dance that has numerous variants of choreography according to the specific area of Sardinia, but they all have in common the fact of dancing in group in a circle. 

Picture of folk group Ittiri Caneddu shared by Cristiano Cani

The film was produced by Nippon Animation, the same studio that produced the World Masterpiece Theater mentioned earlier, and it aired in 1992 on the television channel NHK. The feature film was dubbed and aired in English and Spanish respectively with the titles The secret of the seal and El secreto de la foca. The film has been unknown in Italy until 2012, when the project of a class from the middle school of Dorgali provided an Italian dub. The students lent their voices and the result is a peculiar Italian version that includes expressions in Sardinian. The film was presented on March 17th 2012 at the municipal theater of Dorgali during the film festival Cinema Musica Ambiente Società organized by the municipality with the participation of the Department of Culture of Region Saridinia.

It’s a shame that an official dub doesn’t exist, but the project by Dorgali’s middle school is a very admirable initiative that finally allowed this film to be known in the country of origin of its story. 

Here is the full movie dubbed in English, enjoy!

JUNDO: a new frontier in Italian comics

Entering in the Italian publishing world is difficult, especially in the comics field, if you are a rookie. For this reason a young group of writers and artists decided to organize and create a new community “to break the barriers of the comics world”: this community is called JUNDO.

This platform aims to cut the intermediary between artists and readers, giving space to products of any genre, from horror to comedy, from sci-fi to fantasy and slice-of-life. Similar to the format of online publishing services such as the app MANGA PLUS by Shueisha, the works are divided into chapters published over regular intervals of time. Each week there is a new publication, which can be the first chapter of a new series or a new chapter of a series that started earlier!

Page of the series "Carnival Chaos"
from Google Play Store

Since its debut in December 2020 up to date, the JUNDO library features 15 works, with an interesting variety of art styles, narration styles and themes, and this is its strength, the richness of diversity of the contents. Another characteristic of JUNDO is the future possibility of buying a physical copy of the comic you read once its publication will be complete on the platform. The printing of the comics will be funded by the price of the monthly subscription of 1,99 euros, and the subscribers won’t pay the shipping expenses. The profit from the books minus the production costs will belong to the artists, following the spirit of allowing them to keep the rights of their own creations and earn as they deserve. What’s more, new artists can pitch their stories or propose themselves as cartoonists! The team picks the artists, pairing cartoonists and writers, and if you are not chosen you will receive feedback with their reasoning and what you can improve for the future.

Preview of the app
from Google Play Store

You can create a JUNDO account that will allow you to have one month of free trial to read anything you want, and if you are satisfied you can subscribe for 1,99 euros per month. JUNDO is available on its website as well as its mobile app for Android system and on iOS. JUNDO’s staff usually promotes the platform and its development progress on its instagram and facebook pages, where they publish previews of the soon to be published series as well.

Personally I am very happy about this initiative, it’s a new way for artists that struggle to enter the publishing world, and a new channel to express the creativity of whoever wants to tell a story.