The Diabolik Phenomenon 4-The #1 mystery

Luciano Scarpa as Zarcone in Giancarlo Soldi's film "Diabolik sono io" (2019)

The real case of the missing artist

There were times when publishers in Italy translated foreign first names into Italian: there were novels by Giulio Verne and plays by Guglielmo Shakespeare. This also happened with a few characters in novels; so, for instance, Hercules Poirot became Ercole Poirot in the early Italian translations of Agatha Christie’s books, while Gone with the Wind's Scarlett O'Hara became Rossella O'Hara both in the novel and the movie. In 1962, for the reasons I have previously explained, Angela and Luciana Giussani needed a non-Italian environment for their new comics series and, as they set Diabolik in the fictional European state of Clerville, it seems they went in the same direction.

Diabolik’s name was exotic enough for Italian readers, but his partner could not be named – let’s say – Eva Bianchi, nor their adversary be an inspector Rossi. They needed to sound ‘foreign’ too. Angela’s favourite philosopher from her school years was Immanuel Kant, so she borrowed his surname for ‘Eva Kant’; while inspector ‘Ginko’ – whose first name has never been revealed – comes from the nickname of Angela’s husband Gino Sansoni. Thus, all three main characters of the Diabolik saga have the distinctive letter K in their names.

Most other characters in Diabolik have Italian first names but foreign or foreign-sounding surnames, such as Gustavo Garian or Giorgio Caron. It has never been specified which is the official language in Clerville – a French-sounding name, which is pronounced Clèrville, anyway – though in the new movies by Manetti bros. everything from shop signs to newspaper titles is written in Italian. Actually, the city of Clerville is probably inspired by Milan with a touch of Paris, while the seaside city of Ghenf might have borrowed something from Genova and Marseille, along with little bits of the French Riviera.

Movie poster based on the cover of Diabolik #1

But all this wasn't established from the beginning: the first issue, Il re del terrore (‘The King of Terror’), might have been set in France. As I said, it would not be succesful, had it been set in Italy. And it was succesful: Angela and Luciana Giussani did strike gold when issue #1 was released on november 1st 1962, although they were not satisfied with the art. The artist Angela had hired, Angelo Zarcone, was working at the time on sexy comics stories that would be published by Gino Sansoni’s Astoria the following year, in the collection Albo-Romanzo Vamp. Anyway, right after getting his check for his work on Diabolik #1, Zarcone disappeared. Forever. Leaving no trace.

Most informations about him have been collected later by comics expert and publiher Gianni Bono, intrigued by the mystery. It is said that Zarcone lived in a small hotel in Milan and was always late in delivering his work; that he was nicknamed ‘The German’, since he had a little blond son from a German wife or girlfriend and was seen dressed like a German tourist. Zarcone was the first one to draw Diabolik’s face and according to Brenno Fiumali – Astorina’s historic art director and author of the cover of the first issue – he even resembled the character. Was Diabolik somehow a self-portrait of Angelo Zarcone?

Perhaps it was due to his disappearance that Diabolik #2, L'inafferrabile criminale ('The Elusive Criminal'), was released only three months later, with a two months' delay, on february 1st 1963, with art by a friend of Angela and Luciana’s, Calissa Giacobini aka Kalissa. She was the first (and for a long time, only) woman to work on the art of Diabolik, but she must have been an emergency solution, since the Giussani Sisters were not convinced by her work either: that was the only issue by Kalissa and one year and a half later both stories, #1 e #2, would be remade with new art and reissued. But in 1982, to acknowledge him as the first Diabolik artist ever, Angela and Luciana tried to locate Zarcone with the help of Italy’s top private investigator, Tom Ponzi, to no avail. Where did he go and why did he disappear?

A. C. Cappi as himself in the film "Diabolik sono io" (2019)

In 2018 director Giancarlo Soldi filmed Diabolik sono io (‘I am Diabolik’), part documentary on the Diabolik phenomenon (with footage of the Giussani Sisters and original contemporary interviews to writers and artists of the series), part fiction. In the fictional side, Zarcone (actor Luciano Scarpa, as a Diabolik look-alike) might have been in a coma for over half a century. After the ambulance taking him from one hospital to another has an accident, he wakes up unaged like a comics character and flees, victim of amnesia, to search for himself in a world he doesn't know, where people on tv is talking about a character called 'Diabolik' who looks just like him.

