The Zanardi Cycle or Zanardi Saga is a collection of comics done by the Italian Andrea Pazienza (The last days of Pompeo) from the publication of Giallo Scolastico (School Thriller) in the Frigidaire Magazine #5 in 1981 to the author’s death in 1988, with the Zanardi Medioevale (Medieval Zanardi) story being left unfinished. Zanardi is collected in English in one volume of the same name by Fantagraphics and in two volumes by Fulgencio Pimentel in Spanish (Zanardi and Corre Zanardi).
The stories focus on a group of friends in their late teens and early twenties as they go about their lives and screw with everyone that gets in their way (both literally and figuratively) in their quest for drugs, sex and revenge. These three are Petrilli (a character who is more selfish than evil), Colasanti (a character who doesn’t care) and Zanardi (a character who’s just like evil). They blackmail, bully and abuse others (and each other) and perform some of the most disgusting pranks I’ve ever read. Zanardi himself puts it best when he says “[…] because coldness, real coldness, is at the bottom of my heart […]”
This is, obviously, not a comic for everyone, given what it’s about and how graphically it tends to portray such depravity. That said, it is enjoyable not despite but because of the narrative it employs, being kind of like a portrait of the world if the devil on one’s shoulder took the reins. As the blurb on the back says, “Zanardi is the bad conscience, the old classmate, the childhood friend who humiliated us in a million different ways. He is the person we hate the most and, at the same time, who we’d like to be. He is evil and unscrupulous because he’s empty”.
The main strength is, of course, Pazienza’s art, which in this series is much more precise than in his later work Pompeo, which has much rougher and more emotional marker lines. An interesting quirk is his use of various levels of detail, much like it’s done in Manga, but to a greater extent, being able to go as simple as stick figures but also do extremely detailed close-ups.
Though mostly in black and white, some of the pages and stories are in color, though most of them weren’t colored by Pazienza but by his wife (Marina Comandini) and students (he taught in the “Uncle Feininger” school of comics in Bologna). These pages have a plastic-y feel that reminds of the early work of Moebius (MétalHurlant, Arzach) as well as that of Enki Bilal (Nikopool, Le Sommeil du Monstre) . They also tend to have a higher degree of abstraction and symbolism, two very common attributes to his style.
Overall, I’d recommend this to anyone who wants to get into the Italian indie movement of the late 70s and 80s as well as to those who are intrigued by the figure that was Andrea Pazienza. In my opinion, it works better as an introduction to the author than the masterpiece that is The last days of Pompeo (a comic which is unfortunately unavailable in English), as it is a less experimental and emotionally raw piece.
If you want to learn more about the author and check out some of his incredible artwork, I recommend the official website (http://www.andreapazienza.it/), which has a biography, videos, a list of his published works, his exhibitions, etc and Tecnografica (https://www.tecnografica.net/es/productos/papel-pintado-andrea-pazienza), where you can find some nice wallpapers and art pieces.
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