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We reproduce in this page the interesting interview appeared on the "paulista" website Estadao.com.br, wrote by Ricardo de Souza with the contribution of Wagner Augusto (who has get in touch with Berardi) and Julio Schneider (who translated the interview before its publication on Estadao)

Interview with Giancarlo Berardi
by Ricardo de Souza
translation by Marco Spitella

S�o Paulo - Giancarlo Berardi's works are not simple comics, but pure art in the way that they incorporates an infinity of the writer's artistic references. Born in Genoa, in 1949, Berardi had had experiences as amateur theatre author and actor and is still crazy fond of music. In exclusive for Estadao, the italian artist talks about Shakespeare, Marilyn Monroe, about his partnership with Ivo Milazzo, about his admiration for Caetano Veloso and, obviously, about his comics, Ken Parker and Julia.

Estadao: Your stories are invariably full of references to theatre, to cinema, to music, to literature and to other arts' fields. In "Un Principe per Norma (A Prince for Norma)" you hinge the storytelling on an Hamlet staging. Why the choice of this Shakespeare's work?

Berardi: Hamlet is the shakespearean character which more I love and which seems to me to better reflect our age. He is a restless man, insecure, probably depressed, who has a tragic family history behind and an ineluctable fate before him. It seems to me an extraordinary metaphore of the condition in which many youngs of today lives, more and more crushed between the family problems and the social ones. Shakespeare's work has the characteristics of a freudian "case", even though having been wrote centuries before Freud's birth.

E.: There are also other references, for instance Marilyn Monroe and the english woman writer Elizabeth Barrett Browning, as well as north-america classic musics. Tell us about your bond with these names and with the music. We know that you was part of a music band called Gli Scorpioni (the Scorpions)...

Giancarlo Berardi
Giancarlo Berardi, drawing by Ivo Milazzo
   
 

B.: Norma Jean is the real name of Marilyn Monroe, an actress used almost ever in witty movies, or funny ones, which whished for her whole life (for this purpose she attended also the Actor's Studio) to play drama roles, without succeed. When I thought the plot of "Un principe per Norma", I chose to give her a double chance, even if tardy: besides to play Ofelia's role, the antonomastic dramatic character, she could had interpret also herself, revealing her pain for the non-motherhood, her emotive frailty that drove herself to men, and her acute sensibility which founds play in poetry. It has been an homage to an actress and a woman which have left a deep mark on me.
As regards Elizabeth Browning, an essay would be required to explain the kind of attraction she exerts on me. What I can say is that she is an extrarordinary companion of my melancholy. On the same level of music, north-american and not. The musical one is a language which fraternizes peoples, without whom our life would be poorer. I love all the music, included the brasilian one, that I was recently able to enjoy thanks to a concert of Caetano Veloso. An artist, this, which have influenced some of the better italian singer-songwriters. Personally, I write songs for myself and my friends. It is a thing which comes out to me naturally, like to drink or to breathe, and I think it as much important.

E.: You worked for about 30 years with Ivo Milazzo. What can you tell us about this long period of work in pairs? Are you planning a new work together?

B.: To work with Ivo Milazzo has been a privilege, because he is a great illustrator. In this terms, I've been very lucky: in thirty years of career I have worked with some of the best italian and international illustrators. At the moment Milazzo's way and mine are sundered. As regards the future, I do not exclude anything; if an interesting chance will be, I'll be very glad to find again my old adventures' companion.

E.: Ken Parker gained thousands of fans all around the world. What does this character means for you?

B.: Ken is like a brother. Rather, more, actually he is really a part of me, a sort of alter ego, a mirror in which I've mirrored for twentyfive years my dreams, my emotions, my ideas, my grieves, my hopes on a better humanity and a better world. I miss Lungo Fucile (Translator's note - Long Rifle, indian nickname of K.P.), but life taught me to look forward. If one day we will meet again, we will not waste time in greetings and explanations. A glance will be enough to understand each other.

E.: At the moment you have a great success with Julia. Is this the only project you're now working on?

B.: Yes, Julia is the only project on which I am working, and couldn't be otherwise, because it takes up twelve hours a day in average for five days a week to me. A heavy pace that I hope I can slacken with the passing of the time and the strenghtening of the series.

E.: Do you intend to coming in Brazil? Are there chances for Julia to be published here?

B.: Brazil is one of my unrealized dreams. I have a lot of friends in your country, beginning with Rosana e Wagner Augusto, and without forget Laerte, Ziraldo, Mauricio de Souza, who I didn't meet since many years. When Ken Parker's stories were issued, I received many letters and some brazilians are came even in Italy to see me. I remember a very beautiful girl, Olaia by name, who whished to appear in a Ken's story. I wonder if she found her fair-haired hero. The publication of Julia in Brazil does not depend on me. This question should be put to your publishers. I would be happy to listen her speak in your language. And if there will not be a chance at all, I could ever send her there, even on vacation, to live one of her adventures!
 

 


 
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