L’anno è il 1972. Il luogo è Napoli, una Napoli particolare, drammatica e piovosa che Igort scolpisce attraverso il blu e il nero come fosse un luogo dell’anima, una profonda grotta in cui cercare un raggio di sole per trovare una via d’uscita. In 5 è il numero perfetto Igort non disegna solo per raccontare, ma anche per comporre le pagine come fossero quadri, manifesti, costruzioni musicali, componimenti grafici, sempre diversi, affascinanti e sorprendenti. “Nella figura di un uomo “piccolo” come Peppino cercavo la figura di certi cavalieri, come nei film western. Peppino si trova a non avere più nulla, neppure le sue certezze. È un uomo in bilico, un uomo che cambia o muore.” Igort
Author
Igort is an Italian illustrator, comic book artist, writer, publisher, film director and musician. He is considered a key figure in the development of European graphic novels. Igor Tuveri was born in 1958 in Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy. At age 20 Tuveri moved to Bologne and started publishing comics with the pen name Igort. His early works appeared in 'Linus', a famous Italian comic magazine aimed at an adult readership, of which Igort himself will become editor-in-chief in the 2000's. In the 80's Igort founded the independent magazines 'Il Pinguino' and 'Dolce Vita' with fellow cartoonists from the so-called 'Valvoline' collective. The collective included artists Daniele Brolli, Roberto Baldazzini, Lorenzo Mattotti, Giorgio Carpinteri, as well as American cartoonist Charles Burns. Igort's works from this period include Goodbye Baobab (1982), a story set in Japan in the 40s and co-created with Daniele Brolli, and Ishiki no kashi - Il letargo dei sentimenti (1984), a comic taking place in a futuristic version of Japan. Igort is also one of the first Western authors to have worked in the Japanese manga industry, most notably with the series Yuri (1996) for Kōdansha. In 2000, Igort founded his own publishing house, Coconino Press. The publisher played an important role in the development of the 'graphic novel movement' in Italy, releasing new works by national and international authors, as well as classic works by cartoonist like Jacques Tardi, Daniel Clowes, Adrian Tomine, Chris Ware, Will Eisner, and so on. In 2017 Igort left Coconino to found a new publishing house, called Oblomov Press. Between 2008 and 2009, Igort travelled through the Ukraine, Russia and Siberia, carrying out research for the books Quaderni Ucraini (2010, Ukrainian Notebooks) and Quaderni Russi (2011, Russian Notebooks). Together with the two volumes of Quaderni Giapponesi (2015-2017, Japanese Notebooks), these form a trilogy of illustration travel notebooks. In 2019, Igort directed the live action film adaptation of his most famous graphic novel, 5 is the Perfect Number (2002), starring actors Toni Servillo and Valeria Golino. Besides drawing, writing, publishing and occasionally working in cinema, Igort has also been a life long musician. Since 2022 he hosts a Youtube Channel on the medium of comics, called 'lezionidifumetto·it'.
