'Lys Noir'.
Guido Zamperoni was an Italian comic book artist, who has worked extensively for the French market. He was born in Milan into an artistic family. His father Louis had founded of the Sartoria Teatrale Zamperoni in 1850, for which young Guido made sketches and designs. He also designed costumes for the famous 1920s opera singer Nella Regini. He began his career as an illustrator with the Giornale dei Viaggi e dell avventure of Editrice Boschi. He drew two Salgari stories, and succeeded Ferdinando Corbella on 'I pirati della Malesia'. He subsequently began collaborations with Corriere dei Piccoli ('La Crociera dell'Allegranza', 1938), the publishing house Vitaliano ('D'Artagnan', 1943) and Mario Nerbini's magazine L'Avventuroso.
'O'Scugnizzo'.
At the end of the 1930s, Zamperoni made the comics serial 'Le Avventure di Gianni Ferro' with scriptwriter Bea for the Milanese publisher Nicolli. Between 1940 and 1943, he drew adventures of 'Suetta' for the collection 'Le Piu Bella Avventure' of the publishing house Alpe. During World War II, he made a propaganda comic strip about a fascist resistance leader called 'O'Scugnizzo', published in Fiamme, a magazine of the Italian Social Republic.
After the war, he was present in L'Audace with 'Zorro' (1946), and he also drew for Il Vittorioso. He drew series like 'Frisco Bill' and 'Jeff Cooper' for the publishing house Audace from 1948, and illustrated the adventures of 'Zambo' for Edizioni Vulcania from scripts by A. Lavezzolo. He subsequently began an association with the publishers Tea and Gianluigi Bonelli and created stories like 'La Pattuglia dei Senza Paura' (with Gianluigi Bonelli, 1948), 'Il principe Cuorbuono', 'Gianforte', 'Il Principe Pulcino', 'Il Tamburino' and 'Il Vasetto di Smeraldo', while also assisting Galep on the first 'Tex Willer' stories.
'Frisco Bill'.
Zamperoni participated in the animated feature film 'La Rosa di Bagdad' by Anton Gino Domenghini in 1949 and made a comic adaptation for the publishing house Mondador in the following year. He also made an adaptation of Jules Verne's 'Around the World in 80 Days' for Editrice Bosschi in the 1950s. Zamperoni additionally worked for the Italian publishers Universo and Iro Stringa and the magazine Il Corriere dei Piccoli ('La Crociera dell Allegranza', 1938), but was mainly active for the French market during the 1960s and 1970s, using the pen name Guy Zam.
'Sunny Sun'.
He worked a lot for Éditions Aventures et Voyages and their Mon Journal publications. Besides illustrating many covers, Zamperoni succeeded Sandro Angiolini on 'Rok l'Invisible' in Brik between 1967 and 1974, and Onofrio Bramante on 'Carabina Slim' from 1974 until 1987. His most notable creation for Mon Journal was the space series 'Sunny Sun', of which he drew 25 episodes from 1977.
He also worked for the French pocket book publisher Lug on 'Barefoot le magnifique' in Nevada, 'Ben Léonard' in Kiwi and 'Fred et Gib' in Albums Comiques de Kiwi, as well as the Sagéditions titles Rin Tin Tin ('Gerfaut', 'Thunga', Yuka, fils du soleil') and Tarzan Géant ('Panthère Noire'). During the 1970s, he also drew some stories starring the caveman 'Rahan' for Pif Gadget, following a conflict between Éditions Vaillant and the original artist, André Chéret.
Guido Zamperoni was seriously injured in a car accident and was forced to remain in bed. He passed away in his hometown Milan on 30 January 2003, after having suffered from lung problems.
Comic art by Guido Zamperoni.