Tiziano Sclavi

Tiziano Sclavi (born 3 April 1953) is an Italian comic book author, journalist and writer of several novels. Sclavi is most famous as creator of the comic book Dylan Dog in 1986, for Italian publishing house Sergio Bonelli Editore. More than 300 issues have appeared in the series, which has sold millions of copies. It has been in collaboration with several artists, including Claudio Villa, Corrado Roi, Gustavo Trigo, Carlo Ambrosini, Luigi Piccatto, Angelo Stano, Mike Mignola, Andrea Venturi, Giampiero Casertano and Bruno Brindisi.

Biography Tiziano Sclavi was born in Broni (Pavia) on 3 April 1953, his mother was a teacher and his father was a communal secretary. He had lived his childhood and first youth in the Province of Pavia, mainly in Stradella, Canneto Pavese and Certosa di Pavia. Due to the job of the father, Sclavi had moved from a town to another:

Sclavi has been a passionate reader since childhood: he claims he read the entire production of Edgar Allan Poe when he was between six and seven years old,

At middle school, he won a writing competition with a series entitled Storie Storte ("Crooked Stories"). The stories he wrote for Corriere dei Piccoli were collected in the volume I misteri di Mystère ("Mystère's Mysteries") by Editore Bietti in 1974 (then published by Arnoldo Mondadori Editore).

When Corriere dei Ragazzi was closed in 1977, Sclavi began to collaborate with Il Corriere dei Piccoli, writing comic series like Allister, Miki, Fantòm becoming then its editor and writing its stories until 1988. Sclavi returned to write for Zagor on the 1990 special spin-off dedicated to Cico, the Mexican sidekick of Zagor, entitled Horror Cico. Since 1982, he had written also screenplays for Mister No, with a little contamination of the horror genre. The Italian Pilot offered both authorial and traditional comics from Italian and French authors, but it was closed together with Orient Express in 1985 with the issue #15. Following these flops, Bonelli decided to return to work on traditional comics. The creation of the character began a year before when Sergio Bonelli, owner of the publishing house, and Decio Canzio, general director, preferred to return to work on traditional comics and eventually to create new ones. Sclavi proposed a horror series, temporarily called Dylan Dog. and Decio Canzio, editor in chief of the series at the time, remembers that:

A few days later, the distributor called us and said "The comic book is dead in newsagents, a flop". The horrible news was pitfully hidden to Sclavi. A few weeks later, there was another call of the distributor "It's a boom, practically sold out, maybe we should reprint it." and in 1990 Sclavi won the Yellow Kid prize as best author. and, from 1987 to 1991, Sclavi published on Comic Art three stories of the Roy Mann series

New millennium In the 2000s, Sclavi remained as supervisor of the series of Dylan Dog, leaving the role of screenwriter.

In 2005, Sclavi gave more than 8 000 volumes to the Communal Library of Venegono Superiore, collected and preserved in the Fondo Sclavi which collects volumes about cinema, music, a wide collection of comics and books about comics, novels of various genres (crime, noir and science-fiction), studies on occultism and paranormal phenomena, photographic volumes and books about graphic.

In 2006, Sclavi wrote a story for a Dylan Dog issue published in 2006

CICAP member Sclavi is a member of CICAP (Comitato Italiano per il Controllo delle Affermazioni sul Paranormale, Italian Committee for the Investigation of Claims of the Pseudosciences). In some interviews, he stated that

Films based upon his works Some works of Sclavi had been transposed to cinema: Nero.(1992), directed by Giancarlo Soldi, Dellamorte Dellamore (1993), directed by Michele Soavi starring Rupert Everett, 1990 - Yellow Kid as best author (during the Salone Internazionale dei Comics of Lucca) 1992 - "Giallo dell'Anno" Prize during the Festival in Noir of Viareggio, for Sogni di sangue

Works Comics Dylan Dog Dylan Dog issues #1-23, #25-26, #28, #30-33, #40-43, #46, #50-52, #56-57, #59, #61-65, #67, #69, #72, #74-77, #80-81, #83-84, #88, #100, #109, #113, #117, #119-121, #123, #125, #127, #129, #131, #133-134, #136, #138, #140, #143, #145-146, #151, #153, #156, #161, #163, #173, #176, #240, #243-244, #250, #362, #375 (1986-2001, 2006-2007 and 2016–2017) Dylan Dog Speciale issues #1-7 (1987-1993) Dylan Dog & Martin Mystère issues #1-2 (1990 and 1992) Dylan Dog: Almanacco della paura issues #1-4 (1991-1994) Dylan Dog Gigante issues #1-2 and #4-8 (1993-1999) Maxi Dylan Dog issue #2 (1999) Dylan Dog – Viaggio nell’incubo (vol. 1/50), La Gazzetta dello Sport – Corriere della Sera, 2019

Zagor Zagor issues #184-186, #191-203, #221-222, #275-280 (1980-1983, 1988)

Mister No Mister No issues #90-92, #97-98, #104-108, #138-139, #159-161 (1982-1984, 1986, 1988)

Others Gli aristocratici (1974) Altai & Jonson (1975-1976, 1978–1979, 1985) Archivio Zero (1975-1977) Jonny bassotto (1977) Il cavallino Michele (1977) Fantom (1977-1978) John John va nel West (1977-1978) Sam Peck esploratore solitario (1977-1978) Le avventure del professor Strano (1977-1978) Bizarro (1977-1978) Silas Finn (1978) Devoluzione (1978) Steve Vandam (1978) Ken Parker numbers 35 and 41 (1980-1981) Agente Allen (1982) Vita da cani (1982) Kerry il trapper (1983) Martin Mystère issues #51-52 (1986) Roy Mann (1987-1991), Comic Art, 1993 Cico Speciale number 6 (1990) La banconota da un milione di sterline (1990, adaptation of the homonymous novel of Mark Twain) Il West di Silas Finn (1992) John Merrick – Medico chirurgo del London Hospital sotto Vittoria Regina (1993) Le voci dell'acqua (2019)

Novels Narrative I misteri di Mystère (1973) Dove vai uccellino? (1982) Casa mia, casa mia (1986) Guarda di là (1993) Metti il dito (1993) Scopri cos'è (1993) Tocca qui (1993) I sette cammellieri (1994) Una cosa cos'è (1997) Buchi nell'acqua Con tutto il cuore

Screenwriter Nero. (1992)

Collections of lyrics of songs Nel Buio, canzoni e ballate di morte e d'amore (1993)