Massimo Belardinelli
| Massimo Belardinelli | |
|---|---|
| Born | June 5, 1938 |
| Died | March 31, 2007 (aged 68) |
| Nationality | Italian |
|
Notable works
|
Ace Trucking Co. |
Massimo Belardinelli (5 June 1938; - 31 March 2007) was an Italian comic artist best known for his work in the British science fiction comic 2000 AD.
Belardinelli was born in Rome. His father was an amateur oil painter. Inspired by the Disney film Fantasia, Belardinelli went into animation in the 1960s, painting backgrounds for films produced by the Sergio Rosi studio. He then moved into comics, again through the Rosi studio, drawing backgrounds for "The Steel Claw" in the British weekly Valiant in a team which also included Giorgio Cambiotti on pencils and Sergio Rosi himself on inks. In 1969 he moved to the Giolitti Studio, which got him work in Italy, Germany, the UK and the USA. He collaborated with Alberto Giolitti on Gold Key Comics' Star Trek series in the USA, with Giolitti drawing the characters and Belardinelli the spaceships. In the UK in the mid-70s he drew "Rat Pack" for Battle Picture Weekly and "Death Game 1999" and "Green's Grudge War" for Action.
When 2000 AD was in preparation in 1977, an artist was needed for the revamped "Dan Dare", and Belardinelli tried out for no pay and got the job, and the rare honour of a byline, despite editor Pat Mills' reservations: although he excelled at visualising aliens, alien technology and alien landscapes, Mills thought "the hero looked awful". Belardinelli's work on the strip was not popular, and after a year he was switched to future sports series "Inferno", the sequel to the popular "Harlem Heroes", while former "Harlem Heroes" artist Dave Gibbons took over "Dan Dare".
Belardinelli then drew the second series of "Flesh", in which the time-travelling meat-farmers moved into the prehistoric oceans, in 1978-9. He also drew "The Angry Planet", a sci-fi serial set on colonised Mars, written by Alan Hebden, for Tornado in 1979, and then took over "Blackhawk", Gerry Finley-Day's strip about a Nubian slave who became a Roman centurion, when Tornado merged into 2000 AD later in the year. The strip was given a sci-fi twist by new writers Alan Grant and Kelvin Gosnell, with the hero being abducted by aliens and forced to fight in a galactic arena. Grant believes the strip's popularity was down to Belardinelli's art.
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