Italian cartoonist Milo Manara is internationally known for erotically rendered graphic novels. The author of both slyly and blatantly sexual works such as Click, Butterscotch, Indian Summer and Trip to Tulum (with Frederico Fellini), Manara was visiting this year’s San Diego Comic-Con to announce that Dark Horse is publishing his work in a complete multi-volume edition.
Dark Horse publicity director Jeremy Atkins said the house will publish the Complete Works of Milo Manara in 10 volumes under the direction of the highly regarded, Eisner Award-winning editor, Diana Schutz. PW Comics Week caught up with Manara at the Dark Horse booth as he patiently signed autographs for a very long line of fans.
This was Sunday at comic-con and the floor was packed with fans and Manara was kind of enough to take a short break from signing to give us a short interview. (And judging from the dirty looks thrown my way, I’m not sure the people in line were as happy about his patience as I was.). Manara was relaxed and seemed to like my first question and he had an interpretor who translated the questions into Italian for him.
PW Comics Week: You’ve been able to create comics that show off a lot of sex and yet you still maintain a reputation for creating comics that have literary respectability. How were you able to do it?
MM: That’s what I wanted to do. I wanted to create erotic comics that you didn’t have to hide behind a newspaper. I wanted to take the guilt away from reading erotic comics. Now with this new edition of my work, you’ll have a great new translation of my books from Dark Horse. You’ll see the delicate and light irony of the comics. I took away all the guilt.
PWCW: Is it because of your drawing or is it the stories themselves?
MM: It’s definitely the stories. I know that some people sometimes only look at the pictures [laughing] but it’s the stories that portray human weakness in ironic ways and make people see erotic subjects without judgement. I tried to show that you should be happy and not scared of erotica. I think Woody Allen said, that one person’s pornography is someone else’s erotica.
PWCW: Who are the artists working in comics that you admire today.
MM: At different times, I’ve liked very different artists and there are so many great artists here in San Diego, I don’t want to just pick out one or two. Even artists distant from me, they can be inspiring. Whenever I get a chance to see new art and new artists they all bring something to me.
