Benito Jacovitti

There he created several characters: Pippo, Pertica e Palla, Oreste il guastafeste, Chicchiricchì, Cip l'arcipoliziotto and his nemesis Zagar, Giacinto corsaro dipinto, Jack Mandolino, La signora Carlomagno, adaptations of classic like Ali Baba and Don Quixote, and parodies of famous comics like L'onorevole Tarzan and Il mago Mandrago.

In 1956 he began working for the newspaper Il Giorno, then owned by Enrico Mattei, where he created his best known character, the cowboy Cocco Bill, as well as the private eye Tom Ficcanaso.

Ten years later Jacovitti left Il Giorno to join the glorious Il Corriere dei Piccoli, then the most popular weekly publication for kids, for which he renewed old characters as Cip l'Arcipoliziotto and Zagar, and created new ones as Zorry Kid, Tarallino Tarallà and others.

Jacovitti's unique artstyle is immediately appealing to both kids and adults: his characters sport huge noses and feet, his pages are chock full of details and all sort of objects and weird creatures born from his untamed creativity (like his salami, often drawn with little legs or smiley faces).

While most of his production was geared toward humour and parody, Jacovitti did not shy away from more controversial material like the erotic book Kamasultra (based on the Kama Sutra) and political cartoons.