The 688 covers of the monthly “Linus” on display and a four-day comic festival, starting from 29 September, in Ascoli Piceno. Elisabetta Sgarbi has just filed the Milanesiana 2022, and is already starting with a new initiative, the daughter of her many interests and activities. In this case, since 2017 his Nave di Teseo publishes Linus, an illustrious monthly that made the history of comics in Italy (tutelary deity Umberto Eco who happens to be one of the founders of the Nave), while the festival is a clear derivation of the Milanesiana with which shares a taste for the contamination of genres.
Upstream, the current exhibition at the Venaria Reale for the hundredth anniversary of Charles Schulz (November 26, 1922), of which Sgarbi brings to Ascoli from September 29 to October 2, a 2.0 version: enriched by the curator Marcello Garofalo with both information and what is depicted on those covers both the historical and social context of the years in which they were published.
And the festival? Conjunctures. Graphic novels are experiencing an excellent season, both creatively and in terms of sales: they seem to represent a significant share, a 1 in 8 title, of the books sold. A call by the Ministry of Culture aimed at the “Comic Promotion” gave the definitive push. And here is the birth of the “Linus Festival of Comics” full of those contaminations mentioned above (cinema in the first place): it starts from the celebration of the magazine and of Schulz, but immediately broadens the range. In Ascoli artists of different genres will land: in the comic book Milo Manara, Lorenzo Mattotti, Igort (who is also the director of Linus and has recently tried his hand at directing) and Davide Toffolo, who sometimes wears a white mask and then becomes one of the Three Allegri Ragazzi Morti; the writers Sandro Veronesi and Nicola Lagioia; the directors Manetti brothers; the actors Toni Servillo and Antonio Rezza; the singers Frankie hi-nrg mc and Simone Cristicchi, who brings a preview of “I drew too much”, a show of words, music and drawings performed by him on stage. And finally, the maximum expression of every mashup, a completely rude creature, the Extraliscio: a debut for them too, a new “total show” “Extralishow”.