Who am I?

by Francesco Chiatante

Andrea Romoli, born in Florence in 1944, graduated in physics in 1973 and worked for about 34 years in the field of instrumental optics for space applications at a large company. Ever since he was young, he loved comics and considered them his hobby.

The first comic book story of the series Altri Mondi, titled “Avventura su Efesto”, was published by the historic publishing house Nerbini in the year 1977.

After Adventure on Hephaestus, more comics will follow: “Fuga su Issar”, “L’ultima Fortezza”, “Il demone di Azul” and “Crab Nebula”, which were all recently republished.

From the same series Other Worlds, in 1984 the japanese animation studio Nippon Animation decided to create an animated series with the title “Spaceship Sagittarius”. The series, which had a total of 52 episodes, was very well-received in Japan’s capital city Tokyo.

Spaceship Sagittarius

TOPPE

GIRAFFO

RANA

curiosities

Due to its success, the animated series saw an increase in total episodes from 52 to 77, with a duration amounting to 30 minutes each.

The animated series also made its debut in Europe, but not in Italy.

In 2015, Romoli resumes publishing with 5 books from Magdala and 5 from the Altri Mondi series, starring the three legendary characters Toppe, Giraffo and Rana, respectively the commander, the pilot and the on-board biologist.

These three form the ship’s crew, named Sagittario, which embarks on a journey in space to discover new creatures and planets.

THE 80’S

1980 – Romoli starts working on new books for the Altri Mondi series (Toppe, Giraffo and Rana). These books include Fuga su Issar (its second edition published in May 1981), Il demone di Azul (published in April 1981), L’ultima Fortezza (published in April 1981), and Crab Nebula (published in May 1981). All books were published by Zanfi Editori (Modena).
1981 – A contract is signed to allow Tokyo’s Nippon Animation to create an animated series composed by 26 + 26 episodes, with a duration of 30 minutes per episode.
– During this time, Romoli also created two more comics stories (unpublished): Sinfonia del nuovo mondo and L’organo di Kthalon. He also creates storyboards for six episodes of the animated TV series (about six hundred drawings in total), although they were never used in the animated series.
1982 – Nippon Animation animates the pilot film of the future series titled “Sagittarius”, with a duration of 6 minutes.
1985 – Together with the publishing house Editorial Presença (Lisbon, Portugal), Romoli works on the portuguese edition of Altri Mondi’s first volume, entitled Qui Outros Mundos (Toppe, Girafo e Sapo) – Fuga em Issar
1986 – Between the 10th of January and the 3rd of October 1987, the animated series Spaceship Sagittarius – Uchusen Sagittarius (made by Nippon Animation) airs for the first time on Asahi National Broadcasting (present name: TV Asahi, owned by All-Nippon News Network). This time, it would be composed of a total of 77 minutes (30 minutes each) instead of 52, thanks to the series’ success
– Together with the publishing house Editorial Presença (Lisbon, Portugal), Romoli works on the portuguese edition of Altri Mondi’s second volume, entitled Qui Outros Mundos (Toppe, Girafo e Sapo) – O demónio de Azur
1987 – Together with the publishing house Editorial Everest (León, Spain), Romoli works on the spanish edition of Altri Mondi’s four volumes. They were titled Qui Otros Mundos (Tope, Jirafo y Rana) Fuga en Issar, El demonio de Azul, La última fortaleza and Crab Nebula. At the same time, Editorial Presença (Lisbon, Portugal) collaborates with Romoli to create a portuguese edition of Altri Mondi’s third volume, entitled Qui Outros Mundos (Toppe, Giraffo e Sapo) – A última fortaleza
1988 – On the 10th of April, the animated series Spaceship Sagittarius is awarded the Atom Award at the 1988 Nippon Anime Festival.

