Zerocalcare

Rech was born in Cortona, Italy, to an Italian father from Rome and a French mother. He was raised in France, then later Rome (Rebibbia-Ponte Mammolo area), where he graduated at the Lycée français Chateaubriand.[1][2]

In 2003, at the age of 20, Rech began working as an illustrator for Liberazione, Carta, La Repubblica XL, and several other periodicals. At this time, he also wrote a webcomic titled Safe Inside for Zuda Comics, the online division of DC Comics. In 2004 he created a comic about the G8 summit in Genoa, which had taken place three years before.[3]

Zerocalcare published his first graphic novel in October 2011 titled The Armadillo Prophecy, and in November created zerocalcare.it, a website where he published autobiographical comic strips. In September 2012, the blog won the Macchianera Award as 'Best draftsman-Cartoonist'[4] and the Gran Guinigi Award at Lucca Comics for best short story with The Armadillo Prophecy.[5]

In April 2016, Rech's fourth graphic novel Kobane Calling: Greetings from Northern Syria was published in Italian and later in English. The material had been previously published in 'Internazionale' and focused on the conflict between the Kurds and the Islamic State.[6] In 2017 Kobane Calling won the Micheluzzi Award as best cartoon at Naples Comicon. In October 2017, a film based on his first graphic novel La profezia dell'armadillo entered production with Fandango (a Fremantle subsidiary) and Rai Cinema.[7] Zerocalcare was one of four screenwriters on the movie.[8]

On 14 January 2018 L'Espresso published a short comic by Zerocalcare titled 'Questa non è una partita a bocce,' focusing on the rise of Neo-fascist movements in Italy,[9] and on 3 September 2018 the film La profezia dell'armadillo was released.[10] Shortly afterward, in November, the MAXXI museum of Rome hosted an exhibition of Zerocalcare's works, titled Zerocalcare. Scavare fossati, Nutrire coccodrilli. It lasted until March of 2019.[11] That same month a theatrical adaption of Kobane Calling: Greetings from Northern Syria debuted at Teatro del Giglio in Lucca, during Lucca Comics & Games 2019[12] and toured as part of the 2019/2020 theatre season.[13] In 2020, Zerocalcare got high visibility, particularly thanks to the animated shorts Rebibbia Quarantine broadcast on LA7 on the Propaganda Live program during lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy. On the same year, he made varant covers for Marvel's Absolute Carnage comic book miniseries, released on january 2020 by Panini Comics' Italian division.[14] He wrote an introduction for the Italian edition of TRANSito, a transgender-themed comic by Ian Bermúdez drawn by David Cantero, released in Italy in March 2020.[15]

On 21 December 2020 Zerocalcare announced that he would be creating an animated series for Netflix titled Tear Along the Dotted Line.[16][17] Ten months later, on 8 October 2021, Netflix released a teaser trailer for the show, which announced the show’s 17 November 2021 release date.[18] The show premiered ten days later, on 18 October, at the Rome Film Fest.[19] On 16 November Ablaze Publishing announced that they would be releasing English translations of Zerocalcare's first three graphic novels, The Armadillo Prophecy (2011), Tentacles At My Throat (2012) and Forget My Name (2014).[20] Tear Along the Dotted Line was released through Netflix on 17 November 2021. Early reviews have been positive.[21]

Graphic novels

• The Armadillo Prophecy (La profezia dell'armadillo). Edizioni Graficart. 2011.
• Tentacles At My Throat (Un polpo alla gola). Europe Comics. 2018.
• Dodici. BAO Publishing. 2013.
• Forget My Name (Dimentica il mio nome). Ablaze Publishing. 2022. ISBN 978-19-5091-272-8.
• Kobane Calling: Greetings from Northern Syria (Kobane Calling). Lion Forge Comics. 2017. ISBN 978-19-4130-249-1.
• Macerie prime. BAO Publishing. 2017.
• Macerie prime. Sei mesi dopo. BAO Publishing. 2017.
• Educazione subatomica. CNR Edizioni. 2018.
• Scheletri. BAO Publishing. 2020.
• A Babbo morto. Una storia di Natale. BAO Publishing. 2020.

