Doc Justice (Pif Gadget 478, 1978)
The Italian comic book artist Raphaël (Raffaele) Carlo Marcello dropped out of school and moved to Paris, France, where he made his comics debut in 1948. Engaged by the Sagédition agency, Marcello started out illustrating 'Loana et le Masque Chinois' in Aventures de Paris-Jeunes and 'Nick Silver' in the Collection Victoire.
He joined Opera Mundi in 1950, and became a versatile artist of newspaper comics for this agency, including adaptations of 'Ben Hur', 'Jane Eyre' and the Bible, as well as 'La Découverte du Monde' and 'L'Histoire de Paris'. From 1952, he was also present in Héroic with series like 'Oliver Twist', 'Gil Blas' and 'Bug Jargal'. He had a long run on the series 'Le Cavalier Inconnu' (1955-1970) in Pépito magazine.
Uncle Tom's Cabin
His work for the daily press continued with several comic adaptations of literary works for Mondial-Presse from 1956. In addition, his work appeared in Bugs Bunny ('Bob Franck'), Lisette, Monty ('Canadian Boy'), Mireille ('Mylène, Danseuse Étoile'), L'Intrépide/Hurrah ('Le Diamant Noir') and Rintintin (the title comic).
Docteur Justice (Pif Gadget 497)
After some appearances in Tout le Western and Bunny, he began an association with the magazine Pif Gadget and Éditions Vaillant in 1970. He teamed up with writer Jean Ollivier and created his most famous series, 'Docteur Justice'. In the same magazine, he additionally illustrated 'Amicalement Vôtre' (Victor Mora's adaptation of the British TV series 'The Persuaders'), 'Taranis' (texts by Ollivier and later Mora), 'Tarao' (text by Roger Lécureux) and 'La Guerre du Feu'.
From 1973 to 1976, Marcello illustrated 'John Parade, Patrouilleur de l'Espace' with text by Maric in Le Journal des Pieds Nickelés. He contributed to the Larousse series 'L'Histoire de France en Bandes Dessinées', 'La Découverte du Monde' and 'L'Histoire du Far West' from 1976 to 1985. He was present in Le Journal de Mickey with 'Le Regard du Tigre', 'Zorro' and 'Le Club des Cinq'. Together with Maric, he produced the science fiction series 'Cristal', as well as the collection of short stories called 'Voulez-vous de Nos Nouvelles?', in Spirou from 1981 to 1988.
He drew a comic about Michael Jackson for Hachette in 1988, and the series 'Wayne Thunder', written by Alain De Kuyssche, for Le Lombard. For the publishing house Albin Michel, Marcello created 'L'Épopée du Paris Saint-Germain' and the more adult 'Nuit Barbare' and 'Amok'. Raphaël Marcello returned to his native town Vintimille in 1991, where he began a collaboration with the magazine Il Giornalino and the publishing house Bonelli, illustrating episodes of 'Tex' and 'Zagor'.
Zagor