THE 90’S

1993 – In September, Romoli publishes his newest work together with Litografia G. Nerbini Magdala: the first humoristic comic of the series with a new protagonist, Magdala, an anthropomorphic cat.
1994 – Romoli is halfway done with Magdala’s first book, titled “La cassa sbagliata”  - he also began collaborating with Piccole Impronte, a magazine created by the animalistic association LAV (Lega Anti Vivisezione). The collaboration will last until 2006, and during this time Romoli drew about thirty adventures centered around Renato La Volpe, a comic he made to help children gain more respect and love for animals.
1996 – Romoli, with the help of publisher Nardini-Malipiero, publishes four illustrated books of Pero&Pera entitled Il vorticone, Il grande furto dei cocomeri, La mamma ha sempre ragione and Cavoli a merenda.

YEARS 2000-2015

2001 – Romoli publishes twelve Pero&Pera comic stories on Unicoop Minimondo’s book for kids
2013 – Tamari Montagna Edizioni publishes a book titled Alpi Apuane. Ferrovie e sentieri. 17 itineraries to discover, between history and nature, by Giuseppe Alfio Ciabatti: the book contains two of Andrea Romoli’s illustrations.
2015 – Romoli finishes working on La cassa sbagliata and starts a new book called Area 666, which are both part of the Magdala series.
– Together with Youcanprint Self-Publishing, Romoli publishes Magdala’s three books (the already published Magdala as well as the unpublished books La mia migliore amica and La cassa sbagliata) and also re-publishes Altri Mondi’s four books (Toppe, Giraffo e Rana) (Fuga su Issar, Il demone di Azul, L’ultima fortezza and Crab Nebula)

YEARS 2016-2017

2016 – Together with Youcanprint Self-Publishing, Romoli publishes Magdala’s fourth book, Area 666, and also republishes Fuga en Issar from Otros Mundos (Tope, Jirafo y Rana), Fuga su Issar’s spanish edition
– He also starts working on Magdala’s fifth book: La notte di Halloween (attached, in the first edition, with the share of ANAFI – Associazione Nazionale Amici del Fumetto e dell’Illustrazione for the year 2017)
– In July, Romoli is chosen for a special event at Cartoon Club Rimini – Festival Internazionale del Cinema di Animazione del Fumetto e dei Games, a festival at RiminiComix, with his own section in the catalog - in the same month, Spaceship Sagittarius – Uchūsen Sagittarius is screened by Cartoon Club Rimini and RiminiComix
– On the 17th of July, Cartoon Club Rimini provides Romoli with a special recognizition “for the quality of all of his work in the field of comics and animated movies.”
– Together with Youcanprint Self-Publishing, Romoli publishes a new sci-fi comic for the series Altri Mondi (Toppe, Giraffo e Rana), titled Lo specchio dei mondi
2017 – Together with Youcanprint Self-Publishing., Romoli publishes new illustrated books for children: Il boschetto dei balocchi, L’isola dei pinguini, Il palone dello zio Poldo and the fully coloured edition of the comic booklet Influssi Malefici, with the same adventure from La mia migliore amica, the second book from the Magdala series
– On the 1st and on the 2nd of April, Romoli is a special guest at Vicomix – Fiera del Fumetto di Vicenza, for which he creates, from the cover of Lo specchio dei mondi of the Altri Mondi series, the event’s manifest, from which a limited edition lithograph in ninety-nine copies is also made, numbered and signed.
– On the 8th of October, Romoli is a special guest at Magnus Day – Castel del Rio (Bologna), for which he creates a limited edition print.
– In December, Romoli takes part in a Japanese contest called Jump’s Universal Manga Contest, held by the magazine Weekly Shonen Jump for its 50th anniversary, with the sci-fi comic Kthalon (32 pages in black-and-white with japanese writings), based on the Altri Mondi series (Toppe, Giraffo and Rana)/Spaceship Sagittarius – Uchūsen Sagittarius. For the occasion, Romoli’s entry is also published on the web portal of the Japanese web publisher MediBang.

