MASSIMO BELARDINELLI
June 1938-March 2007
An interview by Romano Felmang for INK no.39

In the summer of 1966 two positive things happened in my life: military service had finished and I met a brilliant artist. He was Massimo Belardinelli, born in Rome on 5th June 1938. His father’s hobby was painting, and he painted high quality oil figures on canvas. Massimo is a cartoonist more recognized in England than in Italy, were hundreds of his work were published in weekly English comics (from the middle of the 60s until the end of the 80s).
This interview took place in his garden, full of wooden sculptures of fantastic animals, a world of fantasy!
In which moment of your life did you decide to become a comic artist?
When I was very little and my mother took me to the cinema to watch Walt Disney’s ‘Fantasia’, in that moment I decided that when I grew up, I wanted to be a cartoon artist.

What did you do then, as in 1966 I saw a backdrop for an animated cartoon by you which was 50 – 60cm in height, which was then developed to two metres in height?
In the 60s I started working in the field of animated cartoons, in Sergio Rosi’s office, principally following the development of various action backdrops, like those you remember. However the animated cartoon came about by teamwork and I realised that I wasn’t satisfied with this, so I decided to design comic strips, which was much more individual. I started designing only backgrounds which were my specialty, then slowly, I acquired experience and started also to design characters.
Which cartoons did you design in the Rosi Office?
Together with Giorgio Cambotti we designed weekly titles for the English editing company Fleetway for ‘Steel Claw’ through the Euro office of Rinaldo Dami and we had to imitate the style of Jesus Fiasco, who was the owner and graphic creator of the character. In that period Fleetway also published a pocket series. In fact in England, Fleetway published a series of pocket books which were requested by several publishers for the Italian market. Barracuda, Jonny Nero, Spider and Steel Claw. The last one, we completed in the Rosi office and also the pocket series.
Did you only work for English publications in the Rosi office?
No, around 1968 together with the group we created other characters such as Kriminal, Messalina and Jacula.

In the same period I also drew Perry Rodan and Altan for the German market . . . This was a time where there was much demand for cartoons from the German market. In fact in 69, Alberto Giolitti, who had connections with ‘Bastei’, asked Giorgio and I if we were interested in collaborating with him. The economic propositions were very interesting, and we left the Rosi office and transferred to his office.
Giolitti didn’t just have an office, he also acted as an agency and collaborated with various publishers in
England, Germany, USA and also the Italian markets. Personally I collaborated with Alberto on the sketches that he drew for ‘Gold Key. Another example is when we drew various episodes of ‘Star Trek’. He designed the
faces, and I always drew the spacecrafts. For the German ‘Bastei’, I continued drawing the ‘Perry Rodan and Altan’ characters which were published in the ‘Perry’ appendix. For the Italian market I drew four episodes of ‘Phantom’, the masked man, published by the Spada brothers. Meanwhile for the periodicals I drew No. 1 of Cosmine and No. 1 of Super Black. But the biggest part of my work I did for the English weeklies, drawing a myriad of serials with hundreds of titles.
Which characters have you drawn?
Many, but I don’t remember all of them. I don’t keep copies of the publications. In February 1977, the first edition of the weekly ‘2000 AD‘ came out on which I mainly worked on. This edition had the classic character Dan Dare in new adventures.
Initially I drew Dan Dare according to whatever came to mind. However after editing it was decided that he should resemble the pop star David Bowie and so I had to correct some episodes, redrawing all the heads of Dan Dare. Other characters that I have drawn are Slaine and Ukko, the Moon Runners and Ace Trucking Company.
I also completed many covers for ‘2000 AD’ and for other publications.
Have you ever worked in other areas?
Between one cartoon and another I completed moderate illustrations for LP covers of various English groups in the 70s and 80s.
Which were the last cartoons that you completed?
Among one of the last things that I drew were the Ninja Turtles for Fleetway at the beginning of the 90s.

Of all the original titles that you’ve completed, how many have you recovered?
Very few originals. Fleetway asked me if I wanted the originals returned, but not knowing where to keep them and not wanting to face expensive postal expenditures I declined.
At one point you stopped drawing cartoons. Why was this?
Halfway through the 80s I was approached by an important architectural office ‘ADA’ who were working on creating a Disneyland project for a rich businessman in Singapore. This work engaged me for many years. I created many characters, monsters, medieval horses and wizards. An enormous and very interesting project which in the end was not created.
How did these beautiful sculptures that adorn your garden come about?
Sculptures have always fascinated me and for a certain period I dedicated myself to sculpting fantasy animals or whatever took my fancy. I have now abandoned sculpting as it was very hard work. I now prefer to paint towns with water colours, it’s much more relaxing.
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