Turok #69
Alberto Giolitti was born in Rome, where his family owned the renowned ice cream and coffee house Caffè-Gelateria Giolitti since 1900. Giolitti worked in the café for a little while, but eventually prefered an aristic career. By the late 1930s, he started working the publishing house Anonima Veritas Editrice and its magazine Il Vittorioso. He created the comic story 'I Senza Paura' for this magazine together with scriptwriter Colombina, but it was interrupted in August 1943 due to the war. Giolitti studied at the Academy of Art and Architecture before being drafted for his military service. He returned to A.V.E. after the war and drew comics like 'Le Avventure di Italo Nurago' and 'Il Fortino Assediato' from scripts by Rainuzzo. He also drew series like 'Alta e Omega' and 'Dick Martin' for the collection Albi del Vittorioso.
Alta e Omega
After a short stint as a scenographer and movie poster artist, he emigrated to Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1946. He worked for the Argentinian publishing houses Lainez and Columba, for which he produced police stories and novel adaptations like 'Quo Vadis?'.
Sergeant Preston of the Yukon #12
He settled in the United States in 1949, where he began his long association with the comic books published by Dell/Western Publishing. He produced art a great many titles, including 'The Challenge of Zorro', 'Indian Chief', 'Cisko Kid', 'Tonto', 'Tarzan', 'Sergeant Preston', a comic book about the life of Abraham Lincoln and the Four Color Comics series. He also illustrated comic adaptations of television series like 'Lone Ranger's Famous Horse Hi-Yo Silver', 'Gunsmoke', 'Tom Bell', 'Tales of Wells Fargo', 'Have Gun Will Travel' and 'Boris Karloff' and films like 'Alexander the Great', 'Aladdin and the Marvellous Lamp' and 'Gulliver's Travels'.
Abraham Lincoln - Life Story (1958)
Giolitti returned to Rome, Italy, in 1962, but continued to draw 'Turok, Son of Stone' for the American market until 1982. Starting in 1968, he also drew a comic based on the popular TV series 'Star Trek'. To keep up with the workload, he often called in the help of fellow artists like Giovanni Ticci, Massimo Belardinelli, Giorgio Cambiotti, Mario Pedrazzi and Angelo Todaro.
Star Trek #3
He founded the Giolitti Studios, that consisted of about about 55 artists, who produced hundreds of pages a month for national and international publishers. The studios initially worked mainly for the German and British markets. For Bastei Verlag, they took over the artwork of Hansrudi Wäscher's 'Reno Kid' in Lasso, and produced stories with characters like 'Buffalo Bill'. Other German clients included Moewig Verlag in Munich with their 'FBI' comic book and Pabel Verlag in Rastatt, the publisher of 'Perry Rhodan' stories.
In England, Giolitti's studios was present at the publishing house IPC, where they did 'Jackie and the Wild Boys' in Princess Tina, 'The Fiery Furnaces' in Tiger and Hurricane, 'Flame of the Forest' in Lion and 'Enchanted Isle' in Tammy.
The studios additionally provided artwork for Italian adult comics published by Ediperiodici in Milan, including 'Jacula', 'Cosmine', 'Super Black', 'Oltretomba' and 'Terror'. They also drew Italian comic stories starring 'The Phantom', 'Mandrake' and 'Flash Gordon' for Fratelli Spada.
Jackie and the Wild Boys (from Dutch Tina #1, 1967). Artwork by Studio Giolitti
Giolitti and his team continued to work for the US market. They produced produced artwork for comics with Warner Bros characters and several series for the Gold Key comic books, such as 'Freedom Agent', 'Twilight Zone', 'Lord Jim', 'Tarzan', a 'King Kong' adaptation, stories for Ripley's Believe It or Not', 'Laredo', 'Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea', 'Cowboy in Africa', etc.
5 Anni Dopo
Between 1986 and 1988, Giolitti drew '5 Anni Dopo' with a script by Giorgio Pedrazzi in Comic Art. He joined the artist's team of Bonelli's 'Tex Willer' in 1989. Giolitti continued to draw for 'Tex' until his death in Rome in 1993.
Tex #357
Among the artists that worked for the Giolitti studios are:
Giancarlo Alessandrini, Enrico Bagnoli, Massimo Belardininelli, Franco Caprioli, Alfio Consoli, Ugolino Cossu, Roberto Diso, Ruggerio Giovannini, Dino Leonetti, Paolo Morales, Renato Polese, Antonio Sciotti, Alfio Ticci, Giovanni Ticci, Angelo Todaro, Nevio Zeccara.