Biography

Born in Iesi, Alessandrini graduated from Ancona

Ancona

Ancona is a city and a seaport in the Marche region, in central Italy, with a population of 101,909 . Ancona is the capital of the province of Ancona and of the region....

's Art Institute and begins drawing comics professionally in 1972 for Il Corriere dei Ragazzi with the story Il Cifrario del Maggiore Martin written by Mino Milani. The following year he produced ten episodes of the fantasy series Anni 2000, again written by Milani, and twelve episodes of Lork Shark two years later.

In 1975 Alessandrini joined Studio Giolitti and drew several war stories for British publisher Fleetway

Fleetway

Fleetway, also known as Fleetway Publications and Fleetway Editions, was a UK publishing company which mainly produced comic magazines. For a time owned by IPC Media, they are now a division of Egmont Publishing....

. He continued his cooperation with Il Corriere dei Ragazzi, drawing two episodes of the series Il Maestro, written by Milani. When in 1976 the editor refused some of the pages for the series asking him to redraw them, Alessandrini decided instead to leave.

He then drew Eva Kant for the Italian edition of Cosmopolitan

Cosmopolitan (magazine)

Cosmopolitan is an international magazine for women. It was first published in 1886 in the United States as a family magazine, was later transformed into a literary magazine and eventually became a women's magazine in the late 1960s...

. The series is written by Alfredo Castelli

Alfredo Castelli

Alfredo Castelli is an Italian comic book author and writer.-Biography:Born in Milan, Castelli began his comic book career at an early age, creating the strip Scheletrino, a humor series for Italian comic book Diabolik, when he was only 16 years old.In 1966, with Paolo Sala, he created Comics Club...

 and marks the first of a series of collaborations. In 1976 the two produced
L'uomo di Chicago for Bonelli

Sergio Bonelli Editore

Sergio Bonelli Editore is a publishing house of Italian comics. It takes its name from its president and comic book author, Sergio Bonelli....

's Un Uomo un'Avventura, then in 1978 they worked together on Allan Quatermain

Allan Quatermain

Allan Quatermain is the protagonist of H. Rider Haggard's 1885 novel King Solomon's Mines and its various prequels and sequels. Allan Quatermain was also the title of a book in this sequence.- History :...

for Supergulp, published by Mondadori and on Mister No

Mister No

Mister No is an Italian comic book, first published in Italy in 1975 by Sergio Bonelli Editore.Mister No was created by writer Sergio Bonelli under the pseudonym Guido Nolitta, and by artist Gallieno Ferri, in Spring 1975. The regular monthly series endured for 379 publications, and the last issue...

, again for Bonelli.

Starting in 1977, Alessandrini worked on the western series Ken Parker, written by Giancarlo Berardi

Giancarlo Berardi

Giancarlo Berardi is an Italian comic book writer. Born in Genoa, he is most famous as creator of comics Ken Parker and Julia .- External links :*...

. His cooperation will continue until 1980, resulting in six 96 pages episodes. That same year Alessandrini started working for Catholic weekly Il Giornalino

Il Giornalino

Il Giornalino was an Italian comics magazine published by the Catholic publisher Edizioni San Paolo of Alba, founded in 1924.During its history, the magazine published the Italian translation of numerous American and European comics series, such as Looney Tunes, The Smurfs, Lucky Luke, Popeye,...

, where he drew some episodes of the series Ai confini dell'avventura and Storie di tutti i tempi. In 1981 he created with scriptwriter Claudio Nizzi

Claudio Nizzi

Claudio Nizzi is an Italian comic author.He started his career as comic scriptwriter in 1963, writing for the "Vittorioso", a comic newspaper. During 1969 he started to work for Il Giornalino creating many characters...

 the series Rosco & Sonny, using himself as a model for Sonny's features.

But the opportunity that will make Alessandrini a name in the international comics scene presented itself in 1982: Castelli had convinced Bonelli to greenlight a series based on his new character, and asked Alessandrini to design the character and draw the stories. In April of that year Martin Mystère

Martin Mystère

Martin Mystère is an Italian comic book. Created by writer Alfredo Castelli and drawn by Giancarlo Alessandrini, it was first published in Italy by Sergio Bonelli Editore in 1982....

was born. The series was a success, and Alessandrini was to produce all the covers and many of the stories, including specials and spin-offs.

In 1990 Alessandrini drew L'Uomo di Mosca, written by Roberto Dal Prà for Torpedo magazine. The personal style of the art didn't go unnoticed in France, where publisher Bagheera acquired the rights for the French market.

In 1991 Alessandrini and Dal Prà created detective Anastasia Brown for Comic Art magazine. The same year Alessandrini was awarded the best artist prize by ANAF.

Alessandrini first solo effort was published in 1992 on Comic Art: it's a series of short stories titled Fatti e misfatti a Planet Arium. He then drew the Martin Mystére spin-off series Zona X.

In 1993 Alessandrini produced three episodes of Indiana Jones

Indiana Jones

Colonel Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, Jr., Ph.D. is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Indiana Jones franchise. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg created the character in homage to the action heroes of 1930s film serials...

for Bagheera. In 2001 he drew Outremer

Outremer

Outremer, French for "overseas", was a general name given to the Crusader states established after the First Crusade: the County of Edessa, the Principality of Antioch, the County of Tripoli and especially the Kingdom of Jerusalem...

, written by Vincenzo Beretta for French publisher Albin-Michel.

"Alessandrini plays an important role in the evolution of comics art of the last 15 years." said Alfredo Castelli. "He may not realize it, but at the beginning of the 1980s his style has been the trait-d'union between Italian pulp comics and graphic novels, and in the 1990s, he is the only exception in a 'school' that has been dominant for the last 8-10 years."