Avant-Garde Comics: Pablo Echaurren from “Quadratini” to Graphic Novels

Carlotta Vacchelli

This project investigates the career of the artist Pablo Echaurren in the broader context of the Italian underground comics scene in the 1970s and 1980s. The goal is to demonstrate the historical centrality of his work for the progressive evolution and diversification of the Ninth Art in Italy. I focus on Echaurren’s stylistic evolution from his participation in the Roman countercultural milieu, especially through fanzines and magazines, to the rise of the graphic novel in Italy. More specifically, I study the combination of artistic avantgarde motifs with the reuse of comics icons among underground artists.