<em>Mon Semblable, Mon Frère</em>: Identity Needs, Imaginary, and Aesthetics in Marco and Antonio Manetti’s Diabolik Trilogy

Giorgio Busi Rizzi; Lorenzo Di Paola; Rodolfo Dal Canto

doi:10.6092/issn.2280-9481/18922

Authors

Giorgio Busi Rizzi Ghent University https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1901-7254

Giorgio Busi Rizzi is FWO post-doctoral fellow and adjunct professor at Ghent University, teaching the Comics and Graphic Novels and English Literature courses. His current project investigates authorship in post-digital comics; his previous ones analyzed nostalgia and young readers (within the ERC project Children in comics) and experimental digital comics (BOF fellowship). He holds a PhD in Literary and Cultural Studies with joint supervision by the Universities of Bologna and Leuven, focusing on nostalgia in graphic novels. He is interested in comics studies, narratology, digital culture, and digital humanities. He is a founding member of the international research group on Italian comics SNIF – Studying ‘n’ Investigating Fumetti, and member of several international research groups on comics studies.
Lorenzo Di Paola Ghent University https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1141-7640

Lorenzo Di Paola is adjunct professor of “Teorie e sociologie del fumetto dalla stampa al digitale ” at the University of Salerno. He works on the mediology of comics and literature and the sociology of digital cultures. He has written numerous articles for scientific journals and collective volumes, and has participated in numerous national and international conferences. He is part of the international research group on Italian comics SNIF – Studying ‘n’ Investigating Fumetti and is a member of the “Centro Studi Media Culture Società” at the University of Salerno. He also co-edits the scientific series “L’Eternauta, Collana di studi su fumetti e media”, together with Luigi Frezza and Mario Tirino. He has edited with Mario Tirino the volume Poi piovve dentro a l’alta fantasia. Dante e i fumetti (Polidoro Editore 2022). His most recent publications include: "The dawn of the living communities: for a mediology of horror fandom in Dylan Dog" (H-Ermes 2022); "In the maze of media education: The TESEO toolkit" (Sociétés 2022); "From Virtual Reality to Augmented Reality: Devices, Bodies, Places and Relationships" (Ismar-adjunct 2021). He is the author of the book L’inafferrabile medium. Una cartografia delle teorie del fumetto dagli anni Venti a oggi (Polidoro editore, 2019).
Rodolfo Dal Canto Università degli Studi Dell’Aquila
Rodolfo Dal Canto is PhD student at the University of L'Aquila, with a project investigating the precariousness and the absence of the future in contemporary Italian comics production through the Derridean notion of hauntology. He graduated in Italian Studies at the University of Bologna with a thesis on the comics narrative of urban transformation processes. He was among the participants at the Compalit 2022 Conference with a paper titled A.I. and Unheimlich: the Love Bot case. He is an editor for the website «Lo Spazio Bianco» and the online magazine «Le Sabbie di Marte». He is also a member of the Italian comics research group SnIF (Studying ’n’ Investigating Fumetti). He is interested in comics studies, cultural studies, literary criticism and hauntology.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2280-9481/18922

Keywords:

Comics, Crime Movies, Intermedial Adaptation, Imaginary, Diabolik

Abstract

Diabolik has marked a decisive watershed in Italian culture and imagination. Confronting the way it tra- versed sixty years of Italian history allows us to examine the complex plot that links Italian comics to me- dial and socio-cultural changes. This article investigates the relationships between the comics series and the cinematic Diabolik, discussing the mechanisms of adaptation and remediation, the changes in aesthetic forms and symbolic references that have aimed to intercept a vast and heterogeneous audience over several years and different media. We will analyze the evolution that Diabolik’s storyworld has undergone, from the establishment of the comics series to the film adaptations, examining how the franchise has traversed and adapted to the changing imaginaries and spaces (physical and medial) in constant metamorphosis, and considering how it has responded to the identity needs of Italian audiences from the 1960s to the present. Finally –- and, crucially – we will focus on the trilogy recently directed by the Manetti brothers (Diabolik, 2021; Diabolik - Ginko all’attacco!, 2022; and Diabolik - Chi sei?, 2023), considering the relation it bears to the comics series, discussing the semiotic and aesthetic choices through which the filmmakers have adapted the hypotexts and remediated the original material, and highlighting its palimpsestuous character.

Mon Semblable, Mon Frère: Identity Needs, Imaginary, and Aesthetics in Marco and Antonio Manetti’s Diabolik Trilogy

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