'Billy King e Il Vampiro'.
Fernando Carcupino was a versatile Italian painter and illustrator, who also drew comics. In the late 1940s, he created action-adventure comics for the magazine Asso di Picche and was part of the so-called "Gruppo di Venezia" ("Venice Group"), which also included the comic authors Hugo Pratt, Dino Battaglia and Damiano Damiani. In the 1960s, he drew horror stories for Sgt. Kirk, while drawing erotic comics for the pulp stories by publisher Edifumetto. Although Carcupino was a productive advertising artist and painter, designing many images for magazine covers, almanacs and pulp book covers, general audiences remember him best as an erotic artist.
Early life and career
Fernando Nusci Carcupino was born in 1922 in Naples. He studied art at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan and was later a pupil of the Italian painter Achille Funi. Under the pen name "Nando", Carcupino published his first humorous drawings in 1939 in Mondadori's weekly magazine Il Milione. During World War II, he worked on an animated feature film, 'La Rosa di Bagdad' ('The Rose of Baghdad', 1949), directed by Anton Gino Domenighini. Other famous names who animated on this picture were Angelo Bioletto, Federico Pedrocchi and Libico Maraja. In 1943, however, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was forced into abdication by Allied troops which liberated the South of the country. Production on the film was slowed down by these events and Carcupino even signed up to join the Italian Liberation Corps to help defeat Mussolini's troops. The picture would only be released in 1949.
Early comics
Carcupino's earliest comics work was the episode 'Scacco Matto a Coe!!!' of the series 'Il Solitario' ("The Lonely One"), which appeared in the short-lived weekly magazine Dinamite in 1945. The story also appeared as the 10th volume of the book collection Albo Dinamite in 1946. The main artist for this series was Enrico Bagnoli.
Asso di Picche
In 1947, Carcupino became acquainted with the Venetian comic magazine Asso di Picche ("Ace of Spades"), spearheaded by several new talents such as Mario Faustinelli, Dino Battaglia, Damiano Damiani and Hugo Pratt. This new generation of comic authors became known as the "Gruppo di Venezia" ("Venice Group"). Carcupino contributed the horror stories 'Draky, La Morte Viene Con La Nebbia', 'Billy King e IL Vampiro', 'Lyon, Il Figlio del Vampiro' and 'Il Figlio Della Notte' (1948), the latter based on a script by Andrea Lavezzolo. In the 1960s, Carcupino reused and restored some of these stories in the renowned comic magazine Sgt. Kirk (Ivaldi Editore).
Cover illustrations for La Giraffa, issue #61 (6 June 1973) and #1 (15 March 1972).
Erotic art
During the 1950s and 1960s, Carcupino's illustrations appeared in various magazines, such as La Settimana Umoristica (1954-1956), Epoca, Grazia and Confidenze. He made erotic paintings which spawned the cover of the erotic weekly La Giraffa, while in the 1970s also making erotic comics cover illustrations for the Edifumetto pulp comic books I Notturni, Sexy Favole, Lo Scheletro, Mezzanotte and Il Vampiro. Still, Carcupino refused to be pigeonholed as a mere sleazy pin-up artist. In his opinion, his female characters were sensual rather than flat-out pornographic, because he portrayed them as real people in everyday activities, rather than idealized goddesses in sexy poses.
Painting
By the second half of the 1970s, Carcupino left the comics and illustration industry and devoted his final decades to painting. His work has often been exhibited and is part of the permanent collection of the Galleria d'Arte Gelmi in Milan. Some of his artwork was also used for the Roman Catholic almanac 'Frate Indovino', which he livened up for more than 20 years. In 1989, he painted a portrait of Pope John Paul II at age two, when he was just a little Polish boy named Karol Wojtyla, held in his arms by his mother. Pope John Paul II liked the work so much that Carcupino was invited to the Vatican for an official audience with the church leader.
Recognition
In 1983, Carcupino was honored with the Cavaliere Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana from the Italian government for his artistic merits. In 1999, he also received the Caran D'Ache Prize at the Salone Expocartoon in Rome for his life devoted to illustration. He was one of the few commercial illustrators whose work was exhibited in prestigious art galleries during his own lifetime.
Death
In 2003, Fernando Carcupino passed away in Milan at the age of 80. After his passing, his family founded the Associazione FNCarcupino, with the aim to promote the late artists' painting and illustration work.
Fernando Carcupino.