“Diabolik” is an Italian comic book series that has been continuously published on a monthly basis for over sixty years. It revolves around a thief in a black bodysuit who is constantly engaged in carrying out sensational heists, remarkable for their audacity and ingenuity. Since its first issue released in November 1962, its protagonist is known as “the king of terror” as he is not only a thief, but also a ruthless and elusive murderer. The comics, published by the Astorina publishing house, from the very beginning have a regular “pocket-sized” format that later became standard, known as the “Diabolik format” (17 x 12 cm).
The birth of “Diabolik” is attributed to the creativity and business acumen of Angela and Luciana Giussani, two sisters from the upper-middle class of Milan. Observing the growing phenomenon of commuting in their city, they thought that workers and students might appreciate a pocket-sized comic book thriller to carry with them during their travels. The editorial outcome resulting from this insight enjoyed tremendous success, to the extent that over time it became a part of the national collective imagination and a symbol of the country’s modernization during the so-called “Italian economic boom” in the 1960s. In fact, Diabolik launches a direct attack on both the small-bourgeois moralism inherited from the 1950s and the infantilism of most previous comics. Traditionalist circles repeatedly attempted to counter its popularity through complaints, public reprimands and impassioned pleas to steer clear of it. However, both young and older audiences have continued to root for this incorrigible outlaw, subversive to dominant value systems, aided by a daring and enchanting partner, Eva Kant, who is no less dangerous than he is. Even though they operate solely for their own benefit, these antiheroes have no moral qualms, since their chosen victims (wealthy and powerful figures, banking institutions, criminal organizations) often possess a worse conscience than theirs.
Despite their capacity to assume any identity thanks to flawless disguises, the pair of bandits leads a secluded life. More focused on planning their criminal exploits and executing them with agility and confidence, they don’t act out of greed, but rather driven by an irresistible impulse for challenge and adventure in itself. Their stories rely on a simple and tested narrative structure, in which the creation of suspense holds relative value, as almost always, in line with readers’ expectations, the outcome favours the thieves. However, this doesn’t imply that their events follow stereotypical procedures or that their adversaries (beginning with Inspector Ginko, their archenemy) lack the intellectual and material means to place them in extreme difficulties.
The meticulous and rational approach of Diabolik finds a counterpart in the precision and “classic” rigor of its graphic representation, a domain that has seen the work of some of Italy’s most prominent comic book artists. Among these, from 2001 to 2023, there was Angelo Maria Ricci (Rieti, 1946), the author of the drawing we are discussing. It features the masked and illuminated face of Diabolik, seen in three-quarters profile, along with an inscription in which he sends a warm greeting to Grottammare, the town where the illustrator lives. This tribute is not purely incidental, as Ricci, over the course of his long service to the elegant thief in the bodysuit, has dotted his panels with a significant series of references to this small Adriatic town: buildings, squares, monuments, fountains, panoramic views. While these references may not have turned Clerville (Diabolik’s fictional city) into a comic book replica of Grottammare, they have nonetheless bestowed upon the Diabolik comics produced over the last twenty years a certain sense of kinship, at least in the eyes of readers from the Grottammare area.