My article on Dino Buzzati’s proto graphic novel  Poema a fumetti (1969) appears today in the new special issue of Image [&] Narrative, a peer-reviewed e-journal on visual narratology and word and image studies. The article is divided into two parts. The first section employs a close analysis of the content and structure of Poema a fumetti to argue that Buzzati saw the mechanics of comics as a means of creating a new form of poetry, in a manner that parallels a new interest in comics among certain avant-garde poets during the same period. The second section examines the connection between Poema a fumetti and the fumetti neri, a popular 1960s genre of Italian crime and horror comics, and makes the case that the marginalized cultural position of the latter and their interlinked themes of eroticism and mortality were key factors in Buzzati’s attraction to the comics form.          You can read the article here (if you’re interested):

http://www.imageandnarrative.be/index.php/imagenarrative/article/view/1294/1048