'Odysseus'
Massimo Fecchi is a talented Italian comic artist and animator, best known for his work on Rolf Kauka's 'Fix und Foxi' series and Disney comics. He is the creator of 'Giuseppe', the mascot of the Italian magazine Telezecchino, and 'Deejay' for the British Fleetway agency.
Early life and career
He was born in 1946 in Città di Castello in the Umbria region and studied to become a drawing teacher at the Art Institute of Rome. He began a collaboration with Le Pioniere dell'Unita in 1964, where he produced ' Picchio & Pacchio'. Fecchi then took courses in animation, and joined the Jet animation studios in 1965. He began drawing for the bi-monthly magazine Miao. In the late 1960s, he contributed to Kriminal and Jacula with Cambiotti and Belardinelli through the Rosi studios. Fecchi concentrated on humorous comics afterwards, starting in the magazine Telezecchino in 1968. He drew nearly all of the magazine's covers, and created the leading character, 'Giuseppe'.
Fecchi was also present in Il Giornalino with 'Serafino', in cooperation with another artist under the collective pseudonym Framas. In 1970, he began drawing comics with Warner Bros characters, such as Tex Avery’s 'Bugs Bunny' and Friz Freleng’s 'Tweety and Sylvester', as well as MGM's 'Tom and Jerry' (originally created by Hanna-Barbera). He created the character 'Deejay' for the British Fleetway agency.
Rolf Kauka
In 1973, he began a collaboration with the German Kauka Verlag, which lasted until 1995. There, Fecchi drew 'Die 7 Schnuckel' for Pépito, as well as 'Fix und Foxi' and 'Lupo' stories for the Fix und Foxi weekly. Also for Germany, he cooperated on the magazine Knax, for which he drew 'Die Miesel'. From 1984 on, the artist drew a comic adaptation of the German cartoon 'Pumuckl' for several years.
Other comics
When Fix und Foxi folded in 1995, he started working on a comic parody of 'Odysseus' for the German publisher Pabel-Moewig. Fecchi has drawn stories with Disney characters like 'Donald Duck', 'Mickey Mouse' and 'The Big Bad Wolf' for the pocket publications of the Danish publisher Egmont since 1998. He was an animator at Hahn Film in Berlin, and he works as an illustrator for Editrice San Paolo and Ed. Paoline. He has also drawn a comic adaptation of the cartoon 'Renada'. In 2006, Fecchi returned to drawing 'Fix und Foxi' stories, together with his studio co-workers in Rome.