But even after the movie was released in theatres and television in 2019, neither Zarcone nor any family member resurfaced and the mystery remains unsolved. Nevertheless, in spite of its poor art, the original historic issue #1 is today one of the most wanted comics in Italy and even forged copies are sold at a high price. So, what made Diabolik an instant hit and keeps the series going after more than sixty years?

To be continued...

Read also

The Diabolik Phenomenon 1 - Shocking a generation

The Diabolik Phenomenon 2 - Crimes for commuters

The Diabolik Phenomenon 3 - Welcome to Clerville

The Diabolik Phenomenon 5 - Sympathy for the devil

Andrea Carlo Cappi, born in Milan in 1964 and living between Italy and Spain since 1973, is an Italian writer, translator and editor. Author of over seventy titles - most of which set in his noir/spy story universe "Kverse" - and member of IAMTW, he also writes tie-in novels for "Diabolik" and "Martin Mystère". Also a member of World SF Italia for his work in speculative fiction, in 2018 he won Italcon's Premio Italia for best Italian fantasy novel. He also works for the Torre Crawford festival and literary award, in memory of F. M. Crawford.

The Diabolik Phenomenon 3 - Welcome to Clerville

 

Diabolik and Ginko's reflection in Ginko all'attacco (2022), 01 Distribution

From a real life murder to a fictional world

Mystery and crime fiction have been succesful in Italy since 1929, as I already explained here. But, according to the fascist regime in power since 1922, no murder was supposed to happen in Mussolini’s ‘perfect’ country, so most of the few Italian mystery writers at the time had to set their detective stories elsewhere. In the end, readers were effectively convinced that no murder story could ever be set in Italy, therefore no Italian writer would be able to write a credible one, two ideas that would persist for a very, very long time. Later, the regime censored the whole of crime literature, anyway.

The libri gialli were back on sale in 1946, in the newborn free and democratic Repubblica Italiana. But most Italian mystery writers still had to set their stories in US cities they had just read about in American hardboiled books, often hiding themselves behind foreign pen names. Anyway, in Italian language, the word giallo acquired the meaning of "real life unsolved mystery" as well.

When Angela and Luciana Giussani (who decided to sign themselves A. & L. Giussani, keeping their Italian identity) chose a thief and murderer who baffles the police as their new comics hero in 1962, they had two problems to solve: the name and the place.

Art by Riccardo Nunziati

In 1955 audiences world-wide were shocked by Les diaboliques, H. G. Clouzot’s movie based on a thriller by French mystery writers Boileau and Narcejac. The word diabolico became associated with murder... and terror: in 1957 Italian journalist Italo Fasan, under the unlikely pen name 'Bill Skyline', published one of the many gialli you could find in newsstands from minor publishers, a fake-American thriller titled Uccidevano di notte (‘They killed by night’) featuring a serial killer who writes letters to the police signing himself ‘Diabolic’. In 1958 a real life murder in Turin hit the news: the perpetrator sent the police a letter signed ‘Diabolich’ (with a final h), possibly inspired by Fasan’s novel. The book was immediately republished under the title Diabolic-Uccidevano di notte, this time with the author's real name proudly on the cover. Diabolich would never be discovered. In early 1962, famous Italian comedian Totò appeared in various roles in the crime spoof film Totò Diabolicus, inspired by the 1949 British movie Kind Hearts and Coronets.

All this events probably inspired Angela and Luciana's choice of the name ‘Diabolik’, with a final k - unusual in Italian language - giving it both an exotic and ‘evil’ sound. But where would Diabolik commit his crimes?

Clerville State map appearing in the films

At first Angela and Luciana Giussani thought about using Paris and Marseille as a setting, but soon they shifted to the fictional cities of Clerville and Ghenf, in the equally fictional European state of Clerville. This simplified work in the art department: no need to draw the Eiffel Tower in the background, for instance. Besides, no Italian policeman would be offended, since cops always seem unable to defeat Diabolik. A similar choice had been made in his novel El inocente (1953) by Spanish writer Mario Lacruz, who could not criticize the police in his country under Franco's regime; or by American writer Evan Hunter (born Salvatore Lombino) under his pen name 'Ed McBain' in his police procedural 87th Precinct series (1956-2005) set in the fictional US city of Isola, just because this allowed him more leeway in his stories then the real New York City.

