Sex and Horror: The Art of Alessandro Biffignandi (2)

Between the late 1960s and the late 1980s, Italy went crazy for “sexy fumetti," a home-grown genre of adult comics with a unique brand of twisted humor, violence, and up-front sexuality. Wilder and weirder than you can imagine, they were some of the most outrageous and shocking comics ever produced, and their eye-catching, highly provocative covers could be seen on every news stand and kiosk in the country. One of the most talented and prolific of the cover artists at Edifumetto—the foremost Italian producer of adult comics during this period—was Alessandro Biffignandi, whose work featured horror, fantasy, and sci-fi elements alongside plenty of naked female flesh. This book is a collection of some of the sexiest examples of Biffigandi’s cover art for Edifumetto, which is highly coveted by collectors today.

About the Author

Born in Rome, Italy, in 1935, Alessandro Biffignandi developed an interest in drawing and cartoons at a very young age. After school, he attended art college, where he became fascinated by cinema posters, and on graduating he became an apprentice with the great Italian poster illustrator Averardo Ciriello. At the age of 20, Biffignandi was head-hunted by the studio of Augusto Favelli, which at that time was Italy’s biggest producer of film posters. In the 1960s, he moved to Milan and created cover artwork for the D’Ami studio, an art agency that produced comic strips for the UK market, including the famous Fleetway war comics. From 1970 until the early ‘80s, he produced hundreds of high-quality covers for the adult comic titles published by Edifumetto – including Zora la Vampira, Cimiteria, and Biancaneve, after which he left the world of comics to concentrate on magazine and book illustration. He died in 2017, not long after the publication of this book.

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