Andrea Pazienza

Andrea Pazienza (Italian: [patˈtsjɛntsa]; 23 May 1956 – 16 June 1988) was an Italian comics artist and painter.

Biography

Early life

Pazienza was born in San Benedetto del Tronto, province of Ascoli Piceno, in 1956. Growing up in his father's town of San Severo in Apulia, he enrolled in 1974 at the Department of Arts, Music, and Entertainment of the University of Bologna.

Career

He made his debut in the spring of 1977 in the magazine Alteralter with his first comic story, "Le straordinarie avventure di Pentothal" (Pentothal's extraordinary adventures), the surrealistic and psychedelic story of an alter ego named after the sedative Penthothal. He later participated in such editorial experiences as Cannibale, Il Male, and Frigidaire, of which he was one of the founders. In these publications, he created hundreds of comics, influenced by American underground comics and Walt Disney. He was especially fond of the character Goofy, which he appropriated for a humorous spoof on Italian hippiedom of the 1970s entitled Perché Pippo sembra uno sballato ("Why Goofy Looks Like a Pothead"), and a later, unfinished story entitled La leggenda di Italianino Liberatore ("The Legend of Italianino Liberatore", referring to his old friend Tanino Liberatore).

Pazienza developed a personal body of work, alternating between playful comic cartooning—at times politically charged–and much more elaborate, dark, disturbing graphic novels, often dealing with drugs and wanton violence, with a scattering of black humor throughout.