Many comics that speak of unscrupulous characters, lazy crooks, wicked criminals, scoundrels of all kinds, criminals that time has not forgotten but no one can compete with him, the worst individual of the sewers, of the night that every unsuspecting citizen must fear… . CATTIVIK!
But who Badass? A character born from the pencil of Bonvi (Franco Bonvicini) in 1965 and taken over by Silver (Guido Silvestri) leading him to success.
What Cattivik is, with this particular shape that has evolved over the decades, initially tall and with a pepper silhouette, then taking the contours of an aubergine to transform into the features of a pear and arriving today with a chestnut structure .
In reality it should be an inkblot so decreed by its creator, the important thing is its nature in carrying out horrible atrocities which, however, apparently never succeed.
One of the characteristics of the character is to move by hopping grinning “Yuki Yuki” or “Uaz! Uaz” is a speech that truncates the last letter of the word.
A comic that spares no one and nothing, in its stories there are characters from the world of cinema (Spielberg, The Blues Brothers), theater (Pavarotti), sport (Gullit), television (Pippo Baudo), politics and comic strip (Diabolik) himself but also adventures in the panorama of literature when he travels with Dante in Hell and Purgatory or quotes from literary classics. Holidays such as Christmas, Easter, Valentine’s Day are not spared such as the San Remo Festival, the Olympics or phenomena such as Extraterrestrials. Everything passes under the clutches of the evil genius to try to earn and grab but with a hilarious twist.
The comic, born as strips, brings to mind some authors and characters, such as the streets always have a certain type of dirt on the ground, from the wrench to the bottle and this recalls Jacovitti’s tables, while when he is about to do a theft, implementing the creation of some gimmick, immediately brings to mind Willy Coyote.
The stories are hilarious, dynamic, between the cartoons we read a strong satire against Italian bourgeois society, an unveiled criticism of inefficient politics and all those institutions that should provide a service to the citizen but which instead are absent.
The narrative structure, with a quick, engaging and humorous reading with a rightly grotesque design to highlight the whole situation, is accompanied by a precise line full of details, elements that we find in the works of Rat-Man and Zerocalcare.
Cattivik whose adventures are still very topical today, it seems that time has never passed for him, however it would be impractical to present him today with all this prevailing politically correctness that strangles that cultural form of expression. There are tables where no one is spared: from ethnic groups to religions, from sexual orientation to political movements. Silver was able with Cattivik to destroy do-gooders with transgression by breaking all reference systems, even if this always ends up turning against our anti-hero.
Unfortunately today this humor creates indignation and condemnation, causing the loss of an artistic-cultural form that has been alive for centuries. But don’t worry, when the shadows of the night fall again, when you least expect it he will reappear. Cattivik does not forgive!!