Perogatt
SLURP!

As I was jotting down thoughts for the review, amidst the swirling memories, the image of an odd, out-of-context situation occasionally flashed. Once, while waiting at the bus stop for the direct bus to where I was (the place was always the same, I've never been very imaginative when playing hide and seek) and busy assessing the chances of running into a returning version of myself from space, I realized that the gaze of a very beautiful woman, with hair as red as fire, was on me, motionless, not far from me. At a certain point, she approached me and asked if it was no longer customary to greet old friends whom one has known for a lifetime. I immediately apologized and justified my rudeness (feeling like Minghi) by the fact that her red hair had confused me and at first glance, I had mistaken her for a woman I didn't know, "she really looks a lot like you, believe me," I said. She stated that she had always had red hair and that this fact shouldn’t have confused me, and I told her that yes, maybe it shouldn't have but it wasn't a case of getting upset with him, there were people who had sent me to much worse places.

One of the many examples of how sometimes in life one must quickly prove to be sharp, not waiting for trigonometry professors to do the dirty work on our behalf.

Another such time for me, and perhaps this is the connection to the strange situation I've described, was definitely when someone I don't remember placed an issue of the magazine SLURP! in my hand. What I remember clearly is that it was done without much explanation. And explanations would have been quite appropriate since up to that moment, my familiarity was solely with the humor of "Topolino".

"What a strange thing!" was the technical judgment I remember giving on the spot. A bit flat, just like the "nonsensical" I've read others use around the web, but I don't trust those who use that term. Usually, it's one of the labels stuck to bins where people who struggle to distinguish nuances dump everything they can’t otherwise categorize.

SLURP! was entirely the brainchild of Perogatt (Carlo Peroni), the cartoonist with whom those from my generation certainly had some dealings (The Gianconiglio of Corriere dei Piccoli, or more recently, but not too much, the eponymous inspector appearing in "il giornalino" pages, Parmalat advertisements, etc.). Playing a bit of detective on the web, I discovered that initially, Slurp! was born as an insert in another youth magazine from Domus publishing, entirely hand-drawn by Perogatt (except, I believe, for the color). After a while, trust was placed in this initiative, and an ad hoc publication was dedicated to it, always within Domus. Here I put the link (hoping not to cause G's bile to stir) from which I gathered most of the information, there's also some amusing artwork.

In those pages, one could find surreal, oblique humor (for kids), in some cases (IN MY OPINION) a forerunner of some of Leo Ortolani's ideas. It really gave the idea of being something done on a whim, the drawing wasn't meticulously polished, but I remember that the author's freedom to go in any direction that came to his mind at any moment was palpable, even without necessarily fully understanding his humor.

The green tongued babacio, the main character of the magazine, used the verb slurpare in the way the Smurfs use smurfing. In those pages, I learned how to unblock a traffic jam, how to distinguish a regular plumber from a liquid plumber, how to distinguish a "brut" sparkling wine from a "bellissim," and even more amusing things that don't come to mind now.

There’s no rating because the work is unrateable.

Another nostalgic review destined, if they like it, for the old folks of the site.