After all, fictional cities like Metropolis or Gotham City had already appeared in DC Comics such as Batman and Superman. Half a century later this would lead to a detailed tourist guidebook (the brilliant Guida turistica di Clerville), complete with a Clerville city map and a Clerville State road map, which are now used as a reference book: for instance, the streets and squares mentioned in the opening chase of the film Diabolik (2020) strictly follow the city map.

But Diabolik goes far beyond. A whole brand new geography would be created, with fictional countries surrounding the State of Clerville, and more fictional countries all around the planet. In over sixty years, Diabolik and Eva Kant’s adventures would mostly take place in an alternative world. My personal contributions have been baptising ‘Gau Long’ a previously nameless Hong Kong-like city in the Far East, and establish ‘Zlata’ (inspired by Praha) as the capital of the Republic of Rennert: in the movie Diabolik-Ginko all’attacco you can find both cities in the departure list at Clerville Airport. The only exceptions to this "other world" in the comics are recent occasional short stories set in real Italian cities, published for comics conventions or special events.

One of the Jaguar E-Types used in the films

As it often happens with long-lasting series, time also flows differently in this world: characters are not allowed to age, or rather, they do it very slowly, while objects around change according to real life technology. Diabolik still drives his 1961 Jaguar E-Type, but cell phones and computers have appeared in the comics and Clerville has adopted euro as a currency, along with many real Euopean countries. The rule is: four years in the readers’ reality are just one year in the characters’ lives, so sixty years of comics are actually fifteen years for Diabolik, Eva and all the others. In this time, they have evolved somehow – as it would be natural in fifteen years – but have not been altered. Stories are still essentially capers, a subgenre not overexploited (unlike psychthrillers, for instance) and not so easy to write, which makes stories very interesting to read.

When Marco e Antonio Manetti turned into movies three classic episodes of Diabolik comics from the Sixties, they decided to remain closer to the time in which they had been written, just moving the stories slightly forward, between the end of the Sixties and the beginning of the Seventies. So not only in the films you can find cars, objects and clothing dating back to 1968-72, but also the look and the flavour of the movies of those times: while Diabolik (2020) has a few hitchcockian notes, Diabolik - Who are you? (2023) recalls Italian police movies of the early Seventies.

But there’s more to be discovered in the world of Diabolik, including another real life mystery behind issue #1.

To be continued...

Read also

The Diabolik Phenomenon 1 - Shocking a generation

The Diabolik Phenomenon 2 - Crimes for commuters

The Diabolik Phenomenon 4 - The #1 mystery

The Diabolik Phenomenon 5 - Sympathy for the devil

Andrea Carlo Cappi, born in Milan in 1964 and living between Italy and Spain since 1973, is an Italian writer, translator and editor. Author of over seventy titles - most of which set in his noir/spy story universe "Kverse" - and member of IAMTW, he also writes tie-in novels for "Diabolik" and "Martin Mystère". Also a member of World SF Italia for his work in speculative fiction, in 2018 he won Italcon's Premio Italia for best Italian fantasy novel. He also works for the Torre Crawford festival and literary award, in memory of F. M. Crawford.

The Diabolik Phenomenon 2-Crimes for commuters

Miriam Leone (Eva Kant) and Monica Bellucci (Altea von Vallenberg)
in "Diabolik, who are you?" (2023) - 01 Distribution

The two ladies from Milan who became partners in crime

How come two fictional criminals become household names and movie heroes? Let’s start from the very beginning: in 1961 former model and amateur plane pilot Angela Giussani has been married for fifteen years with horror, science-fiction and sexy-ish comics publisher Gino Sansoni, owner of Casa Editrice Astoria and Gino Sansoni Editore, with headquarters in a flat in via Leopardi, Milan. In 1961 Angela decides to become a publisher on her own and opens - in the kitchen (cucina) of the same flat - Astorina (literally, ‘small Astoria’), specialized in comics, called fumetti in Italian, since the dialogue balloons recall puffs of smoke (fumo). Astorina starts publishing Elliot Caplin’s Big Ben Bolt comics from the US, which don't seem to be particurarly succesful in Italy. Then Angela decides to write something new and her younger sister Luciana joins her as co-author. They don’t expect their new creation will be so groundbreaking as it will turn out to be.

