Giulio Chierchini (1928-2019) *91

was an Italian comics writer and artist, mainly known for his Disney work. He was the oldest still active Disney creator shortly before his death. His work for Disney Italia started in 1953 when he was inking for Giovan Battista Carpi, who was also his most important artistic influence. The first stories he had drawn entirely himself were published in Topolino 1956.

As an author, he debuted in 1964 but didn't start writing regularly until the mid-1970s. Most of his self-penned stories were released in the 1980s, when he was also dabbling with unusual formats: From 1986 to 1995, he wrote and drew several comics which consisted of mostly four "painted panels" per page. These panels were created with a technique that involved airbrush, oil paint and / or watercolour, and subsequently used as the background for "normal" drawings of the main comic figures. For three of these stories, he also created cover illustrations in that style, as featured on Topolino 1707, 1741 and 1891. A few other artists such as Sergio Asteriti, Roberto Marini, Marco Ghighlione, Luciano Gatto and Moreno Chisté (who was also involved with the colouring of some Chierchini comics) also experimented with this two-rows-per-page format in this period. According to Chierchini, these painted panels were well-received by the readers, but weren't to the liking of the Italian editors.

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