By Grace Barral
Born in Brescia, Italy in 1954, Lorenzo Mattotti has since emerged as one of the most innovative and visually daring figures in contemporary European comics. He originally went to school for architecture before dropping out to pursue his dream of being a comic book illustrator.
His first full-length comic wasn’t published until 2005. Entitled Il Signor Spartaco, it depicted the various dreams of a sleeping passenger on a high-speed train, and it featured use of forms and colors previously unseen in classic European comics. His second work, entitled Fires & Murmurs, is by far his most renowned. It recounts the story of a lieutenant and his crew who are dispatched to colonize a mysterious island, only to descend into madness after encountering what awaits them on its shores.
Mattotti went on to produce various other comics and picture books: some are for children while others feature mature themes, some are brightly colored while others are black and white. But his experimental use of shapes and media—and his depictions of dreams, hallucinations, and terror—are what ultimately set him apart from his peers. He also went on to direct two animated horror films in 2007 and 2019.
Carlo Collodi and Lorenzo Mattotti, Pinocchio (Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books, 1993)
Howard-Tilton Amoss Collection, Tulane University
PZ8.C7 Ph 1993
“Pinocchio Meeting the Fox and the Cat”
In this illustration for his adaptation of Pinocchio, Lorenzo Mattotti employs richly layered colored pencil and pastel to create a velvety, tactile surface. The thieving fox and cat stand towering over little Pinocchio—one pretending to be crippled while the other fakes blindness in order to steal the young puppet’s money. Mattotti’s velvety textures and saturated hues evoke both menace and whimsy, suggesting the moral ambiguities at the heart of the story. The simplified landscape, with its sweeping sky and rolling hills, heightens the surreal atmosphere. Here, Mattotti reimagines a familiar fairytale episode as a psychologically charged encounter, balancing humor, strangeness, and quiet unease.
“Pinocchio Getting Swallowed by the Whale”
In this dramatic scene from his adaptation of Pinocchio, Lorenzo Mattotti uses densely layered colored pencil and pastel to create a velvety, almost nocturnal atmosphere. Mattotti heightens tension through stark contrasts—cool blues against a burning orange sky—and through sweeping, directional marks that suggest motion and engulfing water. The result is both cinematic and intimate, balancing monumental scale with delicate surface detail, while transforming a familiar episode into a brooding meditation on peril, wonder, and imagination.
Lorenzo Mattotti and Jerry Kramsky, Fires & Murmurs (Mineola, NY: Dover, 2017)
Courtesy of Howard-Tilton Memorial Library, Tulane University
PN6767.M39 A6 2017
“Lieutenant Absinthe Washed Ashore”
In this image from Fires & Murmurs, we see the story’s protagonist, Lieutenant Absinthe, unconscious and washed ashore while many of his crew lie dead on the sand around him. A native from the island has discovered Absinthe, and she cradles him in a way that is both maternal and deeply unsettling.
Lorenzo Mattotti uses layered colored pencil and pastel to construct a hushed, immersive atmosphere. Broad passages of tone are built through dense, grainy accretions of pigment, allowing color to function as mood rather than mere description. The velvety blacks and ashen grays of the landscape press against the saturated red of the central figure, creating a charged chromatic contrast. Mattotti’s softly blended transitions and restrained lines dissolve clear contours, so forms seem to emerge from shadow. The result is contemplative yet unsettling, a scene shaped as much by emotional resonance as by narrative detail.
Neil Gaiman and the Brothers Grimm, Hansel and Gretel (New York: TOON Books, 2014)
“Hansel and Gretel Lost in the Woods”
This illustration from Hansel and Gretel by Neil Gaiman and Lorenzo Mattotti captures the siblings at their most vulnerable—small silhouettes swallowed by a forest that feels alive with menace. Mattotti’s dense, inky blacks twist into tangled branches and root-like forms, transforming the woods into a looming, almost predatory presence. The children, rendered in pale contrast against a distant clearing, appear fragile yet united, their clasped hands a quiet act of defiance. Rather than depicting overt action, the image dwells in atmosphere: shadow overwhelms light, and the natural world becomes abstract and suffocating.