Angela Giussani (1922-1987) and Luciana Giussani (1928-2001)

Two myths surround the birth of Diabolik and both are connected with railways. Myth one: while travelling by train, Angela finds on a seat an abandoned copy of the first Fantômas novel (1911) by French authors Allain and Souvestre, reads it and finds the inspiration for a modern day mysterious criminal with no name and many faces. Myth two: from the window of Astorina overlooking the Stazione Nord, the Milan railway station of Ferrovie Nord, Angela and her sister Luciana see thousands of commuters coming and going every day; so they conceive a comic book that people can buy in newsstands, carry easily in a pocket or a bag and read comfortably on the way to work or home, even while standing in an overcrowded train. Stories have to be gripping, so they might be crime stories, something still unusual in Italian-made comics at the time. And that’s what they set themselves to do.

In 1962 crime novels (gialli in Italian, learn here the origin of the word) are a huge hit in Italian newsstands, a good reason for Angela and Luciana Giussani to consider creating a giallo a fumetti. And what about something really new, such as crime comics where the real ‘hero’ is an unpunished criminal, like Fantômas? At the time, in books, films and comics, robbers and burglars get always jailed or killed in the end, or at least lose their loot. The rules imposed to Hollywood movies by the Hays Code have become a standard everywhere, including French noir masterpieces of the Fifties such as Auguste Le Breton's novel Rififi or Albert Simonin's novel Grisbi, both turned into films.

There must be something in the air, because in 1962 American writer Donald E. Westlake, writing under the pen name ‘Richard Stark’, lets his editor convince him that Parker, the robber in his novel The Hunter, should stay alive and free at the end of the book, and return in further novels. Good idea, since Parker will become an icon of caper fiction: he will appear in twenty-four novels and a few times on the big screen, with the likes of Lee Marvin, Mel Gibson or Jason Statham. Donald/Richard will write about his ‘James Bond of crime’ till his death, on december 31st 2008.

As Diabolik current author Mario Gomboli noted, Parker and Diabolik have some features in common: they’re both careful planners of perfect heists, both cold-blooded but not sadististic killers and both (unlike James Bond) strictly monogamous. But in 1962 only the first of Richard Stark’s books has been published and won’t arrive in Italy before 1964. For Angela and Luciana, the model is clearly Fantômas, created over half a century before in France by Allain and Souvestre.

Fantômas – whose real name is unknown – is a master of disguise, has a lover called Lady Beltham and is chased by French police inspector Juve with the help of journalist Fandor. The same cast of characters is recreated in the first three issues of Diabolik, with Diabolik himself, Lady Eva Kant, inspector Ginko and his sidekick Gustavo Garian, a character who will later fade out of the series.

Elements of the plot of the first three issues actually recall the first Fantômas novel, but with a more modern and technological approach that soon – as we’ll see – anticipates both the 007 movies and the Mission: Impossible tv series. Again, there must be someting in the air...

To be continued...

Read also

The Diabolik Phenomenon 1-Shocking a generation

The Diabolik Phenomenon 3 - Welcome to Clerville

The Diabolik Phenomenon 4 - The #1 mystery

The Diabolik Phenomenon 5 - Sympathy for the devil

Anthology, december 2023; art: Giuseppe di Bernardo

Andrea Carlo Cappi, born in Milan in 1964 and living between Italy and Spain since 1973, is an Italian writer, translator and editor. Author of over seventy titles - most of which set in his noir/spy story universe "Kverse" - and member of IAMTW, he also writes tie-in novels for "Diabolik" and "Martin Mystère". Also a member of World SF Italia for his work in speculative fiction, in 2018 he won Italcon's Premio Italia for best Italian fantasy novel. He also works for the Torre Crawford festival and literary award, in memory of F. M. Crawford.

The Diabolik Phenomenon 1-Shocking a generation

 

Eva Kant (Miriam Leone) and Diabolik (Luca Marinelli) in "Diabolik" (2021)

Tie-in writer A. C. Cappi leads you into the world of Diabolik

Almost everybody in Italy knows this name. Most people, readers and non-readers alike, are aware it’s a comics series about both the eponymous masked male character and his female partner and lover Eva Kant: she just happened to make her first appearance in issue #3, when the brand name Diabolik was already established, due to the overnight success of issue #1 four months before, on november 1st 1962. With issue #2, on february 1st 1963, the series started being published monthly and since then nearly one thousand stories have appeared, including special issues, graphic novels and more.

