Salgarone [Le Lion]

Benito Jacovitti is probably the most famous Italian satirical cartoonist, best known for his absurd and humorous series full of grotesque characters and bizarre events, like 'Cocco Bill' and 'Zorry Kid'. National fame came through Jacovitti's collaboration with Il Vittorioso, that lasted from 1939 to 1969. One of his first creations for his magazine was the character 'Pippo'.Together with his companions Pertica and Palla, Pippo formed the hilarious threesome 'I tre P' ('The Three P's'), whose adventures appeared in the Catholic weekly until its disappearance in 1969. Between 1949 and 1980, generations of Italians grew up with Jacovitti's 'Diario Vitt', a series of school diaries that Il Vittorioso's publisher A.V.E. published as a companion to their main magazine. Jacovitti enlightened the pages of these diaries with his many well-known characters, and dealt with themes like loyalty, friendship, brotherhood and solidarity. Jacovitti was additionally present in the satirical weekly Il Travaso delle idee from 1949 throughout the 1950s. He made an anti-communist story with Federico Fellini, as well as the comic stories 'Sempronio', 'Pasqualino Rififì' and 'Alonzo'. To avoid problems with his main employer, publisher A.V.E., he signed his work for Il Travaso "Franz". Starting in the early 1950s Jacovitti made editorial cartoons for the frontpage of newspaper Quotidiano.