Sergio Toppi (79) passed away on August 21

22 August 2012

One of Italy’s most famous artists, Sergio Toppi, passed away at the age of 79. Toppi was an allround comic artist and worked in all genres of the medium.

Toppi made his first comics for Il Corriere dei Piccoli from 1966. These included 'Il Mago Zurlì' (script by Carlo Triberti), a comics biography of Pietro Micca and several historical and war stories in the series 'Grandi Avventure di Pace e di Guerra', in cooperation with the writer Milo Milani.
One of Toppi's most remarkable comics is 'Sharaz'de', his comics version of the Arabian Nights. It was originally serialized in Alter Alter in 1979, and later also published in France (Mosquito) and Spain (Planeta DeAgostini). It was in this comic that Toppi played greatly with the graphic design of the page, focusing on the composition of the borders and backgrounds and not too much on the narrative. Although largely in black-and-white, it also features some of Toppi's experiments with direct colors. For more information, see our page about Sergio Toppi in the Comiclopecia.