"Diabolik-Il film" (2021) poster

By the way, Diabolik & Eva Kant are not superheroes, nor ‘heroes’ in a traditional way. They are not even ‘supervillains’, although they live in crime and use plenty of tricks in order to avoid being caught by inspector Ginko. Nor any of the three Diabolik motion pictures released since december 2021 – all based on classic comics episodes from the 60’s and directed by Marco & Antonio Manetti, aka Manetti bros – is your typical Marvel or DC movie. «We love Marvel movies», said the directors at a preview of the final chapter of the Diabolik trilogy in november 2023, «but that’s not what we have been making here.»

After all, Diabolik, still the third best-selling and second longest-running comics series in Italy, is not like anything else. More so when it was created in 1962 by Angela Giussani and her sister Luciana, changing the way comics were made in Italy and becoming a cultural phenomenon that shocked a generation.

Original sketch by Brenno Fiumali for issue #1, 1962

There was no official Comic Code Authority in 1962 Italy, only self-imposed rules, but for sure stories about two unpunished criminals who murder their way from heist to heist were unconceivable. Besides, Diabolik & Eva Kant were clearly an unmarried couple living together, something unacceptable when Italy was ruled by Democrazia Cristiana, the ultra-catholic christian democratic party that kept under scrutiny the two tv channels, both state-owned (the second channel had started broadcasting the year before).

Not to mention the fact that Eva Kant was an emancipated woman, while women in Italy were supposed to be wives, mothers and cooks. But she was a refelction of her creators Angela and Luciana Giussani. Who, anyway, signed the comics books as ‘A. & L. Giussani’, hiding the fact that two women were writing them.

Advertisement of issue #2, february 1963

Violence was present in Diabolik, but never graphic and no explicit sex has ever been shown. Though, in little more than one year, its success would spawn several exploitation comics by other authors, featuring outlaw characters, men and women, usually with the letter K in their names – Zakimort, Kriminal, Satanik, Sadik, Killing... – some of them more open to nudity and violence. All were labeled ‘adult comics books’ which families did not allow children to read, making them even more appealing to a younger audience.

Soon judges would order the retiring of comics books from the newsstands and one even took the Giussani sisters to trial (they’d be acquitted), while newspapers led a crusade against the so-called "horror comics". But the rebellious year 1968 was getting nearer and nearer, and in the end nobody could stop the revolution. By the way, many of those "K" comics would become classics themselves, though only Diabolik would survive the Seventies and keep sailing beyond 2000.

Before the end of the Sixties, Diabolik was translated in several countries. A few episodes were adapted into two different novelization series, one in Italy and one in France. In 1968, the pop-cult movie Danger: Diabolik directed by Mario Bava, featuring an international cast and an original soundtrack by Ennio Morricone, was released world-wide by Paramount Pictures (though a few scenes were safely censored in the Italian version, in order to avoid restrictions).

In time, Diabolik also inspired radio and audio serials, music, art, fashion, the world-wide tv cartoon series Diabolik-Track of the Panther (1999.2001), new tie-in novels since 2002, the adventure game Diabolik-The Original Sin (2007) and an alternative universe comics mini-series titled DK (2015-2019). While Diabolik was reaching its 60th birthday, four movies have been released: Diabolik sono io, a 2019 docu-fiction film by director Giancarlo Soldi, based on the mystery behind issue #1, and the Manetti bros trilogy: Diabolik-Il film (2021), Diabolik-Ginko all'attacco (2022) and Diabolik, chi sei? (2023).

As the official tie-in novels and novelizations writer and the author of an authorized non-fiction book called Fenomenologia di Diabolik (2017), let me be your guide in this world of mystery and heists, love and passion, and crime without punishment.

To be continued...

Read also

The Diabolik Phenomenon 2 - Crimes for commuters

The Diabolik Phenomenon 3 - Welcome to Clerville

The Diabolik Phenomenon 4 - The #1 mystery 

The Diabolik Phenomenon 5 - Sympathy for the devil

Andrea Carlo Cappi, born in Milan in 1964 and living between Italy and Spain since 1973, is an Italian writer, translator and editor. Author of over seventy titles - most of which set in his noir/spy story universe "Kverse" - and member of IAMTW, he also writes tie-in novels for "Diabolik" and "Martin Mystère". Also a member of World SF Italia for his work in speculative fiction, in 2018 he won Italcon's Premio Italia for best Italian fantasy novel. He also works for the Torre Crawford festival and literary award, in memory of F. M. Crawford.