The discreet charm of the butterfly pierced by a pin. Federico Fellini, Milo Manara, and the comic book

Abstract

ABSTRACT Fascinated by the films of Fellini, the cartoonist Milo Manara offered the filmmmaker to adapt two of the scripts that he had never been able to bring to the screen. Thus, in the early 1990s, Journey to Tulum and Journey of G. Mastorna were published. Our main interest has not been in the analysis of the adaptation process. This article aims, on the contrary, to trace the origins of these projects, as well as the interests that, both artists, shared throughout the gestation and realisation of these comics books. We’ll find that Fellini was too a comic fan since his childhood and, in fact, draws some comics before WWII. We’ll also try to describe how, beyond the plot, Fellini’s cinema influenced the cartoonist and how the peculiar and poetic universe of the filmmaker was brought to the panels drawn by Manara.