Jacovitti Characters

Jacovitti Characters:

Benito Jacovitti (Lisca di Pesce, Jac) (9/3/1923 – 3/12/1997, Italy).

Benito Jacovitti is probably the most famous Italian satirical cartoonist, known for his absurd and humorous series full of bizarre events, like ‘I tre P‘, ‘Cocco Bill’ and ‘Zorry Kid’. Jacovitti was still only a high school student when his first cartoons appeared in the satirical weekly Il Brivido, in 1939. In the following year, he created his character ‘Pippo’ in Il Vittorioso. Together with his companions Pertica and Palla, Pippo formed the hilarious threesome ‘I tre P’ (‘The Three P’s’), whose adventures appeared in Il Vittorioso magazine until its disappearance in 1967.

Also for Il Vittorioso, Jacovitti additionally produced series like ‘Mandrago il Mago’, ‘Giove il bove’, ‘Le Babbuce di Allah‘, ‘Arcipoliziotto Cip’, ‘Jak Mandolino’, ‘Il Barbiere della Prateria’ (1941), ‘Chicchirichi’ (1944), ‘Raimondo il Vagabondo’, ‘Pasqualino e Pasqualone’ (1950), as well as adaptations of ‘Ali Baba’ (Ali Baba e i quaranta ladroni in 1941, 1946), ‘Don Quichotte’ and ‘Pinocchio’. In the periods 1949–51 and 1955–59, he was present in the satirical weekly Il Travaso, with several famous characters. In 1949, Jacovitti commenced working on I Diari Vitt, a series for school papers published by A.V.E., which he continued until 1980.

In 1956, he began a ten-year collaboration with the Milanese newspaper Il Giorno, and its supplement Il Girono dei Ragazzi. There, he created his well-known riotous, nonsensical western parody ‘Cocco Bill’, as well as journalist/detective ‘Tom Ficcanaso’ and ‘Gionni Galassia’. A clever parody of the famous masked Zorro, called ‘Zorry Kid’, was created for Il Corriere dei Piccoli in 1968. This series was later continued in Il Corriere dei Ragazzi and Il Giornalino. For Il Corriere dei Ragazzi, he also restarted ‘Jak Mandolino’ in 1973.

Jacovitti was additionally present in such magazines as Il Piccolo Missionario, Domenica della Corriere, La Notte, L’Europeo, Intervallo, Comic Art, Sorry, Eureka, Albi Costellazione and Linus. In 1983, he adapted the ‘Kama Sutra’ [under name ‘Kamas Ultra’], with Marcello Marchesi, while also working in the commercial field and as a teacher. Benito Jacovitti’s work has been reprinted in hardcover and appeared in Rizzoli’s famous Bur collection. Throughout his career, Jacovitti has created over 60 characters, and published more than 150 books. [Source: Lambiek]

Some other Jacovitti characters: Alonza Alonza detta Alonza, Alvaro il Corsaro, Agatone, Baby Rocket, Baby Tarallo, Battista l’ingenuo fascista, Capitan Pim, Caramba, Chicchirino, Cip l’Arcipoliziotto, Cocco Bill, Cucù, Don Pedro Magnapoco, Gallina, Giacinto corsaro dipinto (1947), Giuseppe, Gionni Galassia, Gionni Peppe, Giorgio Giorgio Detto Giorgio, Jak Mandolino, Joe Balordo, Kilometro il cane poliziotto, La famiglia Spaccabue, L’onorevole Tarzan, Microciccio Spaccavento, Occhio di Pollo, Oreste il guastafeste, Pa-e-Ma, Peppino il paladino, Pete lo sceriffo, Pinocchio, Pippo nel Texas, Pippo Trotta, Pertica e Palla, Pop Corn, Pippo nel Texas, Pippo Western, Romero el torero (1943), La Signora Carlo Magno (1941), Tarallino, Tex Revolver, Tizio, Caio e Sempronio, Tom Ficcanaso, Zagar, Zorry Kid [One of sources: wiki]

Pippo (1940)

Il Vittorioso

Appeared originally mostly in Il Vittorioso. It was reprinted in Albo Roma and Gli Albi del Vittorioso serie di Pippo aka “Albo Vitt” (latter 21 albums).

