Pugno di Ferro #3 - 'Il Segreto dell'Autostrada' (February 1950).
Sergio Molino was an Italian comic artist and illustrator, mostly active for Milanese publishing houses from the 1940s through the 1960s. His cover and interior art appeared in several of the pulpy "fumetti" collections, printed weekly or monthly in either the comic book format or the typically Italian small landscape-format, including 'Avventure', 'Albi dell'Intrepido', 'Il Gabbiano' and 'Pugno di Ferro'. He was the brother of the Italian illustrator Walter Molino (1915-1997).
Life
Unlike that of his famous brother, not much is known about Sergio Molino's life. He was born in 1920 in Reggio Emilia, a city in northern Italy. Much of his professional life was spent working for publishing houses from the Milan region. He died in Milan in 1998. Sergio Molino's son Antonio Molino (1956) is also a painter and cartoonist, as well as a journalist.
Casa Editrice Impero
In the early 1940s, Molino was working for the Casa Editrice Impero, the publishing house founded by Umberto Pagani. Along with Nino Bozzato, he was one of the artists of the humorous adventures of the tramp-like character Pappatutto for the comic book collection 'Avventure'. The early adventures were written by either publisher Pagani himself or S. Vetta, later issues had scripts by Umberto Nava and other writers. After World War II, Pappatutto's adventures appeared in the character's own title. For the 'Avventure' collection, Molino also drew the western feature 'Tom Tom', written by Giovanni De Leo. This series was later drawn by Renzo Orrù. Sergio Molino was additionally the artist of 'L'Eroico Caporale Noe' (1941), printed in issue #29 in the collection 'Albo Impero'.
'Nel Segno di Horus' (Albi dell'Intrepido #786, 7 February 1961).
Intrepido
After World War II, Sergio Molino was working regularly for Casa Editrice Universo, also based in Milan, contributing cover and interior art to many installments of the Albi dell'Intrepido comic book series. Between 1946 and 1974, his art appeared in at least 90 issues of this collection, for which Molino worked on mostly historical comic stories, as well as more comical back-up features like 'Sem... Olino Flash' (1957-1963, with Clario Onesti as additional artist). During the early 1960s, Molino was also present in the regular Intrepido title, drawing 'La Dama Della Spada' ("The Lady of the Sword", 1961) with Carlo Savi.
Orphans and other adventurers
By 1950, Sergio Molino's work was expanding to other Milanese publishing imprints. At Edizioni Nika, Molino drew installments for the 'Furetto' series (1950), about the adventures of the orphan boy Furetto and his uncle Bat in turn-of-the-century America. Other issues were drawn by Ferdinando Corbella. With the same themes, he was present in Casa Editrice Gioventù's Il Gabbiano (1950), a comic book collection about the exciting adventures of young orphans in exotic worlds. Molino's issues were 'Loàna la Piccola Zingara' ("Loàna the Little Gypsy", #15) and 'Il Pugile di Brooklin' ("The Brooklyn Boxer", #18). The other artists for the series were Francesco Gamba, Vincenzo Chiomenti, Pini Segna, Franco Oneta and Carlo Savi. The Il Gabbiano stories were later reprinted in the series Collano Zanetto of Editrice Selene.
Pugno di Ferro #4 - 'Match Imprevisto' (15 March 1950).
For the Società Editrice Italiana, Sergio Molino drew two issues of 'Pugno di Ferro' (1949-1950), a series of landscape-format comic booklets about the boxer Bob Lander, known for his iron fists. The other two issues were drawn by Leone Cimpellin. For the 1949-1950 Italian editions of the French comic book series 'Sitting Bull' by Marijac and Pierre Duteurtre, published by Edizioni Ippocampo, both Sergio Molino and Franco Donatelli drew original back-up features from scripts by Franco Baglioni. In 1962 and 1963, Sergio Molino and Giancarlo Tenenti were responsible for the back-up stories in 'Piccolo Scout' of Edizioni Cervinia, the Italian edition of the French western comic 'Le Petit Scout' by Maurizio Torelli and Franco Oneta.
Illustrator
Besides comic books, Sergio Molino was also active as an illustrator. Just like his brother Walter, he was a cover illustrator for Universo's women's weekly Grand Hotel. Between 1947 and 1949, he also illustrated short romantic prose stories in Il Piccolo Bar, a magazine published by A. Pietracchi. By 1956, he was making illustrations for Selezione dello Scolaro, an educational magazine for Catholic children, published by Fratelli Fabbri Editori. Later that decade, he was also providing Il Ponte's paperback western series 'Prateria' with cover illustrations (interior art by Vladimiro Missaglia and Augusto Pedrazza). In 1962, Molino illustrated the 'Snow White' ('Biancaneve') volume in the fairy tale collection 'Le Grandi Fiabe Illustrate' of the publishing house Editrice Europea. In 1963, he provided illustrations for an Italian edition of Florence Montgomery 1869 novel 'Misunderstood' ('Incompreso') in the book series Classici della Gioventù ("Youth Classics").
'Tomahawk Flat' (Albi dell'Intrepido #601, 23 July 1957).