'Signor Spaghetti'.
Dino Attanasio is an Italian comic artist, who spent the largest part of his career working for Belgian and Dutch publishing houses. Several of his series feature stereotypical renditions of Italians, including his signature comic 'Signor Spaghetti' (1957-1978) in Tintin magazine and his Dutch-language series 'De Macaroni's' (1971-1975) in Pep. Attanasio's ability to draw in both caricatural and realistic drawing styles made him one of the most fruitful authors of the Franco-Belgian school. The simplicity of his drawings also enabled his extensive body of work, which includes not only new creations but also continuations of other creator's series. Further humorous works are 'Fanfan et Polo' (1950-1953) for La Libre Junior, new gags with André Franquin's 'Modeste et Pompon' (1959-1968) in Tintin and the gangster comic 'Johnny Goodbye' (1969-1992) for Pep/Eppo. Attanasio's realistic work includes 1940s adventure features for Italian publishers, episodes with Henri Vernes' 'Bob Morane', as well as historical stories for Tintin magazine and the publishing house Averbode. Dino Attanasio is the best-known Italian-Belgian comic artist, paving the way for later Belgian comic artists of the same origins, like Tony de Luca (Laudec) and Sergio Salma.
Early life and influences
Edoardo Attanasio was born in 1925 in Milan, where he also attended the Accademia di Brera. Like with many of his contemporaries, Attanasio's early influences were American newspaper comics, such as Alex Raymond's 'Flash Gordon' and Milton Caniff's 'Terry and the Pirates'. After his move to Belgium, he also developed an interest in Clear Line artist Edgar Pierre Jacobs, while his later comical work shows inspiration from André Franquin.
'Alla Ricerca del Nambha Pardhit'.
Comics in Italy
Attanasio began his career in the early 1940s, working for Milanese publishing houses like Mario Conte's Edital. He provided illustrations for about a dozen of Edital's children's booklets with characters like 'Codino', 'Signora Coccodé' and 'Orsachiotto' in the collection 'Fiabe Edital' (1943-1944), written by Roberto Renzi and Angela Invernizzi. These funny animal characters had been created in the late 1930s by Andrea Da Passano for Edital's comic book publications.
Attanasio also drew for the comic collection 'Albo dei Bambini', including a story written by his brother Gianni Attanasio ('In Volo su Gibilterra', 1943). For the collection 'Albo Ragazzi Avventurosi', he created the humorous characters 'Rambaldo e Gualberto' (1943-1944), as well as the adventure serial 'Il Moschettiere Nero' (1944), with Giulio Tramballi. Dino Attanasio was additionally present in Edital's comic books and magazines built around the comedy duo Laurel & Hardy ('Criche e Croc'). While the title feature was largely the work of Andrea Da Passano, Attanasio made stories with the American comedy duo Abbott and Costello ('Gianni e Pinotto' in Italian) and 'Il Re Trombone' (1948-1950), a character originating from a children's song. Yet early on, he proved himself also capable of handling a more realistic drawing style. He showcased this style in the Edital collections 'Albi di Avventure' (five installments with writer Tramballi in 1945) and 'Albi Salgari' (an adaptation of the 1905 novel 'La Perla Sanguinosa' in 1949).
'Fanfan et Polo sur la Lune' (La Libre Junior #1, 1952).
Besides Edital, in 1945 Attanasio drew stories like 'Le Aeronavi del Mistero', 'Le Vipere Verdi' and 'La Ragazza di Mercurio' for the magazine L'Eroico of the publishing house E.P.I. With Franco Donatelli, he was an additional artist for Gian Luigi Bonelli and Vittorio Cossio's comic books about the boxer 'Furio' (1945-1948), published by Audace. Attanasio and Tramballi also created the two volumes of 'Alla Ricerca del Nambha Pardhit' ("In Search of Nambha Pardhit", 1946) for Giuseppe Moneta Editore. For Editoriale Sportiva, he drew the adventures of 'Nadir' in the series 'Albi Sportivetto' (1947). Attanasio was also an assistant-animator on Anton Gino Domenighini's 'La Rosa di Bagdad' ('The Rose of Baghdad', 1949), one of the first European feature-length animated films.
Oncle Paul - 'L'Ange de la Cordillère' (Dutch version from Robbedoes #616, 17 January 1952).