YEARS 2018-2019

2018 – Romoli works on an institutional poster for CosMo – Fiera del Fumetto Modena, where he is also a guest on the 13th and on the 14th of January. The poster includes the three protagonists from the Altri Mondi series (Toppe, Giraffo and Rana)/Spaceship Sagittarius – Uchūsen Sagittarius, where the three are shown riding a dragon over the city of Modena. Romoli also works on a limited signed edition of Diabolik in collaboration with the publishing house Astorina.
– On the 24th and 25th of March, Romoli is a guest at the third edition of Lucca Collezionando, where he hosts an exclusive presentation showcasing a limited edition signed print with 50 copies.
– Il 21 e 22 aprile è ospite d’onore all’undicesima edizione di Godega Fumetti (Godega di Sant’Urbano, Treviso) per cui realizza il manifesto della manifestazione
– Pubblica con Youcanprint Self-Publishing il sesto, il settimo e l’ottavo fumetto di Magdala dai titoli Cosplayer al Mukka Comix, La favolosa scoperta di Atlantide e Il clamoroso furto della Nascita di Venere e ripubblica sempre dalla stessa serie e ancora con Youcanprint Self-Publishing, in nuova edizione e con nuove copertine, i titoli La mia migliore amica e La cassa sbagliata
– Ad ottobre 2018 esce per Edizioni NPE – Nicola Pesce Editore il libro a fumetti Una valle di Gabriele Bernabei e Giovanni Degli Esposti Venturi, in omaggio a Roberto Raviola in arte ”Magnus”, in cui Andrea Romoli realizza l’illustrazione tributo de Il borgo di Castiglioncello
– A novembre, presenta alla Biblioteca delle Oblate di Firenze il fumetto, della serie Magdala, Il clamoroso furto della Nascita di Venere assieme allo storico del fumetto Alberto Becattini
2019 – Il 19 gennaio è ospite dell’Open Day di Accademia Nemo – Nemo Academy of Digital Arts (Firenze) per un incontro aperto al pubblico, affiancato da Francesco Chiatante
– Il 5 aprile è ospite all’edizione primaverile di Romics XXV per l’incontro col pubblico Andrea Romoli, il Sensei italiano
– Il 27 aprile è ospite al festival Risvegli – Orto Botanico di Padova/Università di Padova assieme ad Alfredo Castelli (autore di Martin Mystère) e alla biologa Mariella Rasotto per l’incontro Un mare di invenzioni
– E’ ospite d’onore al Florence Fun & Japan di Firenze assieme alla character designer di anime giapponesi Terumi Nishii che gli consegna il Premio Speciale Gold Drake 2019 per essersi distinto con la sua arte a livello internazionale
– A luglio, è ospite con una mostra personale a RiminiComix e al Cartoon Club Rimini – Festival Internazionale del Cinema di Animazione del Fumetto e dei Games, presso il Museo della Città di Rimini, dal titolo Il meraviglioso mondo di Andrea Romoli dove è anche in giuria per il concorso annuale dei cortometraggi di autori professionisti
– Ad ottobre, è ospite d’onore a Mugello Comics 2019 a Barberino di Mugello (Firenze) con la mostra Altri Mondi: dall’Italia al Giappone
– Il 31 ottobre è ospite di Accademia Nemo – Nemo Academy of Digital Arts (Firenze) a Lucca Comics & Games 2019 e riceve il Premio Speciale AnimeClick dal portale web specializzato in manga e anime www.animeclick.it consegnatogli dal direttore editoriale Alessandro Falciatore

2020

2020 – Esce per La Città delle Nuvole Edizioni (Firenze) il volume Andrea Romoli.

Sotto il segno del Sagittario, raccolta di disegni, illustrazioni, studi e bozzetti dagli archivi privati di Altri Mondi (Toppe, Giraffo e Rana) del Maestro e di Spaceship Sagittarius – Uchūsen Sagittarius della Nippon Animation

– Lavora, ancora oggi, all’ultima storia a fumetti della serie Altri Mondi (Toppe, Giraffo e Rana) intitolata Kthalon Porta Inferi.

Commissions

Romoli accepts commissions to be made in mixed technique, with watercolor and Indian ink

Request

Originals on Sale

A wide array of Romoli’s original masterpieces, which he carried out over his many years of activity.