Humorists in Marostica dedicate an exhibition to Gianluigi "Didi"

Since 2015, the Marostice Graphic Group has started a new project with the aim of renewing and improving the cultural activity which has a long history that began way back in 1969.

The International Humorous Graphics Competition “Umoristi a Marostica” has become biennial to optimize its increasingly complex organisation, also given the new dimension of social networks.

The Competition alternates with exhibition events dedicated to great masters of graphics and humor. In 2015 we created an anthological exhibition on Eronda, born Mario de Donà, a well-known graphic designer from Belluno.

This year we are proposing, again in the exhibition rooms of the Lower Castle, an anthological exhibition dedicated to GIANLUIGI “DIDI” COPPOLA, an important illustrator and cartoonist who also worked for “Dylan Dog” i> and “Martin Mystère”.

Gianluigi “Didi” Coppola, whose artistic production spanned much of the 20th century until the early 2000s, was born in Chiavari, in the province of Genoa, on 16 April 1928.

In 1949, after art high school, he moved to Milan where he found work for the comics newspaper “Goal“, published by “Gazzetta dello Sport”. He later joined Ferdinando Tacconi in the creation of “Nat del Santa Cruz” and Franco Paludetti for “Sciuscià“, two comics that were very popular in those years.

In 1956 he moved to England, where he remained for about twenty years, creating other famous comic characters: “Billy the Kid” for the “Sun“, “Scoop Donovan” and “Battler Britton“. In those years, several Italian cartoonists lived and worked in London, including his contemporary Hugo Pratt, alongside whom Coppola worked on the war stories produced by the important Fleetway agency, which years later were translated into successful publications in Italy. “Heroic Series” and “Superheroic”.

Starting in the 1960s he began to dedicate himself to illustrating book covers for Penguin Books and classics, detective stories and novels for other British publishing houses such as Corgi, Fontana, Collins, Pan and Granada.

He also worked in the field of advertising graphics, collaborating with the “Sunday Times” and the Young & Rubicam agency and with magazines such as “Forum”, “The Observer”, “Psychology Today” and others.

In 1979, upon returning to Italy, he began a long collaboration with Mondadori, illustrating children's classics and covers of the Oscar series. He worked for “Playboy” and “Penthouse” and in 1990 he returned to comics by joining Sergio Bonelli's staff and drawing for “Dylan Dog” and later for “Martin Mystère”. In recent years he dedicated himself above all to sea painting and portraiture.

He passed away in Genoa on 24 August 2015.

In his artistic career Coppola collaborated fruitfully with important figures in international publishing, including the graphic designer and critic Germano Facetti. During his London period he had the opportunity to work with the great illustrators and poster artists Giorgio De Gaspari, Pino Dell'Orco, Renato Fratini and with the photographer Enzo Ragazzini. He was also linked by a deep friendship with the great artist and set designer Emanuele Luzzati and with the painter and illustrator Flavio Costantini, together with whom he created the corpus of images of the revolutionary encyclopedia "Io e gli altri".

Recently his hometown of Chiavari dedicated a detailed retrospective to him at the Ravaschieri Museum and the Civica Galleria of Palazzo Rocca, curated by Ferruccio Giromini with the support from the artist's family, in the persons of his wife Adriana Oldani and his son Thomas.

The Marostica exhibition will offer numerous examples of graphic illustration work and comic strip by Coppola, presenting in particular, with the collaboration of Sergio Bonelli Editore, numerous original drawings taken from episodes of “Dylan Dog”and “Martin Mystère”. >