There can be very little doubt that amongst those great South American,Italian and Spanish artists who created the unique “British look” to weekly comics,Massimo Belardinelli was a giant!
I think most of us really noticed Massimo’s work in the 1970s after 2000 AD hit our shops. My younger brother,Mike,must have been 5 or 6 at the time but,like everyone else,the new look Dan Dare caught his imagination. Pretty soon,toy tanks and Airfix aircraft were under attack by plasticine Biogs!
Kids,and older readers,were all raving about the Biogs and few referred to other strips in the then new comic.
But then we got Meltdown Man,Ace Trucking and so much more that made many wonder just what drugs this man was on! I recall the Dan Dare strip where our hero,returning to Earth,visited the alien tourist filled,over vegetated Downing Street. Despite some great artists later on -and in the New Eagle- none matched Massimo’s seemingly unstoppable visual imagination.
It was with disbelief that I found no group existed on the internet dealing with the Great Man!! One of his biggest fans [and a man with a huge collection of Belardinelli original strip pages and paintings from MB dedicated to him]Robert Cox and I discussed this. And so the Massimo Belardinelli group was formed [see Links]!
Romano Felmang interviewed Massimo for the Italian comic mag Ink [no.39]. I apologise for having somehow lost [if I knew!] the name of the translator.
Following long ill health,Massimo died in March this year. A very sad loss. But for now,go to features and read Romano’s interview -and enjoy!
Terry
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