Alessandro Baronciani
Una Storia A Fumetti

This is a personal story.

I bought "Una storia a Fumetti" on August 12, 2009, in Turin, on a sweltering afternoon, right at the last minute: the train was about to leave and I quickly popped into the bookstore inside Rinascente.
I was there to buy that comic that hours before, flipping through it, had caught my sleepy attention.
I felt that inside, among those meticulously drawn hedges and those traveling trains, were the summer adventures I had often anticipated but rarely experienced.
I gave my, yes my, money to a bored sales clerk, then ran down the escalator towards Porta Nuova.
I hurriedly dodged people on Via Roma, while projecting anxious mental films in my head to motivate myself: picturing myself arriving while the train departs and the like.
But fortunately, when I arrived, the train hadn't left yet, and my friend was waiting for me.
With heavy breathing and adrenaline rushing through me, I sat in the carriage, and, after looking around, I took out the volume I had purchased with great care, flipping through it.

Lovers, small hidden beaches among the reeds only accessible through damp underpasses, beach parties, and fireworks.
It looked promising.
But, alas, the roses did not bloom, and in less than twenty minutes, I realized I had finished reading the entire volume without any emotion.
Anger and frustration: I can't believe I wasted money, because the sensation I have is that these stories slid right off me.
Not a single witty line, not a story that strikes me.
I cursed out loud the author, my own stinginess, and complained about the inconsistency of the stories. I vowed never to buy another comic again, telling myself with irritation.
Determined to vent my irritated frustration, I opened my notepad at home to write a fiery review.
But re-reading it once finished, I realized it was too biased, okay you feel you've wasted money, I told myself, but give it some thought, calm down, and write it with a clear head: wait until the anger has passed, I repeated to myself.

So now, eight months later, many pleasant things have happened, and I believe I'm in the right emotional state to say my piece about this comic book volume.

As with many other authors, European or American, in "Una Storia A Fumetti" there's a telling of ordinary daily situations and sentimental entanglements, possible or just missed.
Alessandro Baronciani, lives and works between Milan and Pesaro, is a graphic designer and illustrator; I find his illustrations very beautiful, I recommend you take a look at his blog because it's worth it.
He collaborates with the magazine "Rumore" and has created covers for several books such as "Solo i Treni Hanno La Strada Segnata" by Gabriele Romagnoli, "Se Fai Un Bel Respiro" by Carlo Pastore, and others I'm not going to list because I don't feel like it.

Reissue of the volume first published in 2006, with the addition of the first story of the series, initially discarded, it's a collection of Baronciani's first stories sent to the homes of the first loyal subscribers.
In short, you would send a symbolic sum to the author who would reciprocate by mailing you one of these stories; neat, huh?
They cover five years starting from 1999 and are the result of the direct relationship between author and reader, as frequently highlighted in reviews and articles about him.
The beauty of the backgrounds within the panels immediately strikes, there are neighborhoods all looking the same, beaches, pools that are "a huge pillow among the trees of the park" and gas stations at dawn; all in ruthless black and white which becomes the sharp contrast on which the young protagonists move.
"I like to use backgrounds as if they were cartoons. Above, I want to draw the characters that move and talk with the static background behind. Even the words that the protagonists say are added later. They must be free to float on the page. And then if I wanted to change the text? I would have to redraw all the balloons" says Baronciani himself in an interview.

In the same one, Andrea Provinciali (the interviewer) defines these backgrounds as pop; a definition I find fitting: the rounded edges, the simplicity, and the cleanliness of the lines make these scenarios both real and artificial, giving a void and surreal connotation to the stories.
Everything is played on emotions, on looks and unspoken words; does that ring a bell?
Perhaps it reminds you of a large portion of Western culture since Chekhov?
You're not wrong because really the rhythms of the stories, expanded and based on the feelings and sensations of the protagonists, seem to come from a certain literary world; on Black Velvet's publishing house site, Virginia Woolf is even mentioned.
Now I don't think there's the depth of Carver, Chekhov, Mansfield, or the aforementioned Woolf here, but surely in some cases, the approach to the characters' stories isn't dissimilar from the atmospheres of "Mrs. Dalloway" or the author of "The Lady with the Dog".
But that's just a comparison, and returning to the comic world we can recall the excellent Adrian Tomine, the young Bellstorf Arne, or the debutant Vives Bastien, the latter both for Black Velvet.
Situations are often undefined, fragmentary, and everything is left to intuition.
This concerns environments, characters, and how they manage their affairs; what I didn't like, no, what disappointed me, was the inconsistency of the stories.

What's missing here is unfortunately the ability to produce original stories that make an impact, often lacking a plot or the actual unfolding of a narrative; something which, in my opinion, is present in Adrian Tomine.
Unfortunately, the author's narrative ability is often not on par with his willingness.
That's why I earlier mentioned Mansfield or Chekhov because, sure it's possible to revolve a tale or story around a look or unspoken words, but one also needs to be capable of it.
This, in my opinion, ends up limiting this volume's usability, which I would recommend to those who already know Baronciani and appreciate him, because as I said there are really beautiful panels here; whereas for those encountering this author for the first time, it's better to focus on "Quando Tutto Divenne Blu" his second work published in 2008.

Sure, if we want, we can read "The Story" as the one linking individual comics to the relationship between author and readers, and a growth that has been increasing. But as far as I'm concerned, it's not enough, in the sense that I would have preferred to come into contact with more original or profound stories and characters.

In conclusion, "Una Storia A Fumetti" is a book that, after initially irritating me, opened a window to a world I didn't know: that of Altro, in which Baronciani sings and plays guitar, and of the illustrations by the man himself.