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Buzzelli Collected Works Vol. 1: The Labyrinth
Hailed in Europe, Guido Buzzelli has been called "the Michaelangelo of monsters," "the Goya of comics," and "the patron saint of all Italian cartoonists." A pioneer active from the 1950s-1980s, today virtually unknown in English, Buzzelli horrifies, fascinates, and provokes with his unique blend of surrealism and dynamism. Displaying a range of influences from Westerns and science fiction to Rennaisance art and futurism, Buzzelli's stories are a delightful, quasi-postmodern mishmash of high and low, showing an intricate hand and stylish narrative skill. The first of three volumes collecting Guido Buzzelli's stories in English for the first time, includes The Labyrinth and Zil Zelub , two of the earliest Italian avant-garde graphic novels ever published. These fantastic and grotesque stories are the perfect introduction to Buzzelli's work. Translated by Jamie Richards. Introduction by Domingos Isabelinho.
136 pages, Paperback
Published December 5, 2023
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About the author
Guido Buzzelli
40 books10 followersGuido Buzzelli (1927-1992) was an Italian cartoonist, illustrator and painter from Rome, best known as a pioneer of Italian graphic novels in the 60's and 70's.
Buzzelli was born of a family of painters on his father side, while his mother was a model. As a teenage, he studied to become a painter like his father and grandfather. Soon, he added comics to his interests, working as an apprentice to Italian cartoonists Vittorio Cossio and Rino Albertarelli. In his youth Guido lived in Spain and England, working as an illustrator and comic book artist. In 1960 he came back to Italy and married Grazia de Stefani, who will also become his main collaborator.
After a few years focusing on his painting career, Buzzelli returned to comics to create La Rivolta del Racchi ("The Rebellion of the Uglies", 1966), an early example of graphic novel. He could not find a regular publisher for this work, yet the story attracted the attention of the curators of the 1967 Lucca Comics Festival, being released in the proceedings of the show. The comic acquired notoriety only in 1970, when French cartoonist Georges Wolinski noticed the book on a newsstand during a trip to Naples and decided to have it published in the French comics magazine Charlie Mensuel. La Rivolta del Racchi was a fantasy in a historic setting and presented a certain social commentary undertone, something that will remain in many of Buzzelli following works.
In the the 70's and 80's Buzzelli will continue to publish comics and political cartoons in a number of French publications, such as Pilote, Circus, L'Écho des Savanes, Vailant, Métal Hurlant, À Suivre, Fluid Glacial, Le Monde, as well as Italian ones, like Linus, Alterlinus, Comic Art, L'Eternauta, Paese Sera, Il Messaggero, L'Espresso, Psyco, Corriere dei Ragazzi, Comic Art, Playmen, Menelik, l'Unità, L'Occhio, Repubblica.
Among his comics are I Labirinti (1968-1970), Zil Zelub (1971), Annalisa e il diavolo (1973), H.P (with Alexis Kostandi, 1974), L'intervista (1975), L'Agnone (1977), La guerra videologica (1978), L'uomo del Bengala (1979), Il mestiere di Mario (1980), Zasafir (1981) and many others.
Buzzelli continued to produce traditional painting work throughout his life. His paintings have appeared in a number of exhibitions in Europe and North America. Additionally, he was a teacher at the European Institute of Design. Towards the end of his life he also collaborated with the Italian and French television.
Guido Buzzelli died at age 64 in his hometown Rome in 1992.
Buzzelli was born of a family of painters on his father side, while his mother was a model. As a teenage, he studied to become a painter like his father and grandfather. Soon, he added comics to his interests, working as an apprentice to Italian cartoonists Vittorio Cossio and Rino Albertarelli. In his youth Guido lived in Spain and England, working as an illustrator and comic book artist. In 1960 he came back to Italy and married Grazia de Stefani, who will also become his main collaborator.
After a few years focusing on his painting career, Buzzelli returned to comics to create La Rivolta del Racchi ("The Rebellion of the Uglies", 1966), an early example of graphic novel. He could not find a regular publisher for this work, yet the story attracted the attention of the curators of the 1967 Lucca Comics Festival, being released in the proceedings of the show. The comic acquired notoriety only in 1970, when French cartoonist Georges Wolinski noticed the book on a newsstand during a trip to Naples and decided to have it published in the French comics magazine Charlie Mensuel. La Rivolta del Racchi was a fantasy in a historic setting and presented a certain social commentary undertone, something that will remain in many of Buzzelli following works.
In the the 70's and 80's Buzzelli will continue to publish comics and political cartoons in a number of French publications, such as Pilote, Circus, L'Écho des Savanes, Vailant, Métal Hurlant, À Suivre, Fluid Glacial, Le Monde, as well as Italian ones, like Linus, Alterlinus, Comic Art, L'Eternauta, Paese Sera, Il Messaggero, L'Espresso, Psyco, Corriere dei Ragazzi, Comic Art, Playmen, Menelik, l'Unità, L'Occhio, Repubblica.
