Bonvi (Bonvicini, Franco) - 1 Portfolio - Fiori d’invenzione - 6x incisioni tirate al torchio - 1973

Bonvicini Franco / Bonvi

Fiori d’invenzione - No. 6 engravings in folder - 1973
Size of each sheet approximately 50 x 35 cm
Each sheet signed in pencil by the Author
Edition 50 - Example 48/50
In excellent condition with protective tissue over the engravings

+

No. 1 Unnumbered engraving
sheet 50 x 35 - 1974
Dedication in pencil by the Artist


"Fiori d'invenzione" is an expression that denotes one of Franco Bonvicini's inventions, known as Bonvi, referring to the advertising device "al fiore di piretro" (the flower of pyrethrum). In reality, pyrethrum is not a flower, but a chemical substance extracted from a flower. Bonvi used this wordplay to make an insecticide seem more appealing, a phrase that became a running joke in Italian popular culture, also thanks to his mother, who believed it to be true, defending the phrase he himself had invented. The phrase exemplifies Bonvi's genius and humor, capable of creating catchphrases and puns that entered mass culture.

In his "Bustina di Minerva" Umberto Eco recounts an anecdote told to him by Bonvi, who, to supplement the income from his comics, also worked in advertising. One day, needing a slogan for an insecticide, Bonvi discovered that one of its ingredients was pyrethrum. Thus he came up with the idea of inserting the phrase 'al fiore di piretro' in advertisements and TV spots—an expression that made no sense since pyrethrum is not a flower but a chemical substance extracted from a flower. It was a device to make the insecticide's strong odor seem fresh and desirable to the consumer. One day, while visiting his mother's home, Bonvi smelled a strong insecticide odor; his mother said she used it liberally because it was a delightful blend of the flower of pyrethrum. Bonvi then got angry and said, "Mom, that's nonsense I invented!". And his mother replied: "No, my son. The TV says so!". (source: wikipedia)

Bonvi/Franco Bonvicini
(Modena, March 31, 1941 – Bologna, December 10, 1995)

Bonvi spent his youth in Modena, where he began drawing toy soldiers on the napkins of the taverns he frequented. His life has been described as "a life invented": in fact, every episode of Franco Bonvicini's life seems worthy of a story. His birth, for instance, is claimed by both Modena and Parma: although born in Modena, his mother registered him in the records of both cities to obtain a double ration card, necessary to guarantee food supplies during the harsh wartime rationing.

His official first foray into work was in advertising. In 1965, thanks to his friendship with Francesco Guccini, whom he had known for over a decade, he began collaborating with the animation studio Vinder Film, contributing to the creation of memorable animated commercials for Amarena Fabbri, with the pirate Salomone pacioccone, broadcast on Carosello. In the following two years, he gained experience also in cinema (as a costume designer and makeup artist), even acting as Derek Flit opposite Franco Franchi, Ciccio Ingrassia, and Julie Menard in How We Stole the Atomic Bomb, directed by Lucio Fulci. 1968 marks a turning point: with the Sturmtruppen strips, his most famous characters, published for the first time in the Roman underground magazine Off-Side, Bonvi wins the Paese Sera daily contest at the Lucca Comics Show. Starting the following year, his misadventures of the ill-fated German soldiers are officially serialized in Paese Sera. Between 1968 and 1970, in collaboration with his friend Guccini, he wrote and drew Storie dallo spazio profondo, published in the monthly Psyco. These were science fiction stories starring a human (Bonvi) and his robot companion (Guccini). During this period Bonvi began the habit of inserting himself as a protagonist in his comics, a device he revisited in the early episodes of Incubi di provincia, started in those years and continued sporadically until 1977. In 1969 he created for Edizioni Alpe the characters Capitan Posapiano and Cattivik. The latter, a parody of the noir comics of the time, derived from an old idea that had appeared in issue 0 of Undercomics. Bonvi later passed the Cattivik legacy to Silver (Guido Silvestri), his very young assistant at the time. Between the late 1960s and early 1970s, he created the character Nick Carter for the TV series Gulp! I fumetti in TV. This detective, a parody of infallible investigators like Sherlock Holmes, made his纸 appearance in 1972 on Il Corriere dei Ragazzi. The following years saw the creation of Cronache del dopobomba, initially rejected by Italian publishers, but published in France in 1974 thanks to Bonvi's rising fame, fueled by the Prix International St. Michel won at the first Angoulême Festival in 1973. This prize opened the doors to the French market, where he produced the adventures of Milo Marat and collaborated with numerous magazines (Pif, Scope) and Francophone authors (notably Claude Moliterni). In 1974 he won both the Yellow Kid prize at the Lucca International Comics Show and the Nettuno prize, awarded by ANAF of Bologna, which he would receive again at a later edition. The CEPIM Editorial’s Un uomo un'avventura series (Sergio Bonelli) saw Bonvi as author of no. 13, L'uomo di Tsushima, in 1978. The following year he created Marzolino Tarantola, a parody of Saturnino Farandola by Albert Robida, which debuted on March 8, 1979 in the new TV comic series Supergulp!. In 1982 he produced Heidi contro Ufo Robot for Playboy Italia, satirically mocking the then-popular Japanese animated series. In the late 1980s, besides being elected to Bologna City Council, he founded, with Red Ronnie (Gabriele Ansaloni), the publishing house G. Vincent, which during that five-year period published both the new monthly Sturmtruppen and the Be Bop a Lula magazine. Between 1993 and 1994 he drew Blob for Comix, a humorous version of Sturmtruppen described as "Bonvi's gross comic," created solely for charity, and also produced Il Calendario di Frate Indurino for Linus. In 1995 he wrote Maledetta Galassia and La Città, with drawings by Giorgio Cavazzano, originally conceived for Sergio Bonelli Editore's Zona X miniseries and later published in its parent publisher's The Great Comics of Fumetto. In the same year he produced his final work, Alì Babà ei quaranta ladroni, where, with great attention to details and setting, he reinterprets the original tale of One Thousand and One Nights introducing new characters. These thirty panels, inspired by his travels in the Middle East and by studying various architecture texts, were accompanied by a retelling of the tale by Enrico Brizzi and were recently published in the volume Apriti sesamo, published by Magazzini Salani. He died on December 10, 1995, struck by a hit-and-run driver while on his way to participate as a guest on his friend Red Ronnie's TV program, Roxy Bar. He was carrying some of his drawings to sell them, intending to donate the proceeds to his friend Magnus, who at the time was battling cancer. (source: tecnografica)