Reviews
  
  



WHAT HAS BEEN WRITTEN ABOUT JULIA









EXHIBITION ON JULIA, A PAPER HEROINE. Editorial article appearing in “Torino Sette”, 17 October 2003: “The exhibition ‘What’s in Julia’, edited by the Hamelin Association of Bologna, offers a comparison with other images and an in-depth look at the captions. This provides an interpretive key which allows even those who are not habitual readers of comics – and thus are not familiar with this character – a chance to enter into contact with paper heroine Julia’s world, enabling them to understand the models, references and problematic issues Berardi has addressed in order to breathe life into her…”



MURDER AT TIFFANY’S, by Paola Mordiglia. An article that appeared in Narcomafie, December 2000: "Giancarlo Berardi has told me how important it is, for someone who writes with a woman’s voice, to cultivate one’s own female part, which he identifies today with creative imagination. He mused aloud, before taking leave of me, that this creature who keeps him company is becoming indispensable to him. When I asked him if he too was in love with Julia, he answered with a sigh: head over heels".

PAPER DRAGSTERS by Filippo Einaudi. An article appearing in La mia auto, October 2000: "A retrò element within a background setting that reflects present-day time, Julia’s Morgan introduces another remarkable and quite curious detail which defines a character who is perhaps not so way-out as others but by no means anonymous…”

THE CRIMINOLOGIST QUEEN OF THE NEW THRILLER, by Claudio Risè. An article that appeared in Il Giornale, 9 December 1999: The new heroine for girls, especially if their name is Giulia: they send off heaps and heaps of letters to her, full of adoring identification. But Julia’s a favourite among guys as well as the millennium approaches. (…) a post feminist woman, and post small-screen dumb blondes too.”

A DETECTIVE OF THE HUMAN SOUL, by Antonio Carboni. An article that appeared in Il Giornale del Popolo, 21 July 1999: "A `noir’ that is particularly rich in restless stirrings and tensions, in a microcosm that takes on tones now of comedy, now of the hard-boiled story, where priority is attributed to the characters psychological aspects and their personality, and this goes for the ‘baddies’ too. But this is no way impairs the action or the unexpected developments, which continue to be crucial in the unfolding of the plots”.

JULIA, THE GIRL NEXT DOOR WHO DEFEATS CRIME, interview with Giancarlo Berardi by Ferdinando Maffioli, which appeared in Il Giornale, 6 May 1999: "My style hasn’t changed", Bernardi says. "The Julia stories are genuinely realistic, verging on documentaries. They’re not comforting stories with a happy end…".

JULIA, AUDREY’S CLONE, by Antonio Orlando. An article in Amica, May 1999. "This protagonist of a highly successful comic strip has the face and the class of the unforgettable Audrey Hepburn. She reinforces the old link between cinema and comic strips".

GIRLS WITH A PISTOL, by Antonio Matarrese and Vincenzo Bonaventura. An article in Anna, 22 February 1999: "TV, books, comic strips: there’s a veritable boom of female detectives…".

A COMIC BOOK IN A MINISKIRT, by Paolo Grugni. An article in Donna Moderna, 12 October 1998: "Strong, independent and fascinating, Julia is the heroine of a new comic strip. Full of suspense...".

A NOIR IN THE FEMININE GENDER, by Stefania Marra. An article in Avvenimenti, 4 October 1998: "Her name is Julia and she’s a criminologist. An intelligent woman, elegant, fragile. No pistol or martial arts, but an enormous propensity to understand others…".

JULIA, THE NOIR TAKES ON A HINT OF ROMANCE, interview with Giancarlo Berardi by Claudio Paglieri, in Il Secolo XIX, 30 September 1998: "A criminologist who’s a double of Audrey Hepburn, setting out to conquer the female public…".

CLEVER JULIA, A DETECTIVE OF THE SOUL, by Filippo de Bortoli. An article in La Prealpina, 30 September 1998: "With his truly amazing staff of illustrators Berardi is taking on a difficult but enthralling challenge, in which he can put into effect all the experience accumulated through years and years of inventing top quality comic strips such as Ken Parker…".

SERGIO BONELLI LAUNCHES GLAMOROUS JULIA, A CRIMINOLOGIST SPECIALIZED IN HUNTING DOWN CARTOON SERIAL by Maurizio Acerbi. An article in Il Giornale, 29 September 1998: "For a man", Berardi explains, "gaining insight into a woman’s psychology is like untangling a fascinating terrible mystery, like entering into an alien world and learning to interpret its language…".

JULIA FOR THE DYLAN DOG TRIBE, by Alessandro Zaccuri. An article in Avvenire, 29 September 1998: "Keenly aware of the lesson of Dylan Dog, Julia displays a powerful dose of irony, impersonated by her gentle home help, a black woman who’s called Emily and who has the same unmistakable features as the actress Whoopi Goldberg…".

JULIA, A DETECTIVE WITH THE FASCINATING CHARM OF AUDREY HEPBURN, interview with Giancarlo Berardi by A. Mezzena Lona, which appeared in Il Piccolo, 29 September 1998: "Julia is a very realistic character. I would like everyone who reads her to feel her presence in flesh and bones, to feel her as blood, cartilage, fears and joy. As emotions".

JULIA, THE KILLER-CATCHER, by Federico Luperi. An article in Il Giorno, 29 September 1998: "Other by no means negligible peculiarities are her sex (she’s a woman playing the role of the protagonist), her femininity (her muscles have a name, Leo Baxter), and above all an episode from her past as an investigative consultant that has left her badly scarred…".

A STRIP DETECTIVE, by Vincenzo Martini. An article in Il Tirreno, 27 September 1998: "Passing from one genre to another, Berardi has definitely not lost his enthusiasm for story-telling with a cinematographic flavor and for introspective analysis of his characters…".

PLEASED TO MEET YOU, MY NAME’S JULIA, I’M A CRIMINOLOGIST, by Domenico Catagnano. An article in Lombardia Oggi, the supplement to La Prealpina, 27 September 1998: "A character Berardi has modeled with extreme precision and in all the finest details, even by going back to college…".

SERIAL KILLER, NOW IT’S JULIA WHO’S INVESTIGATING. Editorial in La Padania, 27 September 1998: "She a criminologist-detective who looks like Audrey Hepburn…".

JULIA THE CAPTIVATING CRIMINOLOGIST, by Dario Campion. An article in Il Corriere di Como, 23 September 1998: "An impressive range of staff are busy on the artwork for Julia, some of whom are among the most renowned comic book illustrators, from Sergio Toppi to Corrado Roi, from Luca Vannini to Giorgio Trevisan to Federico Antinori…".

AND JULIA PLAYS SCHUMANN ON THE PIANO, by Piero Zanotto. An article in Il Gazzettino, 17 July 1998: " In order to have personal experience of the educational approach of a real criminologist", says Berardi, "I even went to classes for several months as an observer at a course held by the Institute of Forensic Medicine of Genoa".

ADVENTURE, MILAN STYLE, interview with Sergio Bonelli by Stefano Rossi, which appeared in La Repubblica, 6 July 1998: "The first idea", explains Bonelli, "was that of an FBI agent involved in highly unusual cases. The approach is now more traditional and the tone will not be pulp but ironic and sophisticated…".