Linus

Giovanni Gandini started Linus in 1965. Ed.: Figure, via della
Spiga 1 (issues #7 to #34). Size: 20.5×27 cm. 64/96/128 pgs. B&W (sometimes
color inserts). Cover prize: LIR 300.

“Pippo nel Texas” ??? pgs.
Original: Il Vittorioso (1955). Reprinted in Linus #22/1967.

Cu-cù (1943)

Original: Il Vittorioso.
See sample in Chicchirichi.

Caramba (1943)

Color. [FRA] [NL]

Original: Il Vittorioso (Feb. – Dec. 1943).
Repints: Albi dell’Aventura (March 1973).

Pete lo sceriffo (1943)

“Pete lo sceriffo”. ??? pgs.
Original from 1943. Appeared in Albo Roma #28(Feb. 13, 1945?).

Pinocchio (1943)

Made in 1943–1944. Later recreated several another intepretation of the same story.

Oscar Mondadori #409: Pinocchio (1972)

April 4, 1972. Oscar Mondadori. Story: Collodi. Art: Benito Jacovitti. 228 pgs. B&W. Forewords: “Pinocchio e i suoi illustratori”, by Franco Cavallone (7 pgs).

“Pinocchio” 211 pgs. B&W. @ 1944.

See also for example a Dutch print (1967).

Pay attention: “Pinocchio” was Benito Jacovitti’s favourite! There exists uncounted number of different kind of prints of this character. Some as a comic story format, some as an illustrated fairy tales. 1943–1944 (reprinted 1972) was only one of his versions.

Chicchirichi (1944)

A hapless journalist “Chicchirichi”. ??? pgs.
Original: Il Vittorioso (1944). Reprinted in Chicchirichi #3 (1948), a Il Vittoriosoalbum. Incl. also an advertisment for stories Carmaba and Cucù.

Cin-Cin (1944–45)

A Chinese “Cin-Cin”. ??? pgs.
Original: Il Vittorioso (1944–1945). The story was made already in 1943, but because of war it was not printed until 1944–1945.

L’onorevole Tarzan (1948)

“L’onorevole Tarzan”. ??? pgs.
Original: Il Vittorioso (1948). Appeared in Albo Vitt #35 (Dec. 1951).

Capitan Pim (1951)

“Capitan Pim”. ??? pgs. [NOR]
Appeared for the first time in Vittorioso (1951).

Tex Revolver (1955)

Il Vittorioso

1955.

111. “Tex Revolver”. 34 pgs. Color. [SYNOPSIS]. Il Vittorioso #11 (March 13, 1955) to #41 (Oct. 12, 1955). Re: Il Vittorioso #8 to #25 (1963). Jacovitti Show #1(Mondadori 1977). Jacovitti Show (Club degli Editori 1979). Hachette #40 (2018). “Tex Revolver”. The first and last plates are by Jac and Giovannini.

[FRA1] [FRA2] [FRA3]

Tom Ficcanaso (1957)

Charcter: Journalist. Appeared in Giorno dei ragazzi 1957-1966. [source Fumetto Cocco Bill]

Giorno dei ragazzi

Eureka

See Tom Ficcanaso

Gionni Galassia (1957/58)

A Johnny Galaxia parody. Appeard for the first time in Il Giorno dei Ragazzi #45 (Nov. 6, 1958) to #22 (May 28, 1959). Reprinted in Jacovitti Fantastorie (2005). [YSL] [JAC 1957/58]
See also Wikipedia and Australian Johnny Galaxy pages [dead link].

Chicchirino (1963)

Appears at least one story (“Favoletta per il grande ed il piccino”, transl. “Tale for the big and the little one”). 18 pgs (pgs 35-52). B&W. Made in 1963–1964. © Quotidiano, Il Giorno. Funny animals with Tom Ficcanaso in the end.

The first appearance unknown, prob. Il Giorno dei Ragazzi. Reprinted in Chicchirino(da Eureka suppl. #9, Natale, 1969). 18 pgs (pgs 35–52). B&W. [SYNOPSIS]

Joe Balordo (1981)

1981–1983. I Grandi libri di comix. 270×380 mm. 72 pgs. Color.

Joe Balordo, Part 1. 24 pgs. Color. [JAC81] [SYNOPSIS]

Joe Balordo, Part 2. 30 pgs. Color. [JAC82/83] [SYNOPSIS]

See Joe Balordo.