Belgian comics
In 1948, Dino Attanasio and his brother Gianni left Italy and settled in Brussels, Belgium, where their father had been working as a musician since the previous year. The Attanasio brothers found regular assignments from the Publi-Ciné agency, making animated advertising films. While working as a teacher, Gianni acted as his brother's technical assistant during their early period in Belgium. They initially continued to work for the Italian market, but Gianni eventually went his own way. In 1948, Dino managed to get a few illustrations published in the prestigious Belgian comic magazine Tintin. Starting in 1950, most of Attanasio's output was aimed at the Belgian market. Through Yvan Chéron's International Press agency, the artist started a fruitful cooperation with the daily newspaper La Libre Belgique and its new youth supplement La Libre Junior. For this title, Attanasio drew the adventures of 'Fanfan et Polo', two turbulent youngsters whose search for adventure often caused havoc and even brought them to the moon. The stories were written by Jean-Michel Charlier (1950-1952), who later handed over the strip to René Goscinny (1952-1953). In 1951, the newspaper released one album collection of 'Fanfan et Polo'.
'Pillemikan 503' (Zonneland, 8 January 1961).
Between 1951 and 1953, Attanasio was also present in the comic magazine Spirou with about 25 early installments in the historical educational series 'Les Belles Histoires de l'Oncle Paul', mostly written by Octave Joly. During the 1950s, Attanasio also drew realistic adventure stories for Petits Belges, a Catholic children's weekly published by the Averbode Abbey. These included 'Le Conquérant de l'Asie' ("The Conqueror of Asia", 1953), 'François-Xavier' (1953), 'Terre Belge d'Afrique' ("Belgian Land of Africa", 1954) and 'Le Dernier Pirate' ("The Last Pirate", 1957). For Averbode's Tremplin and its Dutch-language edition Zonneland, he later drew the serial 'Pillemikan 503' (1961).
'Bob Morane Contre la Terreur Verte'. Dutch-language version.
Bob Morane
In 1953, Dino Attanasio was one of the first artists for the children's book collection Marabout Junior, illustrating some of the early 'Bob Morane' stories by Henri Vernes. Since then, over 200 novels with Vernes' adventurer have been released, written and illustrated by several writers and illustrators. In 1959, Attanasio suggested adapting the novels into a comic series. Between 1959 and 1962, the 'Bob Morane' comic ran in the women's weekly Femmes d'Aujourd'hui, with Attanasio as the first artist to draw them. The comic stories were later collected in book format by Marabout. After the seventh story, Attanasio was replaced by Gérald Forton, who was in turn succeeded by William Vance and then Felicísimo Coria. With its exciting mix of espionage, crime fiction, science fiction and fantasy, the 'Bob Morane' adventures have continued to appear in magazines like Pilote and Tintin in the following decades, with album collections published by Dargaud and Lombard until 2012. In 2015, Lombard relaunched the series as 'Bob Morane - Renaissance' with artwork by Dimitri Armand and stories by Luc Brunschwig et Aurélien Ducoudray. Attanasio has also drawn other serials by Henri Vernes for Femmes d'Aujourd'hui, such as 'Fawcett, Le Naufragé de la Forêt Vierge' and 'A l'Assaut de l'Everest', which appeared in the text comics format.
'Coconut et Vermisseau', (Dutch-language version), from Kuifje/Tintin #11, 14 March 1956.
Lombard artist
Attanasio's steady and fruitful collaboration with the publishing house Lombard took off in 1954. For Line, the sister magazine of Tintin, he drew 'On a Volé Valentine' (1954), his first collaboration with scriptwriter Lucien Meys, and 'Pastis et Dynamite' (1954), from a script by Michel Greg. By 1956, Attanasio returned to the pages of Tintin, initially with contributions to Tintin's slapstick humor section of "animated films": four with the parrot and the worm 'Coconut et Vermisseau' and three with the dog 'Pato'. He also made several short stories based on historical facts or persons from scripts by Yves Duval, and provided illustrations for text stories written by Duval, Pollart, Pasquiez or Henri Vernes.
Signor Spaghetti
In 1957, Attanasio presented a new comic character to André Fernez, editor-in-chief of Tintin magazine: Signor Spaghetti. Largely based on himself, Attanasio had created this stereotypical, curly-moustached Italian with thick accent a few years earlier. Fernez liked the character and paired Attanasio with scriptwriter René Goscinny. In the 16 October 1957 of Tintin (#42 of that year) , 'Signor Spaghetti' made his first appearance. During the first two years, Spaghetti starred mainly in gags and short stories. In every episode, the title hero took a new job, always with disastrous results. After a while, Spaghetti received his cousin Prosciutto as his sidekick, who accompanied him during most of his slapstick-filled adventures.
'Spaghetti à Venise' (1962). Dutch-language version.
