Is life a stage, and do we just follow a script? Can we rewrite our roles, or must we play along according to the instructions of others? The two stories in this volume, An Author in Search of Six Characters and Days of Wrath, take place in Africa, which author/artist Milo Manara views as the bearer of insight and hope for the rest of the world. Turning Pirandello’s “Six Characters in Search of an Author” on its head, Manara sets our favorite inept, globe-trotting hero-naif, Giuseppe Bergman (Manara’s comics alter ego), off on another quest for adventure. An off-panel director hands out scripts and then disappears. (Are we watching a play or are we in it?) Dedicated to playing his role, Giuseppe is confused when others assert themselves and send the entire scenario spinning out of control. His sexy co-star, Lulu, cast as a bimbo, rewrites herself as the hero, leading us to ponder deeper matters, such as whether we possess true free will or we just think we do. (But watch out! Just when you think the answer is in sight, Manara flips the script once again.) Giuseppe Bergman’s second African adventure begins with Chloe, a winsome nymphet who asks many questions — about the facts of life (and the fictions, too). Is she really that innocent? Or is she just drawn that way? Manara allows his characters to break the “fourth wall” as Chloe beckons us into an erotic, exotic Fellini-esque romp revolving around young Giuseppe’s determination to return a kidnapped child to her tribe. His real motive? To break free and become the hero of his own story, rather than remain the hapless plaything of an omniscient narrator. Part tongue in cheek, part philosophical exploration, Manara lets Chloe wink in and out like a mischievous Tinker Bell, pushing events forward only to then pull them back — as Giuseppe Bergman struggles to make sense of it all and become the hero he needs to be. Artist/writer/creator Milo Manara skewers adventure comics and narrative convention itself in this absurdist, sophisticated satire. The Magnificent African Adventure, two complete stories in one volume.