Short Comics

• Sparare a zero. Best Movie. September 24th 2014-ongoing.
• Se Zerocalcare avesse scelto un panda anziché un armadillo?. in A Panda piace fare i fumetti degli altri. Panini Comics. 2015. ISBN 978-88-9120-954-2.
• Kobane Calling: Greetings from Northern Syria (Kobane Caling). Internazionale. October 2nd 2015. ISSN 1122-2832[22]
• La città del decoro (Città dei Puffi). La Repubblica. May 10th 2015.
• Ferro e piume. Internazionale. October 2nd 2015.
• Groviglio. La Repubblica. 2016. December 24th 2016.
• Così passi dalla parte del torto. in La rabbia. Einaudi Stile Libero Extra. 2016. ISBN 978-88-0623-093-7.
• Questa non è una partita a bocce. l'Espresso. January 14th 2018.
• C'è un quartiere che resiste. Internazionale. March 29th 2019.
• Macelli. Internazionale. July 19th 2019.
• Romanzo sanitario. l'Espresso. March 28th 2021.
• La dittatura immaginaria. Internazionale. May 14th 2021.
• Etichette. Internazionale. July 16th 2021.

Collections

• Ogni maledetto lunedì su due. BAO Publishing. 2013.
  • Collects the 2011 - 2013 'zerocalcare.it' strips, as well as a new 50 page comic.[23]
• L'elenco telefonico degli accolli. BAO Publishing. 2015.
  • Second collection of 'zerocalcare.it' strips from 2014 - 2015, as well a new 45 page comic.
• La scuola di pizze in faccia del professor Calcare. BAO Publishing. 2019.
  • Collects short comics published between May 10, 2015 - February 22, 2019, as well as a new comic divided into three parts.
• Niente di nuovo sul fronte di Rebibbia. BAO Publishing. 2021.
  • Collects short comics from 2019 - 2021, as well as a new comic divided into five parts.

• Pavan, Sara, ed. (2014). Il potere sovversivo della carta. Milan: Agenzia X. ISBN 978-88-9502-974-0.
• De Finis, Giorgio; Di Noto, Irene (2020). Senza Metropoliz non è la mia città. Rome: Bordeaux Edizioni. ISBN 978-88-3210-398-4.

• Rojava Calling (2016). Kobane, diario di una resistenza: Racconti di una staffetta di solidarietà (Sulla frontiera). Rome: Edizioni Alegre. ISBN 978-88-9884-117-2.
• Ian Bermúdez Raventós; David Cantero Berenguer (2020). TRANSito. Rome: Momo Edizioni. ISBN 978-88-9446-246-3.

• In questa città. Warner Music Italy. november 2019.
• Absolute Carnage. Panini Comics. january 2020 (variant).
• Sembro matto. Warner Music Italy. march 2020.
• Middlewest. Vol.1. BAO Publishing. october 2020 (variant).

• 2009: Zuda Comics Competition of January 2009 for Safe Inside.
• 2012:
  • Macchianera Italian Awards as 'Best draftsman-Cartoonist'.
  • XL Award for The Armadillo Prophecy.
  • Micheluzzi Award for the 'best webcomic' for zerocalcare.it.[24]
• 2013:
  • XL Award and Micheluzzi Award for the 'best comic book' for Tentacles at My Throat.
  • 'Archivio Disarmo - Colombe d'Oro per la Pace' Journalistic Award.
  • Lucca Comics & Games' Gran Guinigi Award for the 'best short story' for The Armadillo Prophecy.
• 2014: 'Satira politica di Forte dei Marmi' Award for the best 'satirical drawing'.
• 2017: Micheluzzi Award for the 'best short story' for Kobane Calling: Greetings From Northern Syria, on Internazionale n°1085.[25]
• 2018: Mondadori Public Award during the Micheluzzi Awards for Forget My Name.

• Finalist at the Strega Prize in the 'young' category for Forget My Name.
• Finalist at the Québec Libraries Prize for Forget My Name.[26]