Among his comics are I Labirinti (1968-1970), Zil Zelub (1971), Annalisa e il diavolo (1973), H.P (with Alexis Kostandi, 1974), L'intervista (1975), L'Agnone (1977), La guerra videologica (1978), L'uomo del Bengala (1979), Il mestiere di Mario (1980), Zasafir (1981) and many others.
Buzzelli continued to produce traditional painting work throughout his life. His paintings have appeared in a number of exhibitions in Europe and North America. Additionally, he was a teacher at the European Institute of Design. Towards the end of his life he also collaborated with the Italian and French television.
Guido Buzzelli died at age 64 in his hometown Rome in 1992.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 22, 2024
Bizarre, grotesque, inscrutable and mystifying all aptly describe the works of Guido Buzzelli. Collected here and translated into English for the first time, are two of Buzzelli's comics - "The Labyrinth" and "Zil Zelub" - both of which provide ample substantiation to demonstrate just how creative a storyteller Buzzelli was.
Opening with "The Labyrinth" (1970), the story begins with Marcello Sforvo, a survivor of an apocalyptic event that leaves bodies and devastation in its wake. Marcello initially bleats about the loss of his worldly possessions but all is forgotten when he encounters the otherworldly beauty named Aunoa who is seeking out survivors that will fit in with a collectivist utopian society known as the "Great Sphere". Marcello's adventures take him to the underbelly of the doomed world where surgeons carry out demented experiments and later to the Great Sphere where he is burdened with tasks to prove his ability to conform to an idyllic vision of society. It's difficult to pigeonhole "The Labyrinth" in any one kind of genre or theme since a lot is happening here, but it's not entirely random either. Throughout the story, an undercurrent of satire is evident with particular jabs taken at consumerism and collectivism. But what really stands out here is the blend of grotesque and postmodern expressionism with the clear influences that Renaissance period artwork had on Buzzelli. It is such an odd marriage of styles but it is brilliantly executed by Buzzelli's proficient sense of compositions, rigorous hatching and his truly demented sense of imagination.
The second half of this volume contains the story "Zil Zelub" (1972), which features a fictionalized version of Buzzelli himself ("Zil Zelub" is an anagram for Buzzelli after all) who plays the role of a violinist who is slowly falling apart piece by piece because of some bizarre affliction. The story here doesn't quite have the polish or sophistication of "The Labyrinth", but it's genuinely intriguing from the visuals alone. As the man desperately searches for a cure to his condition, Buzzelli graces the pages with some truly grotesque anatomical distortions that must have been a blast for him to draw. It reminds me a little of François Schuiten's The Leaning Girl which relies substantially on a visual gag to work throughout the narrative, though here Buzzelli's compositions are much less subtle and vastly more unhinged.
The comics here are weird and cryptic, but a delight from start to finish. What works best about Buzzelli's style is the novelty of the artwork - there's no one who really makes comics quite the same way, especially when compared to the mass of talent that would have made up Buzzelli's contemporaries in the Franco-Belgian and Italian comics scene. I'm very excited to see more of his work translated into English for the first time over the coming year.
Opening with "The Labyrinth" (1970), the story begins with Marcello Sforvo, a survivor of an apocalyptic event that leaves bodies and devastation in its wake. Marcello initially bleats about the loss of his worldly possessions but all is forgotten when he encounters the otherworldly beauty named Aunoa who is seeking out survivors that will fit in with a collectivist utopian society known as the "Great Sphere". Marcello's adventures take him to the underbelly of the doomed world where surgeons carry out demented experiments and later to the Great Sphere where he is burdened with tasks to prove his ability to conform to an idyllic vision of society. It's difficult to pigeonhole "The Labyrinth" in any one kind of genre or theme since a lot is happening here, but it's not entirely random either. Throughout the story, an undercurrent of satire is evident with particular jabs taken at consumerism and collectivism. But what really stands out here is the blend of grotesque and postmodern expressionism with the clear influences that Renaissance period artwork had on Buzzelli. It is such an odd marriage of styles but it is brilliantly executed by Buzzelli's proficient sense of compositions, rigorous hatching and his truly demented sense of imagination.
The second half of this volume contains the story "Zil Zelub" (1972), which features a fictionalized version of Buzzelli himself ("Zil Zelub" is an anagram for Buzzelli after all) who plays the role of a violinist who is slowly falling apart piece by piece because of some bizarre affliction. The story here doesn't quite have the polish or sophistication of "The Labyrinth", but it's genuinely intriguing from the visuals alone. As the man desperately searches for a cure to his condition, Buzzelli graces the pages with some truly grotesque anatomical distortions that must have been a blast for him to draw. It reminds me a little of François Schuiten's The Leaning Girl which relies substantially on a visual gag to work throughout the narrative, though here Buzzelli's compositions are much less subtle and vastly more unhinged.
