EXTRACTS: British War Comics Illustrators Special © 2018 The Book Palace (144 PAGES in Full edition)

62 During the sixties, as if all that work he was doing for the British market was not enough, he was also working through publisher Mondadori in Italy doing covers for magazines such as Epoca , Grazie , Confidenze , Arianna , and others. He even managed to finish a painting daily, no small feat for any artist, let alone one whose paintings were figurative and life-like! In fact, the figures in Biffignandi’s war covers drew comparisons with another Italian illustration maestro, Giorgio De Gaspari, with whom Biffignandi’s work is often compared. Within time these two artists would become close friends. At the end of the sixties, Biffignandi began his long collaboration with Edifumetto, apublisherof black-and-white comics, oftensexycrime-thrillers, printed in pocket-sized books with colour covers. He had seen some of the covers in these comic books, and was struck by how mediocre they were. He thought he could do much better, but he didn’t know who published them. He mentioned this to his friend Gino D’Antonio, a comic book artist he had befriended and with whom he worked on a couple of covers for another comic book publisher. D’Antonio knew the publisher of the Edifumetto comics, one Renzo Barbieri, and introduced him to Biffignandi. This would mark another change of style in Biffignandi’s illustrations. As these books relied mostly on sexy and nude girls on the covers, Biffignandi’s figurative- style fitted them perfectly. Publisher Barbieri was more than happy to have a talented artist such as Biffignandi working on the covers of his comics, to Text continues on page 82 BELOW LEFT: 'Deed of Valour', cover to War Picture Library No. 336 (1964), tempera. BOTTOM RIGHT: 'Strike Silent', cover to War Picture Library No. 218 (1963), tempera. British paratroopers land in Normandy on the eve of the D-Day landings. FACING PAGE: Cover for Battle Picture Library No. 446, 'The Non-Combatants'. Like many of Biffignandi's paintings, the scene is based on a panel from an earlier story—in this case WPL No. 14, art by Renzo Calegari. All Images © IPC Media