RIP Carlo Ambrosini

Sergio Bonelli Editore

November 1, 2023

FAREWELL TO CARLO AMBROSINI The beloved creator of Napoleon and Jan Dix is gone. Illustrator and screenwriter, capable of combining entertainment with culture in a popular comic strip, he has crossed genres and given life to unforgettable adventures.

Carlo Ambrosini, beloved author of Napoleon and Jan Dix, but also of many adventures of Dylan Dog and numerous other albums and volumes published by our publishing house, has left us.

Born in the province of Brescia in 1954, Ambrosini has been passionate about comics since he was a child. However, he attended the art high school and then the Brera Academy of Fine Arts with the idea of dedicating himself to painting, and then turning to the world of illustration to make ends meet.

His debut in the world of comics took place in the mid-70s, on the pages of the Dardo war series, but also on the publications of Ediperiodici and Editoriale Corno. He also published a story with a medieval setting for the magazine "Il Mago" published by Mondadori, and it was thanks to that story that in 1978 he was included in the staff of Enzo Biagi's "La Storia d'Italia a Fumetti".

However, it was Ambrosini himself who indicated as his real debut as a "comic book" the release of "Pellerossa", number 26 of Ken Parker, published in January 1980 by the then Cepim. In the following fifteen years he made another ten albums of the character created by Berardi and Milazzo, but he found the time to create, on the pages of "Orient Express", the medieval Nico Macchia, who survived the same magazine and saw the conclusion of his adventures published by Glenat in France before in Italy.

He was one of the first artists to join the staff of Dylan Dog, on which he made his debut in issue 15, "Canale 666". Over the years, Ambrosini also began to write screenplays for the Nightmare Investigator until, in 1997, he was totally absorbed by his first personal creation at Bonelli: Napoleone.

Much appreciated by readers since its inception, Napoleone has exceeded 50 issues every two months, remaining on newsstands for almost ten years. "The Entomologist Investigator" lives adventures strongly influenced by painting and a certain Central European literature, which makes it unique in the panorama of Sergio Bonelli Editore. Almost along the same lines, in 2008 Jan Dix made its debut, a series of which 14 issues were published.

Alternating between his duties as a writer and as a cartoonist, Ambrosini continued over the years to work mainly on Dylan Dog, but also drew the 2005 Texone, a handful of Le Storie albums (some dedicated to Napoleon's return to the scene) and two recent volumes of the bookshop series Il Confine.

The editorial staff of Via Buonarroti rallies around the family in this moment of grief.

AMBROSINI, Carlo

Born: 4/15/1954, Azzano Mella, Brescia, Lombardy, Italy

Died: 11/1/2023, Milan, Lombardy, Italy

 

Carlo Ambrosini’s westerns – artist:

Ken Parker - 1974-1984

Long Rifle Scotty - 1984, 1985, 1986

Livio Tex Gold 9 – Tex o piero da vinganca - 2018