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Rating: The "Corriere dei Ragazzi" I devoured from the first to the last page: the comics, the columns, the editorials, the sports. It was all beautiful. My reading started with two columns: “Tilt” and “L'omino bufo”. Both creations of Alfredo Castelli, a giant of Italian comics. But do I really need to tell you?
“Tilt” and “L'omino bufo”, two different stories, two different ways of telling comic stories. The second can be considered a pure exercise in absurdity applied to a deliberately clumsy drawing, a quirky madness characterized by grammatical and syntactical errors galore (also intentional, to be clear) with a guaranteed comic effect, with Castelli in one-man band mode: his were the inks, his were the texts. As for “Tilt”, Castelli, once again authoring the texts, after a brief interregnum by Bonvi, decided to entrust the pen to Daniele Fagarazzi. “Tilt” started as a standalone magazine: it lasted the moment of two issues, released between 1968 and 1969 amid general indifference. It was revived years later, first in the pages of “Cucciolo”, then, in 1972, reaching the “Corriere dei Ragazzi” in the form of a column. Also quite entertaining, but with a different approach, with a more elaborate absurdity, more anchored to reality, to Italy of the '70s: Christian Democrat, clinging to the skirts of the priests of the time and to the cathode-ray tube. Furthermore, the specialty of the house was parody: of TV programs, of magazines, of comics. And the drawings: far from clumsy, Fagarazzi's hand was quite something else!
The Return of Tilt (Cut-Up Publishing, 2023) celebrates the saga created by the Castelli-Fagarazzi duo, ninety-six pages (they seem few, but they're not) that gather the best of the “mad mad mad column!” published in the pages of the “Corriere dei Ragazzi” between 1972 and 1975. A book that is a blast, years have passed and even if today certain details may seem obscure and not very understandable, especially for the younger generations (but who could this colonel Bernacca ever be?), certain gags haven’t lost their freshness. After all, we are dealing with a snapshot from the past, which we boomers nostalgically long for. Comics aren't like they used to be: it’s not true, but we like to wallow in it. For example: take a look at the book’s cover: a Sgt. Pepper’s in Italian style, featuring a good bunch of characters who were popular in the '70s, drawn from the most varied TV shows and the political arena, with Castelli and Fagarazzi in the foreground. Together with Massimo “Bonfa” Bonfatti, author of the magnificent drawing. Yes, a comic artist today, as skilled as those from the past. And it’s lovely that he declares his love for Castelli and Fagarazzi in this way.
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