The comics here are weird and cryptic, but a delight from start to finish. What works best about Buzzelli's style is the novelty of the artwork - there's no one who really makes comics quite the same way, especially when compared to the mass of talent that would have made up Buzzelli's contemporaries in the Franco-Belgian and Italian comics scene. I'm very excited to see more of his work translated into English for the first time over the coming year.
June 17, 2024
Prvi strip — čista postapokaliptična opranija.
Drugi strip — kar bi se zgodilo, če bi Vitomil Zupan napisal Gogoljev Nos.
Drugi strip — kar bi se zgodilo, če bi Vitomil Zupan napisal Gogoljev Nos.
October 26, 2024
Great to have these English translations of the weird fantastic science fiction tales by Italian fumetti artist Guido Buzzelli.
Get ready to have your mind blown !
Thank you Floating World Comics for these great collections :
https://youtu.be/lyHGbUDdD_s
October 18, 2024
This drawing style is really excellent, and I particularly enjoyed the first story, The Labyrinth. It’s very cool that the author, this “Michelangelo of Monsters,” is being translated into English for more to enjoy. The second story lost me a bit but the graphics were still amazing.
February 15, 2024
There’s an EC influence, but the work is more than that. It’s surreal and I can’t wait until more volumes of this heretofore unknown to me Italian cartoonist’s great comics are published.
April 10, 2025
There are comics that I consider to be 'graphic experiences', when the art is so good that the writing or story doesn't really hold much weight at that point. The art is so good that it just 'drags' the story along with it. Some examples of cartoonists are, Sergio Toppi, Taiyo Matsumoto, Alberto Breccia, Jim Woodring, George Herriman, et al. I'm not saying these artists don't have good stories, but I'm a big art person, and so art is first what gets me to pick up a story (and often what makes me stay).
Cartoonists with such quality art feel larger than life. It's like the whole thing has become something much more than itself, if the artist is playing with the medium in fascinating ways. Another example is Lone Sloane by Druillet. I feel a good story is all too common, but an author who has incredibly striking art is far less common, (i'm waiting for someone to tell me how wrong I am lol). There are a lot of authors with 'good' art, but authors with 'my mind is blown' art are pretty uncommon.
Guido Buzzelli is one such artist. He was, in the same time period as Alberto Breccia, achieving this mind blowing art. I couldn't gather what would happen next with a large chunk of pages; and that, is rather uncommon. He throws out new surprises pretty often, even in the more 'mundane' pages, if that exists in his world. I am rarely wholly immersed with comics like I am with prose novels, but this happened with Buzzelli. His art is magnetizing, I couldn't help but pore through every facet of the page. I have ADHD, and it was quite soothing with a load of pages having an unbelievable amount going on. I dunno, maybe I'm speaking nonsense. But this is how I feel about art. I give it a gravitas in comics that I don't give the writing. Writing surely is important, but it's not why I read comics. I need at a minimum, 'good' art or it's unreadable. Whatever that is, is undefinable to a certain degree. It's weird how we can think of art from the polar opposite direction being 'great art'
Example: Linnea Sterte's A Frog In The Fall is pretty striking to me, but it's pretty much completely different, being minimalist. I tend to enjoy unique artstyles the most, but I still haven't figured out why. What connects all of these artists, other than having their own unique style? Is it perhaps, their undeniable perseverance in trying to make 'great art', or is it perhaps just pleasing to the eye? Maybe both? It's not something I think even about, but perhaps it's related to why Buzzelli struck so hard with me. I felt like he was putting his whole artistic integrity into it. Uncompromising. Unflinching.
Buzzelli is an Italian author/artist coined as 'The Goya of Comics' on the back blurb by Floating World Comics, in which i'd certainly agree. Volume 2 ison the way, with 3 releasing currently in December, the final. I can't wait to have them all. These stories were so bizarre in a good way. The first story, 'The Labyrinth' is about a man who wakes up with everyone on earth dead except the angels and the demons, with him trying to find a way to safety. Eventually, he learns that even heaven is no utopia. There are characters with dog heads and a human body, and talking humans with an animal body. It's best read than described.
The opening and ending sequence in particular for 'The Labyrinth' in particular stand out, but the other story 'Zil Zelub' has also has a similar amount of flourish on these sequences; Buzzelli doesn't do half measures. I feel like most pages are a work of art. Talk about an ink based artist that is equal to Alberto Breccia.
