The Arabian Nights - Sergio Toppi

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The Arabian Nights - Sergio Toppi

 So I read, or at least tried to read Sergio Toppi's comics 'Arabian Nights'. I couldn't read it exactly because it was in Italian – but I actually liked it because of the composition of the pieces. I was actually introduced to Sergio Toppi's work when I was studying abroad in Florence, I also learned about another comic artist Moebius-Jean Giraud. I also saw Lorenzo Mattotti's work that were like comic scenes with no text within the illustrations. But I actually really enjoyed his imagery. He made each of his pages very dynamic. Sometimes he would section each of the scenes by boxes, the classical way – but other times he would divide it in a very cool compositional way with the artwork which went from one scene to the next in one full image. He also used very limited colors like blues and greens or purples and reds. It was a watercolor kind of quality with his amazing line quality of work. The attention to detail was exquisite. 
(one page from the comic)
(the cover of Arabian Nights)
(Page within Arabian Nights)
I later found out online that there – however they did not have all the spreads available. Toppi created many renditions of mythical or traditional, well known stories (most of them ere Italy's anthologies). At the time Arabian Nights wasn't a story that was well known, he was the one to make these stories famous. They were supposed to be narrated by the woman Sharaz-de who had to basically tell a story every night to save her life.


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