This fall, Archaia comics will be kicking off a run of works by (Sergio) Toppi, the Italian comics master, with his graphic novel Sharaz-De, an adaptation of the Arabian Nights, prefaced by no less than Walt Simonson. Archaia’s got some choice preview pages up, as does Miguel at Comics Without Borders, who blogged about this book around the time I would’ve started work on it. Mythic, hieratic, seductive, organic, geometric, epic, alarming, unearthly, blowing the concept of panels to smithereens with sweeping page layouts, Toppi’s art lends a daunting alien majesty to this classic. Too bad he never illustrated Calvino.
“Alien majesty”, that’s a truly fitting description.
He was a great artist, may he rest in peace.
(And another mention of Calvino in 3 days, I’ll take that as a sign to read something of his ASAP, even if it’s untranslated.)