Reviews
  
  



WHAT HAS BEEN WRITTEN ABOUT MISTER NO





















I’LL TAKE MISTER NO TO VENICE. Interview with Michele Masiero by Mara Pace, appearing in “Corriere del Veneto” (Padua-Rovigo edition): “A rebel American, fleeing from the urban jungle a couple of decades after the second world war, is seeking a quiet life in the Amazon forest, but all he finds is trouble and adventure: his name is Jerry Drake, but everyone calls him Mister No, because he won’t accept injustice and corruption, threats and prevarications… ”.

THE FANTASTIC WORLD OF MISTER NO FROM THE BRAZILIAN FOREST TO THE INDIOS. An article by Luca Raffaelli, appearing in “La Repubblica”, 23 October 2003: “If one can put forward any hint of dissatisfaction towards Guido Nolitta, the pseudonym of Sergio Bonelli – creator of the subject and script-writer – it is that of having invented characters too closely linked to his own personality… But on the other hand. Mister No was originally set up purely for fun, and the first two Mister No episodes weren’t illustrated until more than two years after they were written…”.

AN ANTI-HERO CALLED MISTER NO, by Antonio Carboni. An article published in Il Giornale del Popolo, 27 July 1999: "Adventure is one of the main components of the character, and his adventures unfold with great naturalness in the various forms they take, shifting from fast paced action to the atmosphere of the thriller, with the odd incursion into science fiction; nor do they disdain occasional forays into scintillating comedy, in the wake of 1950s style Hollywood comedy movies, which have considerable similarity with the comic strip setting of Mister No".

MISTER NO ON THE ROAD, by Alberto Gedda. Review of the album "New York City Blues", which appeared in Uscita di Sicurezza, August-September 1997: "An album with infinite nuances, featuring the meeting between Jerry Drake and Jack Kerouac, the legendary voice of the beat generation, who is seen here making his first moves after the publication of `On the Road´. And it is a very successful meeting, which leads us into the most fascinating Big Apple".

AND MISTER NO MEETS KEROUAC, Editorial article that appeared in Il Piccolo, Monday 21 July 1997: "In 1950s New York, the writer and the comic strip character meet quite by chance in a bar. That’s the point in time at which a web of `noir´ intrigue begins to envelop this strange couple, also involving a third person: the black saxophonist Curtis Webster, who is strongly reminiscent of the legendary Charlie Parler".

HOW ABOUT PUTTING MISTER NO WITH KEROUAC, by Filippo de Bortoli. An article that appeared in La Prealpina, 20 July 1997: "The crowning glory of the entire affair is a `sound track´ in the mind’s ear, created by another quite exceptional character, Curtis Webster, a black saxophonist who vividly evokes the legendary figure of Charlie Parker, accompanying Mister No and Kerouac to the depths of a web of `noir´ intrigue that vibrates with jazz and passion".

FORTY YEARS ON THE ROAD, by Pietro Berra. An article published in Lombardia Oggi, 8 June 1997: "The story takes place in 1958, while the writer was staying at his mother’s home on Long Island. The epicenter of the events is Vanguard Village, a historic tavern where Jerry Drake works with other jazz musicians".

THE NEW MISTER NO/TO BEGIN ALL OVER AGAIN AT TWENTY, by Roberto Genovesi. An article published in Avvenimenti, on September 20th 1995: His dreadful new enemies don’t look for him in Manaus’ taverns, but chase after him along air and sea routes connecting Japan to the United States. The new geographical reference points of imagination, where the multinationals that will make Nathan Never tremble in the future are starting to move their first steps…".

MISTER NO GOES HOME, by Alberto Gedda. An article published in No Limits World, in July 1995: "Twenty years after his début in the news stands, the disenchanted Jerry Drake (called Mister No) changes life and settings. The Piper pilot leaves Manaus in his beloved Brazil and goes back to New York, where he starts up for a new adventure that will take him around the world…".

MISTER NO, editorial article published in Tutto Musica e Spettacolo, in July 1995: "His name is Jerry Drake, but they call him Mister No, a nickname he earned himself by withstanding torture in Japanese jails during the Burma war…".

FROM AMAZONIA TO NEW YORK WITH NEW IDEALS, by Giancarlo Granziero. An article published in Il Gazzettino, June 21st 1995: "From the issue that will be sold this month (241), the Second World War veteran who had gone to live in Amazonia working as a pilot and defending the weak and the oppressed, has gone back to New York, his homeland, for new adventures that will also see him in Japan…".

