Valentina: Tomo 1

by Guido Crepax
translated by Carlos Sampayo, Marcelo Raboni and María Fernández

I came across this book in our library a few weeks ago. How come I wasn’t aware of this artist before?

Crepax’s wild imagination, encyclopaedic influences/cultural references and exquisite Beardsleyesque drawings had won me over from the first few pages. In Valentina’s world, the boundaries between reality and dream are blurred or non-existent; in any case, her “reality” hardly makes more sense than her dreams. Considering the dreams she has, who should care about reality? Not me.

Philip Willan wrote in the obituary of Guido Crepax:

Inspired by the silent movie actor Louise Brooks, and by Crepax’s own wife, Luisa, Valentina presented something of a dilemma for Italian feminists. They approved of her sexual emancipation and Trotskyite politics, but were less taken by her fantasies and the speed with which she peeled off her clothes.

Is that so? Oh well. Personally, I don’t see anything wrong with either Valentina’s fantasies or speedy undressing. She may have angered some feminists while encouraging others. American painter and photographer Jude Harzer said:

I was always impressed by the rawness and forwardness of a woman as a dominant character. I was inspired by the sensuality of Crepax’s work and in particular the sexuality and force of Valentina as a protagonist. Her strength as a heroine lay in her intellect, femininity, eroticism and talent rather than in a contrived super heroic ability.

Speaking of dreams: Luisa Mandelli, who died in November 2020, not just “inspired” Crepax, her spouse for 40 years: she told him her dreams that became the Valentina’s adventures. Also, she invented the language of The Subterraneans.

Apart from creating Valentina, Guido Crepax illustrated works of Marquis de Sade, Edgar Allan Poe, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, Emmanuelle Arsan and Anne Desclos. He designed vinyl covers for Italian releases of jazz musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, Xavier Cugat, Fletcher Henderson, Lee Konitz, the Modern Jazz Quartet, Jelly Roll Morton, Gerry Mulligan, Fats Navarro, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Sarah Vaughan, Fats Waller, Paul Whiteman and Cootie Williams, to name a few. Poking around, I’ve discovered Italian prog-rockers Garybaldi (Crepax designed the cover art for their debut album Nuda) and La curva di Lesmo, clearly named after the Valentina story of same name.

But let’s go back to the book.

Valentina: Tomo 1 L’intrepida Valentina di carta / La intrépida Valentina de papel / Fearless Paper Doll Valentina (1968) Valentina intrepida / Valentina intrépida / Valentina the Fearless (1971/1972) Prologo alla curva di Lesmo / Prólogo a La curva de Lesmo / Prologue to “The Lesmo Curve” (1976) La curva di Lesmo / La curva de Lesmo / The Lesmo Curve (1965) Ciao, Valentina! / Hola, Valentina / Ciao, Valentina (1966) I sotterranei / Los Subterráneos / The Subterraneans (1965) Valentina perduta nel paese dei Sovieti / Valentina perdida en el país de los Soviets / Valentina in Sovietland (1967/1968) La discesa / El descenso / The Descent (1966) Vita privata / Vida privada / Private Life (1975) Vent’anni dopo / Veinte años más tarde / Twenty Years Later (1985)

Pros: paper and print quality. If you are a comic book collector, you should have invested in this book years ago: right now, they sell it at Amazon.co.uk from £272!

Cons: a few typos in speech bubbles; there are only three pages of Vida privada which in fact is much longer comic; price (see “pros”).

Luckily, Comic Online Free has made The Complete Crepax (in English), as their name suggests, online and free. Fearless Paper Doll Valentina and Valentina the Fearless could be found here; Prologue to “The Lesmo Curve”, The Lesmo Curve and Ciao, Valentina here; The Subterraneans, Valentina in Sovietland and The Descent here; Private Life here; and Twenty Years Later here.