Francesco Tullio Altan
Encyclopedia
Biography
He was born in TrevisoTreviso
Treviso is a city and comune in Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 82,854 inhabitants : some 3,000 live within the Venetian walls or in the historical and monumental center, some 80,000 live in the urban center proper, while the city...
, the son of Friuli
Friuli
Friuli is an area of northeastern Italy with its own particular cultural and historical identity. It comprises the major part of the autonomous region Friuli-Venezia Giulia, i.e. the province of Udine, Pordenone, Gorizia, excluding Trieste...
an anthropologist Carlo Tullio Altan
Carlo Tullio Altan
Carlo Tullio Altan was an Italian anthropologist, sociologist and philosopher. He was particularly known for his studies on the Italian national character, and was considered one of the pioneers of Italian cultural anthropology.Altan was born at San Vito al Tagliamento, in Friuli...
. He studied in the University IUAV of Venice
University Iuav of Venice
Iuav University of Venice is a university located in Venice, northern Italy. It was founded in 1926 and is organized in 3 faculties....
, but halted his studies to work for cinema and TV as scenographer
Scenographer
A scenographer develops the appearance of a stage design, a TV or movie set, a gaming environment, a trade fair exhibition design or a museum experience exhibition design. The term originated in theater...
and writer. In 1970 he moved to Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
, where he created his first comics series for children, published on a local newspaper. In 1974 he started to collaborate with Italian publishers.
In 1974, for the comics magazine Linus
Linus (magazine)
Linus is an Italian comics magazine. The first number was published in April 1965 by Milano Libri, a subsidiary of Rizzoli. It is currently published by Baldini & Castoldi in monthly issues....
, he created Trino, an unprepared god who has to create the world. In 1975, the year he returned to Italy, Altan created one of his most famous characters, Pimpa, initially published on the Corriere dei Piccoli
Corriere dei Piccoli
The Corriere dei Piccoli , later renamed Corriere dei Ragazzi and nicknamed Corrierino , was a weekly magazine for children published in Italy from 1908 to 1995...
. Pimpa, a puppy female dog with red polka dots, later became a cartoon for Italian television, under the direction of Enzo D'Alò.
His other characters for adult readers include Cipputi, a communist industrial worker who was subject of numerous daily panels for newspapers such as L'Unità
L'Unità
l'Unità is an Italian left-wing newspaper, originally founded as official newspaper of the Italian Communist Party.-History:L'Unità was founded by Antonio Gramsci on 12 February 1924, as the newspaper of workers and peasants, the official newspaper of Italian Communist Party : it was printed in...
and La Repubblica
La Repubblica
la Repubblica is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper. Founded in 1976 in Rome by the journalist Eugenio Scalfari, as of 2008 is the second largest circulation newspaper, behind the Corriere della Sera.-Foundation:...
, Cristopher Columbus, Casanova and "Franz" (a parody of St. Francis of Assisi). Altan's satirical panels were also publisher on magazines such as Panorama and, more recently, L'Espresso
L'Espresso
l'Espresso is an Italian newsmagazine. It is one of the two most prominent Italian weeklies, the other being Panorama. Since the latter has been acquired by right-wing tycoon and politician Silvio Berlusconi, l'Espresso enjoys the reputation of being the main politically independent newsmagazine...
.