Giancarlo Berardi

Giancarlo Berardi (Genoa, 15 November 1949). Born and raised in Genova, during his university years Giancarlo Berardi started to get passionate about artistic expression, making his debut first as an actor and writer in a student dramatic society, then as a guitarist in a small band, Gli Scorpioni. But soon, the field of comics caught his interest, and he was backed in this by Ivo Milazzo, designer and ex-classmate from teacher-training college.

And so, from 1970 onwards, the pair started to publish their first stories in a magazine, whilst Berardi added to his CV by writing screenplays for kids’ magazines (“Mickey Mouse”, “Sylvester”, “Tarzan”) and joining the staff of Diabolik for a few months.

The following year, he and Milazzo started to collaborate with Bonelli (then known as Cepim), creating the first Ken Parker story, initially meant for the Collana Rodeo but then redirected, three years later, into a new monthly monograph. Meanwhile, still with Milazzo, he created “Tiki”, the story of an Amazonian boy published in “Il Giornalino”, the “Welcome to Springville” series and other tales; but from 1977, the year when the first issue of Ken came out, all his attention was diverted to the monthly Western, which immediately garnered rave reviews from both the public and, more importantly, the critics.