Dino Battaglia

Dino Battaglia (1 August 1923 – 4 October 1983 ) was an Italian comics artist, noted for a distinctive and expressive style, best known for his visual adaptations of classic novels.

In 1946 Dino Battaglia became part of the so-called Group of Venice with Fernando Carcupino, Hugo Pratt and Damiano Damiani.

Biography Born in Venice, Italy, Battaglia first entered the comic book profession in 1946 co-founding and producing work for the Italian magazine Asso di Picche, where he drew some pages of the Junglemen series. Here he worked with other Venetian artists, among them Hugo Pratt and Alberto Ongaro. When Asso di Picche folded in 1948, the Venetian Group (as they became known) moved to Argentina to work for Italian publisher Cesar Civita. Battaglia remained behind in Italy, opting for marriage instead of joining the Argentine move, but he drew the pirate strip Capitan Caribe, written by Ongaro and published in Héctor Germán Oesterheld's magazine Frontera, and other strips such as Cowboy Kid for Salgari.

In 1950 Battaglia moved to Milan, where he worked for Mondadori's Pecos Bill and for Il Vittorioso. Between 1952 and 1953 he created Mark Fury, a pugilistic strip set in Edwardian England for Intrepido. The series was translated and republished in Junior Express between 1955–56, introducing Battaglia to the British market.