Movies - Diabolik

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Diabolik is a fictional character, an anti-hero featured in Italian comics. He was created by sisters Angela and Luciana Giussani in 1962. His stories appear in monthly black and white digest-sized booklets.

Story

Diabolik is a ruthless master thief. He typically steals from criminals (and has no issue with killing them if need be, but rarely, if ever, kills the innocent or the police), and has a set of lifelike masks which he uses to fool his opponents, assuming every identity at his will. He seems to have a deep knowledge in many scientific fields, including chemistry, mechanics and computers.

He was raised as an orphan on a secret island hideout of a criminal combine, where he learned all his criminal skills, including developing his special masks, before killing the head of the combine. Diabolik's true name had never been revealed in the series, and he doesn't know it himself. "Diabolik" was the name of a dangerous black panther that lived on the secret island that the head of the combine killed. Diabolik took his name from that. From issue #3 of the series, Diabolik is aided by his "moll", Eva Kant, who has gained an increasingly equally role as partner.

Diabolik always drives a black Jaguar E-type car. Graphically inspired in the actor Robert Taylor, he usually wears a skintight black body suit that leaves only his eyes and eyebrows (very distinctive ones) exposed when going 'into action'. Diabolik does not use fire arms: his main weapons are the daggers he throws with uncanny ability, as well as a small dart gun with knockout darts. Eva drives a white Jaguar, and unsually goes into action wearing a heavy sweater and pants, no mask and no revealing clothing. The stories are set in a fictional town, Clerville, loosely inspired by Geneva, Switzerland.

Diabolik's main opponent is Inspector Ginko, known only by his surname, a fierce police officer who however is always cheated by the astute tricks devised by Diabolik. The only other stable character is the noblewoman Altea, Ginko's fiancee.

Publication

Diabolik first appeared in print on November 1, 1962 with the title Il re del terrore (in English:The King of Terror). Since 1997 a series of annual books with more complex stories exists. The Giussani sisters wrote much of the stories until 1980s, passing them gradually to Patricia Martinelli's hands and others. The most significative artist working to the graphical part is Sergio Zaniboni, who is drawing Diabolik since 1969 (currently sharing the role with Giorgio Montorio). Other artists working in the series include Brenno Fiumali, Franco Paludetti, Enzo Facciolo and Lino Jeva.

Some American reprints have appeared. The Pacific Comics Club published a couple in the 1980s. Most recently an American publisher called Scorpion started to publish digests in 2000 and did six before stopping.

Film

Italian filmmaker Mario Bava adapted the story for a 1968 feature film, Danger: Diabolik
.

Influence

The popularity of Diabolik spurred a long series of characters directly or indirectly inspired to him, generally noticeable by the final "k" in their name. Some of them are a kind of satire.

Max Bunker (writer) and Magnus created in the 1960s two of these "k" characters, Kriminal and Satanik, the second being a feminine and horror version. Both are distinguished for their greater realism and for a more substantial sexy style.
Paperinik (Superduck) is the superhero, volatile alter-ego of Donald Duck
created by Guido Martina and Giovan Battista Carpi in 1969.
Cattivik is a satirical version of Diabolik created by Franco Bonvicini in 1967: cattivo means "bad" in Italian.
Dorellik is the name of a film starring singer and actor Johnny Dorelli.
Fantomex is a character created by Grant Morrison during his run writing X-Men. He is a master thief using technological gadgets and his uniform is similar to Diabolik's, but coloured white. He is assisted by an artificial intelligence called E.V.A..

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Diabolik ]

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Movies - Diabolik

Story

Publication

Film

Influence

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