Write up Alfredo Castelli Martin Mystère

Alfredo Castelli is one of the most important Italian comics authors. Born in Milan on 26 June 1947, he entered the world of comics, which he followed with passion from a very young age, in 1965: he made his debut on “Kolosso” and created Skeletrino, protagonist of grotesque stories, which he wrote and drew in the appendix to ” Diabolik”, one of the best-selling comics in Italy in those years. In 1966, not yet twenty years old, he founded “Comics Club 104”, a self-produced fanzine, the first experiment of its kind in Italy

In the following years he collaborated with various newspapers, including “Tiramolla” and “Topolino” (Mondadori). Alfredo Castelli is not only a designer but also a brilliant author: he writes carousels for TV and some series for RAI; he also founded some magazines that were of historical importance for Italian comics: two examples are “Tilt” and “Horror” (on whose pages the character Uncle Boris was born).

In the 70s he collaborated in Italy with the “Corriere dei Ragazzi” and with “Il Giornalino”; he also writes stories for abroad: for the German magazine “Zack” and for the French “Bazaar”, “Pif” and “Scoop”, creating some of his most famous characters such as “L’omino bufo” (a comic strip zany), “The Shadow”, “Otto Kruntz”, “The Aristocrats” and “The Astrohikers”. In 1978, when he was already regularly writing screenplays for the stories of “Zagor” and “Mister No” (over 60 issues), he created the comic by “Allan Quatermain” for the weekly magazine “Supergulp”, which would provide the basis for the future “ Martin Mystère”, a character that he proposed to Sergio Bonelli in 1980. Castelli’s inclination for topics related to mystery came to fruition with the publication of “Martin Mystère” in 1982.

The archaeologist will be his most important character from many points of view, so much so that to date it constitutes his main commitment. In 1983, together with Silver (Guido Silvestri, father of Lupo Alberto), he re-founded Corno’s prestigious magazine “Eureka”. Also in the 1980s, Alfredo Castelli returned to collaborate with “Topolino”. In recent times, Alfredo Castelli has combined his activities as an editor and author with that of a comics historian: he carries out accurate historical and philological research, studying and trying to bring to light interesting discoveries on the origins of this art form.

Martin Mystère. Archaeologist, anthropologist, art expert, collector of unusual objects, man of action and tireless traveler, Martin Mystère is American by birth but was culturally trained in Italy. It is the definition of the impossible, that is, of those great enigmas (or rather “mysteries”) that official science does not take into consideration.

His two homes, in New York and Florence, are full of books. From mysterious books and manuscripts they also take their adventures which just as often contrast real libraries, mysterious and disappeared libraries. He also acted as a testimonial at the last Turin Book Fair with an adventure set at Lingotto.

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