Guido De Maria, pioneer of Italian creativity, has died at the age of 93

Guido De Maria, one of the most eclectic figures of twentieth-century Italian creativity, has died at the age of 93. Born in Lama Mocogno and moved to Bologna for work, he has gone through advertising, comics, television and cabaret with the same ironic and visionary spirit. His death comes a few days after that of Francesco Guccini, his historic friend and collaborator, and just two days after the death of the photographer Franco Fontana. Precisely with Guccini and the designer Bonvi, De Maria shared some of the most original seasons of Italian pop culture, transforming ideas, characters and jokes into phenomena capable of entering the collective imagination.

His talent was expressed above all in advertising and television. After a long experience as a cartoonist for newspapers such as Epoca and Il Candido, De Maria signed numerous Caroselli which became memorable: from Brutos to Franco Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia for Cera Grey, up to Salomone the easy-going pirate for Amarena Fabbri, to the famous "shirt with a moustache" with Maurizio Costanzo and the Loacker dwarfs. In 1971 he founded Playvision and shortly afterwards, together with Bonvi, he created Nick Carter, destined to become one of the symbolic characters of comic television. A creative universe that would find its consecration with Gulp! Comics on TV, the Rai program that contributed to bringing the language of comics into the homes of Italians.

From 1977 to 1981 De Maria worked with Giancarlo Governi on Supergulp! Comics on TV, a cult program capable of bringing together millions of spectators in front of the screen and bringing characters such as Corto Maltese, Lupo Alberto, Sturmtruppen and Tex to television. In 1978 the award for television direction also arrived in the children's programs category. At the same time he continued to cultivate cabaret with the Archibusti, sharing the experience with Guccini. In the 2000s he returned to dealing with Nick Carter and Supergulp!, helping to keep that season alive through exhibitions, books and DVD collections. A long career built on the encounter between irony, drawing and television, capable of leaving a mark well beyond his generation.