I started my career in comics doing autobiographical-inspired comics. The idea comes from a time when I wanted to distance myself from my early works. Manuele Fior: I started working on Celestia five years ago, and the reasons why I did a book like this go a long way back. What brought you to do a book like this, that is so real and fantastic at the same time? Valerio Stivé: I think Celestia is an important book in your career, because there is so much of you in it, both as an artist and as a individual. This was probably the third interview I conducted with him: one was for Linus magazine a few years ago, and one was for Fumettologica, when in 2016 he released his “flag comic”, a giant comic as big a poster, published by Ratigher’s Flag Press (which also published a story by Simon Hanselmann in the same format).

More recently, when the book was released in English, I had a long chat with Manuele about how Celestia was born and what inspired it. Manuele had just moved there, to the city that inspired his work, after living in Paris for more than a decade. One year after Celestia was released in Italy, I had the chance to meet Manuele Fior in Venice I was visiting a city completely different from the Venice everyone used to know, now without the usual multitude of tourists. Two of them try to escape their fate, and the book follows their path to freedom and self-discovery. In Celestia, Fior takes us to a fictional Venice of the future, a city far away from the rest of a world in ruins, where a group of young people are developing ESP powers. The book marks Fior’s fifth release in English, making him the most-represented Italian comic artist in the North American graphic novel market. Used with permission.Ĭelestia, the latest book by Manuele Fior, was published in Italy by Igort’s Oblomov Edizioni between 20 in two volumes it was released in English by Fantagraphics this past summer. Valerio Stivé | JanuPhoto by Francesca Leonardi. I Was Outside Under A Pouring Rain”: Manuele Fior on Celestia and Beyond Features “I Was Completely Out Of My Comfort Zone.

Manuele fior 5000 km al secondo