EXTRACTS: Illustrators issue 25 © 2019 The Book Palace (96 PAGES in Full edition)

37 for nudity or religious beliefs.” To make matters worse, these poor, idotic anonymous critics took further offense when Manara presented Frank Cho, at the end of their 2016 ‘Art andWomen’ panel presentation, with a picture of the same Spider-Woman , this time seen from behind , naked and with only red paint covering her body. Aside of superheroes, he also did the comic book Quarantasei in 2006 about Italian motorcycle champion Valentino Rossi. It was not really a biography of the champion, but rather a fictitious tale where Rossi meets Jim Morrison, James Dean and Steve McQueen, among others, plus a bevy of beautiful girls. Critics considered it an embarrassement to both Rossi and Manara, but the Italian fans thought otherwise. It was also available as a pseudo-animated film on DVD-roms. Although throughout his career Manara has had problems with the censors (or non-censors, as mentioned earlier), it was in 2011 with a picture he did of the recently deceased Pope in Heaven surrounded by beautiful naked female angels that caused a scandal within the Vatican. Text continues on page 40 “They thought I was being ironic about the Pope’s death, but I was actually commenting on his recent beatification just after his death only to exploit his memory,” the Italian master responded. Recently, he has been at work on two projects: one with a series of watercolours at the request of French 1960s sex-symbol Brigitte Bardot (culminating in September Text continued from page 33 FACING PAGE: Savage Wolverine , ink and watercolour on paper, 2013. Variant cover for the second issue of Savage Wolverine featuring Shanna the She-Devil, and written by Frank Cho. BELOW: Gulliveriana , ink and watercolour on paper. Manara’s take on the immortal book by Jonathan Swift, replacing the hero with a very sexy girl. FOLLOWING PAGES LEFT: Black Widow , ink and watercolour on paper, 2014. FOLLOWING PAGES RIGHT: Pandora’s Eyes , ink and watercolour on paper, 2009. The original graphic novel was written by Oscar-nominated screenwriter (for ‘Life is Beautiful’) Vicenzo Cerami.