Signor Spaghetti 's debut came at the right time. Up until that point, most comics in Tintin magazine were serious in tone, meeting up to the strict artistic demands of art director and 'Tintin' creator Hergé. The few humorous features, like Hergé's own work, Bob De Moor's 'Barelli' and 'Monsieur Tric', Tibet's 'Chick Bill' and Willy Vandersteen's 'Suske en Wiske' and ''t Prinske' were created in semi-realistic drawing styles. Only few series looked more cartoony, like Bara's 'Max L'Explorateur' and André Franquin's 'Modeste et Pompon'. Even René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo's popular historical comic 'Oumpa-Pah' (1958) was strongly disliked by Hergé because of its comical artwork. But in January 1959, Tintin received Marcel Dehaye as its new editor-in-chief, who was more open to cartoony and humorous comic series.
In the wake of 'Spaghetti', similar creations followed, such as 'Strapontin' (1958) by Berck and Goscinny and 'Clifton' (1960) by Raymond Macherot. The editors asked Attanasio and Goscinny to produce longer stories with Signor Spaghetti, but shortened the series title to simply 'Spaghetti'. The success of his 'Astérix' series in Pilote, prompted writer René Goscinny to leave 'Spaghetti' in 1965, after which new stories were provided by Lucien Meys, Michel Greg, Roger Francel, Yves Duval and also Attanasio's wife Joanna. After a steady ten-year production, the character went on hiatus in 1968. Six years later, the character returned sporadically with appearances in Formule 1 (1974), Tintin (1977-1978) and finally Rigolo (1983), with scripts by José-Louis Bocquet and Jean-Luc Fromental, among other people.
Spaghetti et Mandolina - 'Les Tontons' (1986). Dutch-language version.
In 1961, Lombard began collecting the 'Spaghetti' stories in book format in its Collection Jeune Europe. Due to several legal conflicts, however, the book publications have known a complex history. Throughout the years, 'Spaghetti' albums have been published by Le Lombard, Dargaud and Rossel-Fleurus, with several stories appearing directly in book format through Michel Deligne and Éditions des Archers. In the 1980s, Spaghetti and Prosciutto were accompanied by their niece Mandolina, and in 1985 and 1986, the final two stories appeared under the series title 'Spaghetti et Mandolina' at Éditions des Archers.
Despite its lack of a regular book series, 'Spaghetti' has remained Attanasio's signature and most popular series. A Brussels owner of an Italian restaurant once even donated the author his own weight in spaghetti. In more politically correct times, 'Spaghetti' could be accused of confirming prejudices against Italian people. Yet Attanasio had a healthy dosis of self-mockery and didn't mind jokes at the expense of his own country. Just like Spaghetti and Prosciutto, most of the other characters were also named after Italian food products. The artist even gave his scriptwriter a complete list to pick names from. As stated in an interview with Stripgids in 2010: "Italians are obviously like all people, but depending on the region they can have special tics, especially on the Mediterranean side. They gesticulate a lot, use typical expressions. They are lively people, constantly on the move."
'Modeste et Pompon'. Dutch-language version.
Modeste et Pompon and other Tintin work
In addition to 'Spaghetti', Attanasio drew several other series for Tintin. In 1959, André Franquin had terminated his five-year contract with publisher Lombard, and permanently returned to his homebase Spirou. After assisting his successor with drawing the first pages, he handed his domestic gag-a-week comic 'Modeste et Pompon' to Attanasio. While Franquin was a tough act to follow, Attanasio created about 300 gags in a steady quality until 1968, aided by scriptwriters like Michel Greg and Lucien Meys. Until 1988, the series was subsequently continued by Mittéï, Griffo, Bertrand Dupont and the duo Walli & Bom.
Rrom a script by André Fernez, Attanasio additionally drew 'Dispositif Guet–Apens' (1964-1965), a realistic comics serial starring CIA officer Jimmy Stone. Fernez had originally created the character for a series of serialized spy novels with illustrations by René Follet, which had appeared in Tintin in 1959 and 1960. In 1997, an album of the Fernez-Attanasio comic version was published by Editions Point Image.
'Gianni Flash' (Il Corriere dei Piccoli, 24 March 1968).
Il Corriere dei Piccoli
By 1965, Attanasio also returned to the Italian comics market, when he began a collaboration with Il Corriere dei Piccoli. For this children's weekly, he subsequently created the humorous series 'Ambrogio e Gino' (1965-1968, script by Carlo Triberti), 'Il Colonnello Squilla e Pepè' (1966-1967, script by Lucien Meys) and 'Gianni Flash' (1968-1969, script by Yves Duval). Three of the five adventures of the two Milanese plumbers Ambrogio and Gino were also published in Tintin under the title 'Ambroise et Gino' (1966-1968). Michel Deligne released the first book collection in 1979.