OUT OF AFRICA? IT’S A COMIC by Clac. Interview with Sergio Bonelli, which appeared in La Gazzetta di Parma, 26 April 1995: "Over the last twenty years or so Hemingway’s Africa has been wiped out, ravaged: all it takes it a strip of concrete threading its way across the desert to disrupt the history, customs and daily life of people who live and migrate in the thousand kilometers of the Tenerè. Fortunately, the geographic aspect is still intact, and today at times I still happen to come across the rock where I stopped to gaze at a sunset, enthralled at the infinite shades of color, or the bend in a river I was compelled to wade across under the scorching sun”.

A CARTOON’S THIRD WORLD, by A. Los. An article published in Panorama, on February 10th 1995: "Bonelli invented his character in the mid Seventies and set his stories in the Brazil of two decades earlier, drawing inspiration from a pilot he had met in Mexico, Captain Vega: "He took me from Palenque up to a Maya temple among the Lacandones Indios deep in the forest…".

IN MISTER NO’S REALM, by Alessandro Riva. An article published in Class, in January 1994: "Sergio Bonelli, the publisher of the legendary Tex Willer, is guiding us to the discovery of Amazonia, the land that inspired him to write the most extraordinary adventures for Mister No, the Piper pilot who is the protagonist of yet another famous cartoon…".

THE INDIOS’ FRIEND ARRIVES IN MILAN, by Giancarlo Ascari. An article published in L’Unità, on February 1st 1993: "Many themes, from ecology to the problems of post-colonialism, are dealt with right from the beginning in Mister No’s adventures: he’s a friend of the Indios who are defending the Amazon forest, of the cangaceiros who fight against landowners in South-eastern Brazil and the enemy of the hunters who slaughter African fauna…".

EXOTIC JOURNALS WITH MISTER NO, by V. Fi. An article published in Il Corriere della Sera, on January 22nd 1993, in the review: "In viaggio con Mister No": "Mister No, the paper hero eternally escaping from the dullness of daily life, is the ideal guide for a journey subdivided into four portions between reality and imagination…".

THE ANTIHERO OF AMAZONIA, by Milo Infante. An article published in Il Giorno, 22 gennaio 1993: "Nothing is approximated in Mister No’s strips - Bonelli continues - the settings and the situations faithfully correspond to the truth so that the readers are introduced to an unknown but real world. The young must learn how to love not only the civilizations that are similar to ours, but also different and faraway cultures, too long forgotten…".

MISTER NO, CULTURE IN CARTOONS, by Gianluca LoVetro. An article published in L’Unità, on January 21st 1993: "Mister No is a pretext for depicting the reality of faraway countries through historical digressions inserted into imaginary events…".

MISTER NO, 200 FLIGHTS IN MARQUEZ’ SKIES, by Bruno Ventavoli. An article published in La Stampa, Stampa on January 5th 1992: "Fitzcarraldo got lost on Caruso’s notes precisely in the same Manaus of Mister No. And underlying the cartoons one senses many literary allusions, from Chatwin to Mandrake…".

A MAN, AN ADVENTURE, by Roberto Dal Prà. An article published in Torpedo, 1991: "He’s been traveling in the "Amazonian continent" in search of real stories to be transformed into the adventures of a fearless starling knight. We are talking about Sergio Bonelli, of course, the great publisher and successful scriptwriter…".

MISTER NO, by Mario Celi. An article published in Geodes, in April 1989: "He lives in Manaus, in the Amazon forest, but travels about on his small craft all over South America. He hates violence, but constantly gets involved in all sorts of troubles. Sergio Bonelli’s antihero is the prototype of a geographic, adventurous cartoon…".

THE FIGURE OF MISTER NO ORIGINATED FROM A WORLD-WEARY PILOT LIVING IN AMAZONIA, by Alberto Gedda. An article published in Stampa Sera, on April 20th 1988: "If Zagor comes from Tarzan’s and Superman’s films, Mister No has his roots deep in Hemingway’s books and in the adventurous literature of the postwar period, a sort of Humphrey Bogart-like antihero…".

HERE IS MISTER NO, A SORT OF PACIFIST TEX IN EXILE IN BRAZIL, by Paola Arosio. An article published in L’Unità, on May 29th 1986: "Everything started with a journey in the forest of the Amazon river about ten years ago: the discovery of the flora and fauna, of the populations and traditions of Brazil proved to be so surprising that I decided to set a cartoon character in this wonderful environment. That’s how Mister No was born…".