MANARA

MILO MANARA THE PERFUME OF THE INVISIBLE Volume 1, Albin Michel 1986 Original plate no. 13. India ink and felt pen on paper 48.8 × 65.2 cm (19.21 × 25.67 in.) You can imagine the narrative and visual tour de force: depicting what is not visible, setting up a series of dialogues, sometimes carnal exchanges (this is Manara...), a stormy conversation, with... nothing! Nowadays, when you see someone on the street or in the metro, talking to someone you can't see, with headphones on, it's already a strange experience. But to imagine an entire album with characters interacting in a thousand and one situations, as here in the administration of a slap from nowhere, which is impossible to counter and impossible to retaliate against, is a performance that only a great cartoonist like Manara was capable of achieving. Masterpiece!