'Le Vacanze di Ambrogio e Gino' (1966-1967).
Leaving Lombard
At Tintin, Dino Attanasio had a rocky relationship with his publisher Raymond Leblanc, head of Lombard. When the magazine organized an opinion poll to find out which series were the most popular, Attanasio cheated. He bought several copies of that particular issue, filled in the poll in favor of his own series and mailed all the forms back to the Lombard offices. Attanasio and Leblanc also squabbled over 'Bob Morane', which Attanasio drew for Femmes d'Aujourd'hui. Leblanc felt that all artists should remain loyal to Tintin and publish exclusively in his magazine. In 1962, the matter was settled when writer Henri Vernes unceremoniously withdrew Attanasio from the comic, replacing him with Gérald Forton.
In 1968, Attanasio and Leblanc came to blows once again when Attanasio signed on to illustrate Yves Duval's saucy comic strip about the sexy 'Candida' for the weekly cinema magazine Ciné-Revue. The strip was based on Playboy's 'Little Annie Fanny' by Will Elder and Harvey Kurtzman, and featured comical cameos of movie stars. Leblanc didn't tolerate this adult-oriented escapade, which resulted in Attanasio leaving Tintin in 1968.
Johnny Goodbye - 'Gangsters in Chicago'.
Johnny Goodbye
After leaving Tintin magazine in 1968, Attanasio shifted his focus to the Dutch market and approached the editors of comic magazine Pep with the idea of a comic about gangsters. At the time, editor-in-chief Hetty Hagebeuk was assembling a team of creators for an expanded local production of comic series, and Attanasio was brought in. During the 1970s and 1980s, Attanasio remained a regular contributor to the children's magazines of the VNU publishing group and its comics division Oberon.
Attanasio's gangster theme was accepted, but completely reworked by scriptwriter Martin Lodewijk, who turned it into a comic about two private investigators during the prohibition years in Chicago. 'Johnny Goodbye' (1969-1992) made its debut in Pep #12 of 1969. Main character Johnny and his sidekick Howdy Duizendpond are Chicago's only non-corrupt police officers, who leave the force and begin their own detective agency. On their cases, they are assisted by the African-American shoeshine boy Washington, while their main opponent is real-life crime boss Al Capone. The gangster concept was quite popular at the time: one year later, Berck and Cauvin's 'Sammy' (1970-2009), about two Prohibition-era bodyguards facing Al Capone, made its debut in Spirou magazine.
Between 1973 and 1975, Patty Klein was the scriptwriter of the final three 'Johnny Goodbye' stories produced for Pep. When Oberon merged its two comic magazines Pep and Sjors into Eppo in 1975, the adventures of 'Johnny Goodbye' resumed with new stories written by Martin Lodewijk. The comic remained a regular feature in Eppo until 1987, with Lodewijk alternating for the scriptwork with Yves Duval and Eddy Ryssack. The final 'Johnny Goodbye' stories appeared in Eppo's successor Sjors & Sjimmie Stripblad, at this point written by Ruud Straatman. These stories also marked Dino Attanasio's final contributions to the Dutch market. Between 1976 and 1992, thirteen comic albums of 'Johnny Goodbye' were published by Oberon, Big Balloon and Archers. Arcadia released two more in limited editions in 2009-2010.
De Macaroni's - 'Vendetta'.
De Macaroni's
Attanasio's third series for Pep was made in cooperation with the Dutch scriptwriter Dick Matena. For 'De Macaroni's' (1971-1975), the artist once again used his Italian roots as inspiration. The main character Macaroni (another culinary reference) was a runaway US mobster who tried to build an honest life in Italy as the owner of a soccer club. The club is quickly harrassed by gangsters and other unsavory types. The gangster/soccer comic was Pep's attempt to compete with the highly popular British soccer comic 'Billy's Boots' by John Gillatt and Fred Baker, which ran in the competing comic magazine Sjors. Although Dick Matena later dismissed the comic for its quick production, simple concept and lack of coherence, the series was popular with readers. A total of eight stories was produced, and collected in book format by Oberon and Centripress.
'Bandonéon'. Dutch-language version.
Further Dutch comic stories
While 'Johnny Goodbye' and 'De Macaroni's' were Dino Attanasio's best-remembered contributions to Dutch comics, he produced additional comic series for the VNU comic magazines. Between 1970 and 1973, Attanasio also teamed up with the Belgian scriptwriter Yvan Delporte, another foreign contributor to Pep, to create 'Bandonéon'. The main character was a romantic gaucho who travels the South American Pampas with his guitar. Four stories were serialized in Pep and eventually published in book format by Semic/Centripress. In 1973, Attanasio was present in the girls' magazine Tina as the artist of 'Conny Wildschut', a melodramatic comic serial written by Patty Klein, about a girl who does volunteer work in an animal shelter.