The 2nd story 'Zil Zelub' is about a man (Zil Zelub, anagram for Buzzelli) whose body is literally falling apart and they have a mind of their own. So he seeks helps from his friends and several doctors, but none seem to work. This story is much wordier than the first, which I didn't like as much, but it was still great. It often talks about Zil Zelub not having money as a musician. Though in my opinion, it's all for his gorgeous artwork in the first place. These stories are probably the most surreal thing i've ever read. You can clearly see the rennaissance influence in his art. Buzzelli is great at mixing this dream-like atmosphere with social themes.
https://imgur.com/a/VRLBPNP and when you think of 'best comic pages of all time'. THIS is it for me. At 4 different angles. Presumably why it's the cover. Buzzelli doesn't work with normal page structures. This page in particular is also from The Labyrinth.
I don't usually enjoy comics like this, but I genuinely loved this book. Maybe this'll be my eye opener for other comics similar to this? We'll see. I felt like he went into weird territory without being super gross, which is a major plus to me.
Cartoonists with such quality art feel larger than life. It's like the whole thing has become something much more than itself, if the artist is playing with the medium in fascinating ways. Another example is Lone Sloane by Druillet. I feel a good story is all too common, but an author who has incredibly striking art is far less common, (i'm waiting for someone to tell me how wrong I am lol). There are a lot of authors with 'good' art, but authors with 'my mind is blown' art are pretty uncommon.
Guido Buzzelli is one such artist. He was, in the same time period as Alberto Breccia, achieving this mind blowing art. I couldn't gather what would happen next with a large chunk of pages; and that, is rather uncommon. He throws out new surprises pretty often, even in the more 'mundane' pages, if that exists in his world. I am rarely wholly immersed with comics like I am with prose novels, but this happened with Buzzelli. His art is magnetizing, I couldn't help but pore through every facet of the page. I have ADHD, and it was quite soothing with a load of pages having an unbelievable amount going on. I dunno, maybe I'm speaking nonsense. But this is how I feel about art. I give it a gravitas in comics that I don't give the writing. Writing surely is important, but it's not why I read comics. I need at a minimum, 'good' art or it's unreadable. Whatever that is, is undefinable to a certain degree. It's weird how we can think of art from the polar opposite direction being 'great art'
Example: Linnea Sterte's A Frog In The Fall is pretty striking to me, but it's pretty much completely different, being minimalist. I tend to enjoy unique artstyles the most, but I still haven't figured out why. What connects all of these artists, other than having their own unique style? Is it perhaps, their undeniable perseverance in trying to make 'great art', or is it perhaps just pleasing to the eye? Maybe both? It's not something I think even about, but perhaps it's related to why Buzzelli struck so hard with me. I felt like he was putting his whole artistic integrity into it. Uncompromising. Unflinching.
Buzzelli is an Italian author/artist coined as 'The Goya of Comics' on the back blurb by Floating World Comics, in which i'd certainly agree. Volume 2 ison the way, with 3 releasing currently in December, the final. I can't wait to have them all. These stories were so bizarre in a good way. The first story, 'The Labyrinth' is about a man who wakes up with everyone on earth dead except the angels and the demons, with him trying to find a way to safety. Eventually, he learns that even heaven is no utopia. There are characters with dog heads and a human body, and talking humans with an animal body. It's best read than described.
The opening and ending sequence in particular for 'The Labyrinth' in particular stand out, but the other story 'Zil Zelub' has also has a similar amount of flourish on these sequences; Buzzelli doesn't do half measures. I feel like most pages are a work of art. Talk about an ink based artist that is equal to Alberto Breccia.
The 2nd story 'Zil Zelub' is about a man (Zil Zelub, anagram for Buzzelli) whose body is literally falling apart and they have a mind of their own. So he seeks helps from his friends and several doctors, but none seem to work. This story is much wordier than the first, which I didn't like as much, but it was still great. It often talks about Zil Zelub not having money as a musician. Though in my opinion, it's all for his gorgeous artwork in the first place. These stories are probably the most surreal thing i've ever read. You can clearly see the rennaissance influence in his art. Buzzelli is great at mixing this dream-like atmosphere with social themes.
https://imgur.com/a/VRLBPNP and when you think of 'best comic pages of all time'. THIS is it for me. At 4 different angles. Presumably why it's the cover. Buzzelli doesn't work with normal page structures. This page in particular is also from The Labyrinth.
I don't usually enjoy comics like this, but I genuinely loved this book. Maybe this'll be my eye opener for other comics similar to this? We'll see. I felt like he went into weird territory without being super gross, which is a major plus to me.
December 22, 2023
Bizarre nonsense, with satire. Love it.
May 19, 2024
some of the best western comics ive read all year
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews