Milo Manara, byname of Maurilio Manara (born September 12, 1945 in Luson, Bolzano-Bozen) is an Italian comic book creator (writer and artist), best known for his erotic approach to the medium.

Biography

After architecture and painting studies, he made his comics debut in 1969 drawing for Genius, a Fumetti neri series of pocket books from publisher Furio Vanio in the wake of the popularity of Kriminal and Satanik. In 1970 he illustrated for the magazine Terror, and starting in 1971 drew the erotic series Jolanda de Almaviva written by Francisco Rubino, issued in small format by publisher Erregi. Joining the youth magazine Il Corriere dei Ragazzi, he worked with Rubino, Carlo Barbieri, Mino Milani and Silverio Pisú. With Pisú Manara launched the publications Telerompo and Strategia della Tensione in 1974 and the series Alessio, Il Borghese Rivoluzionario, and with writer Mino Milani the series La parola ai giura in 1975. Manara and Pisú later went on to publish Lo Scimmiotto (The Ape) along the story of the Chinese Monkey King in Alter Linus in 1976, and with Alfredo Castelli, L'Uomo delle Nevi (The Snowman) in 1978.

During this period Manara began publishing work in several Franco-Belgian comics magazines including Charlie Mensuel, Pilote and L'Écho des savanes. For (A SUIVRE) Manara created the first stories featuring HP and Giuseppe Bergman, which grew to become a large body of work. The character "HP" is based on Manara's friend, the Italian comics creator Hugo Pratt, and a collaborator on some of Manara's most acclaimed work, initially Tutto ricominciò con un'estate indiana (1983, Indian Summer) and later El Gaucho (1991). Manara also completed two stories working with another of his heroes, Federico Fellini. In his own right Manara has been commended on his skills as a scenarist, as with the western L'uomo di carta (1982, The Paper Man).

Manara's reputation for producing comics that revolve around elegant, beautiful women caught up in unlikely and fantastical erotic scenarios became solidified with work such as Il Gioco (1983, also known as Click or Le Déclic), about a device which renders women helplessly aroused, Il Profumo dell'invisibile (1986, Butterscotch), introducing the heroine Miele (Honey) and a sweet-smelling body-paint which makes the wearer invisible, and Candid camera (1988, Hidden Camera) featuring the same protagonist in further explicit adventures. In the following years of combining sequels, original work and collaborations with noted creators, Manara's production continued in this direction to explore erotic comics themes with an artistic and storytelling expression in a manner considered unique to Manara.

In the U.S. The Ape was serialised in Heavy Metal in the early 1980s and Manara received some exposure through collaborations with Neil Gaiman and other artists. Curiously, Manara does not enjoy the popularity in his native Italy that exists in France, where he is considered one of the most important comics creators in the world.

Style

Manara's style favors clean lines for women reserving more complex drawings for monsters or other supernatural elements. As with his compatriots Tinto Brass and Leone Frollo, there is an emphasis on the portrayal of the female buttocks. Many of his comics feature themes of bondage, domination and humiliation (but not so hard as by Erich von Gotha), voyeurism, the supernatural, and the sexual tension beneath various aspects of Italian society. The works vary in their explicitness, but the general mood is playful rather than misogynistic. Manara's skill in creating atmosphere, his obvious talent, and his occasional excursions into more "mainstream" stories, have helped to give him an air of artistic respectability.

Later work

In connection with their joint project Quarantasei, in July 2006, Manara designed a helmet for Moto GP rider Valentino Rossi, specifically made for the Italian GP in Mugello. Rossi declared:

He has drawn some kind of a mythical history of my life, in cartoons, with some of my heroes such as Steve McQueen, Enzo Ferrari, Jim Morrison, and other characters such as my dog Guido, the chicken Osvaldo and a lot of beautiful women! I really like Milo...he's a person that I have admired for a long time.

In October 2006, Manara developed character designs for the animated television series City Hunters. The series, of ten 11 minute episodes, blends traditional animation techniques with modern CGI, to be broadcast across all of Latin America on the FOX network throughout 2006 and 2007.

Manara is slated to pencil an X-Men project written by Chris Claremont for Marvel Comics.

