Roberto Raviola, best known as Magnus, was a non-conformist comic author, who is best known for his "fumetti neri" (comics noir). After working as an illustrator for a while, he started his comic career in 1964. He used the pseudonym Magnus, self-ironically derived from the Latin expression 'Magnus Pictor Fecit' ("A Great Painter Did It"). He teamed up with writer Luciano Secchi (Max Bunker), with whom he launched successful series like 'Kriminal' (1964-71), 'Satanik' (1964-70), 'Dennis Cobb Agente Secrete SSO 18' (1965-67) and 'Alan Ford' (1969-75, 1986) and 'Gesebel' (1966), published in pocket comics by Corno. The duo Magnus-Bunker aditionally pruduced 'Maxmagnus' for Eureka magazine between 1968 and 1970.
In 1975, Magnus started the series 'Lo Sconosciuto', which was published in magazines like Strisce e Musica and Orient-Express. In 1977 he published 'La Compagnia della Forca', a medieval fantasy saga with Giovanni Romanini. Afterwards, he started the long saga 'I Briganti', based on a Chinese novel. He additionally created 'Milady 3000' in 1980 and returned to the pocket genre with the grotesque and excessive pornographic comic 'Necron'.
Magnus's work has also been introduced in France through the magazines Métal Hurlant and L'Écho des Savanes and publishers like Albin Michel and Magic Strip. In L'Écho des Savanes, he began the erotic graphic novel 'Les 110 Pilules', which was previously published in Totem in Italy ('Le 110 Pillole') and then continued by Georges Pichard. In 1988, Magnus did art and story of 'Le Femmine Incantate', inspired by/taken from Chinese novels for Dolce Vita. Shortly before his death, Magnus finished working on 'The Valley of Terror', a long episode of 'Tex Willer', written by Claudio Nizzi for Bonelli.
