'Genius' (Lo Scarabocchiatore #2, 2023).
Maria Nives Manara - Nives Manara in short - is an Italian comic artist and illustrator. Both her illustration work and comic stories showcase her humanitarian values and love for nature. With the scriptwriter Franco Ressa, she worked for several comic magazines during the 1980s, and then created a comics serial about the history of Piedmont for the newspaper La Stampa, as well as the erotic fantasy comic 'Alis' (2010). Later in her career, she also worked with classic characters like 'Dylan Dog' and 'Genius'.
Early life
Maria Nives Manara was born in 1952 in Bardolino, Verona, as the seventh of eight siblings. One of her older brothers is the famous comic creator Milo Manara. She began her career while working with her brother.
'Dian Fossey' (Corto Maltese #39, December 1986).
Early comics
Between 1986 and 1993, Manara worked as an artist for the Rizzoli magazines Corrier Boy, Il Corriere dei Piccoli and Corto Maltese. There, she began a fruitful collaboration with writer Franco Ressa, creating stories with a particular attention to the environment and nature. For Corto Maltese magazine #39, December 1986, they, for instance, created a short story about famous U.S. biologist Dian Fossey, who was brutally killed in 1985 by poachers while studying the life of gorillas in the forests of Rwanda. Also set in Africa were the four stories created for Corto Maltese by Ressa and Manara about 'Theresa Zandler' (1986-1987). For the regional daily newspaper La Stampa, they created 'Storia del Piemonte a Fumetti', a comic about the history of the Piedmont region.
'Alis'.
Alis
In 2010, Manara worked with Franco Ressa again, creating the heretic and fantasy heroine 'Alis' for Edizioni Di. The title character is an active and modern woman with an assertive sexuality. Disappointed by the crude behavior of the men around her, she exiles herself to a fantasy world where men are renowned for their loyalty and chivalrous spirit. In this universe, sex is, for males, a duty before being a pleasure. But the arrival of Alis changes everything. Ressa and Manara based their story on the 'Magic Kingdom of Landover' fantasy novel saga by Terry Brooks, but gave it an erotic and feminist spin. The book was also published in France under the title 'Le Monde Fantasmagorique d'Alis'.
Later comics work
Together with scriptwriter Barbara Baraldi, she created the episode 'Ballando con uno Sconosciuto' (2017) for a volume of the famous Italian horror comic 'Dylan Dog' by Sergio Bonelli Editore. For Guida Editori, she contributed to the horror mystery anthology 'Passepartout - Quel Fulmine di Pietro Micca a Torino' (2024). For the magazine Lo Scarabocchiatore, she created a new story with the masked vigilante 'Genius' (2023), the classic photo novella and comic book character created by Mario Gomboli. During the 1960s, her brother Milo Manara had debuted as a comic artist drawing this character.
'Ballando Con Uno Sconosciuto' (Dylan Dog Color Fest #20 - 'Il Buono, il Brutto e la Cattiva', February 2017).
Illustrator
Later in her career, Nives Manara has focused on book illustration, mostly involving humanitarian or animal themes. Together with her sister Daniele Manara, she created the novel 'Il Canto di Teresa' (Abel Books, 2011), a story set in two time periods in in a small town on the southern slopes of the Maritime Alps, as well as the poetically illustrated book about horses, 'Cavallo Amico Mio, Fratello, Dolce Compagno' (Equitare, 2012). Manara was also one of the illustrators of the 'Atlante degli Uccelli Nidificanti nel Comune di Firenze', an atlas of nesting birds in the municipality of Florence. For Edizioni Sonda, she illustrated the guidebook 'Dizionario Bilingue Madre/Figlia, Figlia/Madre', about the relationships between mothers and daughters. As a writer/artist, Nives Manara created a children's book set in ancient Egypt, featuring a cat as protagonist.
As a commercial artist, Nives Manara worked on projects for the European Community, for instance 'La Foresta Ritrovata', on the conservation of the Maquis shrubland. Through organizations like the Latin American Lay Movement (MLAL) of Verona and the Anne Frank Foundation in Amsterdam, she created works that combat racial discrimination of children. She has also published daily online portraits of women and girls who have been victims of femicide.
In addition to her work as an illustrator, Maria Nives Manara was for five years responsible for the Animal Protection Office of the Municipality of Verona. She has also been the editor of the satirical magazine Verona Infedele.
'Passepartout'.