Bibliography

Original title	English title	Year	Remarks
Jolanda de Almaviva - La Figlia del Mare		1971	written by Francesco Rubino
La parola ai giura		1975	written by Mino Milani
Alessio, Il Borghese Rivoluzionario	Alessio	1975	written by Silverio Pisu
Lo scimmiotto	The Ape	1976	written by Silverio Pisu
Un uomo un'avventura: L'uomo delle nevi	The Snowman	1978	written by Alfredo Castelli
HP e Giuseppe Bergman	HP and Giuseppe Bergman	1978
Le avventure asiatiche di Giuseppe Bergman	The Indian Adventures of Giuseppe Bergman	1980
L'uomo di carta, o Quattro dita	The Paper Man	1982
Tutto ricominciò con un'estate Indiana	Indian Summer	1983	with Hugo Pratt
Il gioco	Click	1983
Il profumo dell'invisibile	Butterscotch	1986
Candid camera	Hidden Camera	1988
L'apparenza inganna		1988
Viaggio a Tulum	Trip to Tulum	1989	with Federico Fellini
L'arte della sculacciata	The Art of Spanking	1989	written by Jean-Pierre Enard
Le avventure africane di Giuseppe Bergman	An Author in Search of Six Characters and Dies Irae	1990
Breakthrough		1990	written by Neil Gaiman
Il gioco 2	Click 2	1991
El Gaucho	El Gaucho	1991	with Hugo Pratt
Il sogno di Oengus		1991	written by Giordano Berti
Il viaggio di G. Mastorna detto Fernet		1992	with Federico Fellini
La feu aux entrailles		1993	with Pedro Almodovar
Il gioco vol.3	Click 3	1994
Seduzioni		1994
Storie brevi	Shorts	1995
I viaggi di Gulliver, o Gulliveriana	Gulliveriana	1995	based on text by Jonathan Swift
Kamasutra	Manara's Kama Sutra	1997	based on text by Vatsyayana
Ballata in si bemolle	Fatal Rendezvous	1997
L'asino d'oro	The Golden Ass	1999	based on text by Apuleius
Le avventure metropolitane di Giuseppe Bergman	The Urban Adventures of Giuseppe Bergman	1999
Bolero		1999
Tre ragazze nella rete	www.	2000
Rivoluzione	Revolution	2000
Il gioco vol.4	Click 4	2001
Il profumo dell'invisibile 2	Butterscotch 2	2001
Le donne di Manara	Women of Manara	2001
Memory		2001
Fuga da Piranesi	Piranese: The Prison Planet	2002
Il pittore e la modella	The Model	2002
Pin-up art		2002
Aphrodite	Aphrodite, Book 1	2003	written by Pierre Louÿs
Donne e motori		2003
Fellini		2003
L'odissea di Bergman	The Odyssey of Giuseppe Bergman	2004
I Borgia - La conquista del papato	Borgia 1: Blood for the Pope	2004	with Alejandro Jodorowsky
The Sandman: Endless Nights		2004	written by Neil Gaiman
I Borgia vol.2 - Il potere e l'incesto	Borgia 2: Power and Incest	2006	with Alejandro Jodorowsky
Quarantasei		2006	with Valentino Rossi

Adaptations

• Series
• Click (1997 IMDb)
• City Hunters (2006, animated TV series created by Gastón Gorali & Alberto Stagnaro)

• Films
• Le Déclic (1985 IMDb)
• Le Parfum de l'invisible (1997 IMDb)
• La Légende de Parva (2003 IMDb)

Awards

• 1978: Yellow Kid and Gran Guinigi prize for an Italian artist
• 1998: Harvey Awards: Inducted into the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame
• 2004: Eisner Award, with various artists for Best Anthology, for The Sandman: Endless Nights

Sources

• Manara publications in (A SUIVRE) Pilote, L'Écho des Savanes and BoDoï'' BDoubliées
• Manara albums Bedetheque

Footnotes

External links

• Milo Manara official site (This site is under construction)
• Milo Manara site on Casterman
• Milo Manara biography on Lambiek Comiclopedia
• Milo Manara biography on Comiqueando online
• Manara Eurotica catalog NBM Graphic Novels publisher
• Milo Manara at the Internet Movie Database
• La Mansarda di Miele (Honey's Attic)
• How to draw a sexy girl by Milo Manara Video on YouTube