'Conny Wildschut' (Tina #34, 1973).
Work in the 1980s and 1990s
During the 1980s, Attanasio's comic production for magazines slowed down. Instead, several of his comics were published directly in book format. After releasing a collection of Attanasio's older comics work ('Flash Back et la 4e Dimension', 1979), the Brussels-based librarian Michel Deligne published Attanasio one-shots like the 1983 World War II adventure comic 'Le Soleil des Damnés - Opération Edelweiss' ("The Sun of the Damned - Operation Edelweiss"), scripted by Ed Engil, and the 1984 humor comic 'Il Était une Fois dans l'Oued' ("Once Upon a Time in the Oued"), written by Jacques Lambrexhe. In addition, Attanasio produced a couple of comics in commission, such as 'Vacances par Monts et par Vaux' (Presse Européenne, 1983), a holidays supplement for the magazines Tremplin, Dauphin and Bonjour, as well as 'Attention Ca Chauffe!' (1991) for the Belgian burn wounds prevention foundation.
In 1991, together with his scriptwriter son Alexandre Attanasio, Dino Attanasio created an idiosyncratic watercolor comic adaptation of Boccaccio's literary classic 'Decamerone', published by Claude Lefrancq Éditeur. For the same publisher, he also drew 'La Galère Engloutie' (1994), a new episode of the 'Bob Morane' comic. Attanasio's version of the classic Roman novel 'Satyricon' by Titus Petronius remained unpublished because publisher Claude Lefrancq went out of business.
'Johnny Goodbye' - 'De Man Die Wel Bestond' (1992).
Retirement
Since his retirement, much of Attanasio's older work has been collected in limited editions by smaller publishing imprints. Point Image published 'Carnet de Route... et d'une Vie!', two volumes summarizing Attanasio's career. On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of Attanasio's comics career in 2006, Alain De Kuyssche compiled a monography about the artist for publishing house Miklor. Since 2002, several of his historical short stories with Yves Duval for Tintin were published in book format by Loup in the collection 'Les Meilleurs Récits de...'. Attanasio's serials for Femmes d'Aujourd'hui have been released in book format by both Editions l'Age d'Or and Pan Pan since 2010. In 2011, Le Lombard launched a luxury collection of all the 'Spaghetti' stories.
'Le Décaméron'.
Legacy and mentorship
Today, Dino Attanasio is one of the last remaining pioneers of the Golden Age of Franco-Belgian comics. As of 2024, he is the oldest surviving contributor of Tintin magazine. In old age, he remained a regular guest on comic conventions, with his wife (and manager) Joanna always by his side. A highly productive artist with no artistic pretensions, Dino Attanasio leaves behind an impressive body of work, with 'Spaghetti' and 'Johnny Goodbye' ranking among the classics of Belgian and Dutch comic history. The veteran artist has additionally served as a tutor for artists like William Vance, Pierre Seron, Mittéï, Daniel Hulet, Daniël Kox, Daniel Desorgher and Marc Wasterlain, who have assisted him on his work during the 1960s and 1970s.
Spaghetti's legacy has also led to some parody products. 'Signor Spaghetti' was spoofed as a sex parody by Roger Brunel in 'Pastiches 3' (1984). In 1992, the publisher Planète BD released two collective albums with gags and short stories starring Attanasio's characters called 'Les Aventures de Spaghetti et Zambono'. Among the contributing artists were Achdé, Michel Rodrigue and Alain Sikorski, while the unknown Mostef took care of the writing part. Attanasio however was never informed about the project. He sued and the books quickly disappeared from the shops. On 16 December 2009, Signor Spaghetti received his own comic book mural in the Rue Van Bergen/Van Bergenstraat in Brussels, as part of the Brussels Comic Book Route.
In 2019, Dutch publisher Seb van der Kaaden of Personalia managed to obtain the rights to 'Spaghetti' and Attanasio's other series. For the June 2019 issue of Personalia's Stripglossy magazine, the veteran artist served as guest editor. For the occasion, several of Attanasio's older series were revived. Scriptwriter Frans Hasselaar and artist Daan Jippes were tasked with the revival of 'Spaghetti' in the following Stripglossy issues, while Dick Matena personally wrote and drew a new 'Macaroni's' story. New episodes of 'Johnny Goodbye' have been written by Robbert Damen and drawn by Michiel Offerman for both Stripglossy and Ger Apeldoorn's 2024 anthology 'PepNu'.
Dino Attanasio.