
After Tex Classic of the products of Sergio Bonelli Editore who look to the past is enrich with a new operation dedicated to another great figure of the house of via Buonarroti.

Zagor Classic, in fact, comes after the success of the series dedicated to the old stories of Tex, carried over from the first album, and it serves as a rediscovery of the past of the characters that have made the history of the SBE, but at the same time as a series of economic, pointing to the nostalgic and the newbies.

Zagor Classic makes its debut with La Foresta degli Agguati, the repetition of that first adventure of Darkwood, published in 1961, and created by Guido Nolitta (or Sergio Bonelli and Gallieno Ferri. In this story we witness the first meeting between Zagor and Cico, who is attacked while he is going up the river with their classmates, by a group of indians. Cico would be destined to torture and death, but it will be the same Spirit with the Hatchet to save his life and to take it with him.

The Zagor proposed in this first story has all the characteristics of the iconic character that we know: adventurous, easy going, and not afraid of any opponents. On the other hand, we see a Cico a little more three-dimensional. In the course of the decades, the pot-bellied mexican, has become increasingly macchiettistico (inspiring other famous shoulders for a good as the Groucho Dylan Dog), while in this first adventure of Darkwood, at least initially, it seems to show a personality that goes beyond the part of the simple character humor. On the contrary, it will be the same Cico to save Zagor in a moment, really difficult to of the story.

Intriguing is also the fact that Guido Nolitta present in the first the hero of Darkwood as a sort of forest spirit, he is able to strike terror in those who roam those lands. But, as he will notice the same But at a certain point in the comics, he it is that feeds this type of vision, to inspire fear in potential enemies.

Writing Nolitta, despite shows some obvious sign of the times, points out a basic difference with respect to Gianluigi Bonelli inventor of Tex, Sergio Bonelli, alias Guido Nolitta), in comparison with the father, prefer to opt for dialogue less dry and sharp (reading the first episodes of the Tex instead, you may notice the writing is so mature and modern compared to the times to be surprising), adhering to the canons of the comics of the Silver Age. Zagor, in fact, could be considered a counterpart to the Italian of those american comic books in the early Sixties were characterized (especially DC Comics) for a tone less serious, filled with lots of adventure, and above all, surrounded by touches of genre: from horror, to fantasy to science fiction.

As you well know enthusiasts of Zagor, the Spirit with the Hatchet, while living in the North of the United States of the nineteenth century, did not, properly speaking, the western as a genre. The main feature of Zagor is living and adventurous stories, and is geared with the fantasy (Sergio Bonelli said that it was appropriate to include a story fantasy every three issues), science fiction and horror. All of this has allowed the brilliant Nolitta to bring the Spirit with the Hatchet in remote places, and deal with characters inspired by the popular culture of the time (the vampire Bela Rakosi, for example, clearly refers to the Dracula Hammer Christopher Lee).

The texts and the ideas of Nolitta are embellished by Gallieno Ferri, who has become the designer's main Zagor, and that, despite sticking to the stretch of Aurelio Galeppini, can be characterized by a dynamism that enhances the action scenes, and the basic avventuresca of the character.

In short, this first issue of Zagor Classic is a blast from the past, and an opportunity to approach the base of the hero of Darkwood. Reprint the register for the register, in a format newsstand (eighty pages) in the classic style bonelliano, it is a great opportunity for all lovers of the hero of Darkwood, and the history of the SBE, for approaching to a past that continues to feed the future.

Because, if a part of the Sergio Bonelli Editore you are projecting into the future with a new label (the Bold), with new titles (the success of Orphans gives you an idea of the potential of the new ideas born from the house of via Buonarroti), and with collaborations glaring (even the same Zagor will be the protagonist of a crossover with the Flash for DC Comics). On the other hand, the Bonelli's is continuing to bring forward an operation to the rediscovery of their own history editorial which is located in Zagor Classic and Tex Classic symbols of an adventure capable of giving birth to true icons of the contemporary literature.

Why Sergio Bonelli Editore, was the Italian publishing house capable of producing in the last seventy years the most number of people screened within popular culture. And if the comic today got a real literary dignity, by combining the popular with the authorial, in Italy a good part of the credit goes to the publishing house via Buonarroti, and its characters. As the Spirit with the Hatchet.

Zagor Classic 1 – La Foresta degli Agguati | Review of MangaForever.net

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