Illustration for Sindibad magazine.
The Italian-born artist Mario Morelli di Popolo spent most of his life in Egypt, where he was an illustrator for textbooks and magazines. For Sindibad magazine, he created 'The Adventures of Zouzou' (1952-1960), the first comic series in Egyptian history.
Early life
Mario Morelli di Popolo was born in 1901 in Pontassieve, Italy. In 1905, his family emigrated to Alexandria, Egypt, where Mario attended the French school Saint Vincent de Paul. Between 1911 and his untimely death in 1913, Mario's father Emilio Morelli di Popolo helped finance the first cinemas in Alexandria. Since his father had died, Mario, at age fifteen, had to supplement the family income by working as an accountant. Starting in 1920, Mario Morelli di Popolo also illustrated several books by the Egyptian novelist Kamel Keilany. In 1938, he also provided the illustrations for an often-reprinted pharaoh book by Ibrahim Namir Self el-Din.
By 1938, he was widowed with four children, and forced to leave the country to avoid the internment of Italians by the English. Returning to Italy, he took a government job in Florence. At the end of World War II, Morelli di Popolo was interned in a war refugee camp, installed at the Cinecittà film studio in Rome. By some, he was considered fascist because of his work for the Ministry of Agriculture, others saw him as anti-fascist because of a booklet he had tried to publish with cartoons of Mussolini and Hitler.
Cover illustration for Sindibad.
Egyptian career
In 1947, Morelli returned to Egypt, where he rejoined his family and settled as a commercial artist. Self-taught, he started out working on advertisements for Coca Cola and Johnny Walker, before finding employment with the publishing house Dar El Maaref as an offset technician. He later became one of the publisher's illustrators for children's books and textbooks.
In 1952, he joined editor Mohammed Saeed al-Arian and illustrator Hussein Bicar in the team of Sinbad (also written as Sindibad), Dar El Maaref's new children's magazine based on the legendary literary character Sinbad the Sailor from the fairy tale collection 'Arabian Nights'. Besides designing the header and providing illustrations, Morelli created a comic feature starring the character Zouzou, a playful, clumsy and dreamy child with one single hair. For his stories, Morelli found inspiration from his own children, while treating the Egyptian habits and customs with respect. Between 1953 and 1954, Morelli still signed his pages, but from 1954 to 1960, his contributions were anonymous.
Final years and death
In the late 1950s, Morelli di Popolo also designed the certificate given to pilgrims visiting Mecca, but again had to remain anonymous because he was a European and a Christian. In March 1960, Mario Morelli di Popolo had to leave Egypt because his residence permit wasn't renewed. Only a couple of months later, in July 1960, Sindibad magazine was canceled. The artist passed away in Florence in 1969.
Legacy
As an Italian with no work published in his native country, and a largely anonymous artist in his country of residence, Mario Morelli di Popolo's legacy seems largely forgotten. Still, he stands as one of the pioneers of Arabic-language comics, who is credited with introducing the speech balloon in Arab comics. His son is the France-based painter Emilio Morelli di Popolo (b. 1942), who has participated in the Florence Biennale art exhibition. Mario's grandson (and Emilio's son) is the journalist and director/cinematographer Mario Morelli di Popolo.
'Zouzou'.