Fumetti al femminile: una lunga storia verso l’emancipazione.

The paper intends to trace the genesis and development of female presence in Italian comics. This is a relatively recent phenomenon, influenced by the late entry of women into children’s literature in Italy (Barsotti, 2011) and only achieving significance from the 1960s onwards with characters such as Valentina, designed by Crepax in 1965 (Coaloa, 2018), and Valentina Mela Verde, created by Grazia Nidasio in 1969 (Articoni, 2019). This delay was caused by the fact that comic strip production that had historically been dominated by male authors and editors. As a result, it took several decades for female figures in comics to assert themselves in a process fuelled by the increasing numbers of girls reading comics, who have come to account for 25% of the readership in the new millennium (Pietrini, 2008). Emancipation has been channelled by two developments: the foundation/establishment of new comic series with female protagonists and the affirmation of female authors, such as the Giussani sisters, the creators of Diabolik in 1962. This article offers an account of how the new comic strips authored by women and mostly published by Bonelli have promoted progressive environmental and social justice ideals, matured within the contemporary world. To end with, this article considers the influence of Japanese manga, comparing it with the most recent European and American comics.