Playcolt # 93 - ' Fiori d'Arancio per Playcolt' (Dutch-language edition, 1976).
Nestore Del Boccio is an Italian painter, who worked as a comic book artist during the 1960 and 1970s. Through the studio of Nicola Del Principe, he was one of the artists behind 'Il Grande Blek', 'Capitan Miki' and a great many sex and horror pocket comic books published by Società Iniziative Editoriali, Edifumetto and Ediperiodici during the 1970s and 1980s.
Early life and career
Nestore Del Boccio was born in 1950 in Raiano, a town in the L'Aquila province in the Abruzzo region. His grandfather had been an anarchist sculptor, exiled in France, and his father took part in the Normandy landings during World War II. At age six, he already imagined little scenes and drew them in his own way. In a 6 February 2025 interview with Il Messagero, he described his younger self as "a rebellious soul with a spirit of adventure, attracted by cinema and drawing". After middle school, he attended the Art Institute of Sulmona, where he graduated in 1963. Del Boccio first earned bread as an art teacher in Como and Brescia, and then went to Rome to work for the Incom film production company, making newsreels for the television advertising show 'Corosello'.
'Il Grande Blek' by Nestore Del Boccio (pencils) and Eugenio Benni (ink).
Studio Del Principe
In the early 1960s, Del Boccio began working with fellow Raiano artist Eugenio Benni, who was active at the time for the Milanese comic studio of Nicola Del Principe. By 1964, the Del Principe team had taken over two popular features originally created by the EsseGesse collective at Edizioni Dardo: the western 'Capitan Miki' and 'Il Grande Blek', about the leader of a group of trappers during the American Revolutionary War. Over a couple of years, Del Boccio and Benni drew about thirty episodes of each series, all at a rate of two a week (one 'Miki' and one 'Blek'), and alternating on pencil and inking duties. The series were also very popular in France, where Éditions Lug ran them in titles like Rodéo and Kiwi. For the French market, Benni and Del Boccio also worked on episodes of a later EsseGesse creation, the muscular marksman 'Alan Mistero', published in France as 'Ombrax'. Also joining in on the production were fellow Del Principe co-workers Gianni Corsi and an artist known only as "Gentile".
Tabù #31 - 'L'Uomo dalla Doppia Morte' (1976, Dutch-language edition).
Pocket comics
During the 1970s, Studio Del Principe moved on to create erotic comics for the pulpy pocket book series of the publishing houses Editrice La Terza and the Società Iniziative Editoriali (S.I.E.). Along with Eugenio Benni, Del Boccio worked on many issues of 'Angelica' (1969-1974), a liberal and sexy approach to the princess of Cathay character from the 16th-century epic poem 'Orlando Furioso'. The team also produced issues of 'Teodora' (1970-1974), a strong-willed and tyrannical woman who uses her powers of seduction to become empress of the East. During the 1980s, Del Boccio drew for more adult-oriented pocket comics, such as 'Corna Vissute' and 'Ah! Ah! Ah!' (1990-1994) by Ediperiodici, 'Carne Bollente' (1987-1992) and 'Luci Rosse' (1989) by Edizione Produzione Periodici, as well as 'Top Story' by Publishing Magazine (1989-1990).
In addition, he worked for pocket comic books in other genres, drawing two issues of the circus-themed 'Tony Cif' (Edisport Internazionale, 1973), two of the crime comic 'Playcolt' (Edifumetto, 1976) and four of the horror title 'Cimiteria' (Edifumetto, 1982-1983). More sporadic were his contributions to Edifumetto's 1970s and 1980s erotic horror titles 'L'Esorcista', 'I Sanguinari', 'Vampirissimo', 'Lo Scheletro', 'Tabú', 'Il Notturni', 'Attualità Gialla' and 'Il Vampiro'.
I Sanguinari #42 - 'La Crociera dei Dannati' (1976).
Later years
During the 1980s, Del Boccio also contributed satirical cartoons to the daily newspaper Il Centro. In 1989, he created a comic story dedicated to rock musician Frank Zappa for Comic Art magazine and appeared in Intrepido magazine. During the 1990s, he worked with scriptwriter Alessandro Baggi on the serial 'Tutto Quello Che Ha Avuto Grape' in Intrepido magazine (1994), and on stories for two issues of 'Demon Story' by the publishing house Fenix (1994), which he co-wrote with Stefano Previtali and Antonio Tentori.
Always an avid traveler, Nestore Del Boccio visited several international comic book fairs. His meetings with industry giants like Hugo Pratt and Andrea Pazienza left him with the desire for more autonomy. Since leaving Studio Del Principe, he has devoted most of his time to painting. By the 1990s, Del Boccio was living in France, where he divided his time between Metz and Paris for almost thirty years. Since the 2020s, Nestore Del Boccio has been living in the city center of Pescara.
Nestore Del Boccio in 1996.