The Secret – Herbal Bitter Liqueur

Milo Manara was born in Luson, in the province of Bolzano, on September 12, 1945. He debuted at the end of the 1960s as an author of erotic-detective stories. In the 1970s, he collaborated with Corriere dei Ragazzi and many other comic magazines of the period. Based on scripts by Alfredo Castelli and Mario Gomboli, he created Un fascio di bombe. Together with Silverio Pisu, he gave life to Lo Scimmiotto e Alessio, il borghese rivoluzionario, marking his debut in auteur comics. In 1978 came the turning point with Giuseppe Bergman, the first highly successful character conceived, scripted, and drawn by Manara. In the early 1980s, he created Il Gioco, a story that brought him worldwide success. Based on texts by Hugo Pratt, he illustrated Tutto ricominciò con un’estate indiana and El Gaucho. This was the period in which he created the iconic Miele, protagonist of Il profumo dell’invisibile and Candid Camera. Beginning in 1987, he collaborated with Federico Fellini, adapting one of the director’s screenplays into two comic stories: Viaggio a Tulum and Il viaggio di G. Mastorna, also known as Fernet. This was followed by comic adaptations of three literary classics: Gulliveriana, Kamasutra and L’asino d’oro. He then illustrated three socially themed stories: Ballata in Si bemolle, Rivoluzione and Tre ragazze nella rete. In 2009, Marvel Comics commissioned him, together with Chris Claremont, a female-led X-Men story, X-Men: Ragazze in fuga. He also collaborated with Neil Gaiman for DC Comics. Since 2000, Manara has worked on the project Il pittore e la modella. Based on texts by Alejandro Jodorowsky, he illustrated a comic about the Borgias. In 2015, for Panini Comics, he published La Tavolozza e la spada, the first of two volumes dedicated to the life of Caravaggio, followed by La Grazia, published in February 2019, the year in which he celebrated fifty years of his professional career. On this occasion, the Festival de la Bande Dessinée d’Angoulême honored him for the first time with a major retrospective during the 46th edition of the most important European comics event.