Before it's too early

Autobiography in crumbs of an obstinate and contrary subject

In short, I was born in Turin on April 12, 1963 and it was a "Good" Friday ... well, there are those who go and those who come ... In any case, my mother claims that «I came into the world with pencil in hand ». And it must have been a very well-tempered pencil given the considerable number of points she remedied on that occasion.

My first hard life experience was in first grade, during one of the few moments when I wasn't at work as an aspiring cartoonist. I collided with the backside of a nun while I was being chased by a school friend to whom who knows what joke I had played: fractured nasal septum. Moral: you have to be careful where you put your nose.

I sold my first drawings to an art history teacher who supplemented her salary by selling encyclopedias. I doubt that there was a reason. Anyway, I was four and devoured Disney comics and Warner and Hanna and Barbera cartoons. And in fact I was getting fat visibly.

The years of school, from elementary to high school, were spent between sports and "zibaldoni", that is, tons of inked paper with cartoons, comics, caricatures of classmates and professors. (I must say some of the latter did not appreciate my talent). But between a "Geppo" and a "Tiramolla", a "Topolino" and "Jacovitti" the scribbles continued to levitate.

At the gymnasium I played the organ in the school chapel and one day I proposed the sword dance. This did not please the Dominican priest who celebrated. It was the end of my career as a church organist but also the beginning of that of a rebellious musician: long hair and microphone in hand as the front-man of some well-known Italian Heavy Metal groups. But here also began my frequentation with magazines such as "Heavy Metal", "Pilote", "Totem" and "Eternauta" and with these my attention to drawing in all its possible manifestations.

He arrived in 1986, I had already been involved in graphics for some time, when my period of Civil Service began. One of the fathers of all of us pathological in the cartoon, the great Giorgio Cavallo, given my scribbles, had been pressing for years for me to try with humor and so I tried and, in fact, with my cousin Lella he had been right.
But you know, not every day is Sunday. A few cartoons for the magazine of the Youth Department of my city and then, anno Domini 1989, "Black Humor" Turin: my first competition. I got the recognition and met a great Roland Topor (!) President of the jury. And if I couldn't believe it, let alone everyone else.

The previous year I had crept into the editorial office of a Turin journalism school. The director was Bruno Geraci, for years at the editorial staff of TG3 Piemonte. Cartoons by the ton and mess, the "heroic" and naive years of "Image Literary", the first collaborations with local weeklies and two years of kind rejection of my material by "Tango" and "Satyricon ', satirical inserts respectively of "l'Unità" and "la Repubblica". I thank both editors for the infinite patience and kindness in expressing their opinion on what was sent, (I would have been much less kind). The Italian Post Office, on the other hand, would like to thank me for the enormous quantities of useless "fuorisacco" (an old italian type of expedition) thanks to which for two years I am sure they were able to guarantee the salary of several dozen employees.

Then, suddenly, as only a mocking karma can explain, a fundamental character of the world of humor, Monssù Dino Aloi, entered my life. And from that moment I began to collaborate and share a deep friendship with Dino, we both want to emphasize, eminently heterosexual.

Over time, opportunities for collaboration arrived with local periodicals such as "Il Risveglio", "Il Canavese", "La Gazzetta d'Alba" and "La Riviera" and subsequently with magazines such as "Nuova Società", "Energeo" and "Essecome", humorous publications such as "Yawn" and the recent "Buduàr".

In 2007 I left my hometown to move to Liguria, and I continue to deal with visual communication, working in both the traditional and multimedia sectors, as an illustrator in advertising and obviously in drawn humor. what I have been doing for years in the vocational training sector and at a specialized Turin institute.

I hope someone has benefited, before it's too soon.

Milko