Rotundo, Massimo - 1 Original Illustration - Ex-Libris Eroticis - Rococò - 1986

Original Illustration Drawing Ex-Libris Eroticis (1986), titled "Rococò", by the Italian illustrator and cartoonist Massimo Rotundo!

Oil on Large Sized Enamelled Paper.

The panel is signed!

The series "Ex Libris Eroticis" is a famous collection of erotic illustrations and comics that revisit past erotic literature and art through a modern perspective created by the Italian artist Massimo Rotundo in the 1980s.

The series was originally published in the 1980s in magazines such as L’écho des Savanes and later collected in volumes by various publishers, Glittering Images, Blue Press, L'Integrale

The work stands out for a refined style that recalls the atmospheres of Art Nouveau (Liberty style) and the fin de siècle decadentism.

The series collects short stories and illustrations that explore themes of pleasure, lust, and sensuality, often set in historical or aristocratic contexts.

The term "Ex Libris" refers to the customized labels that book collectors pasted in their volumes. In Rotundo’s context, it evokes the idea of a private collection of forbidden and precious stories.

Secure and traceable shipping, well protected!

Massimo Rotundo is an Italian comics artist, illustrator, and painter.
After attending the Academy of Fine Arts and graduating in decoration, he began as a comics artist collaborating with Eura Editoriale in 1978 on the Lanciostory magazine drawing comics and covers. He soon drew notice and his name began to appear on several other magazines such as Heavy Metal and L'Écho des Savanes.

Around the early 1980s, the golden age of author’s comic magazines, Rotundo alternates his collaborations among various titles. After the Eura weeklys, Rotundo briefly lands on L'Eternauta and on issue 12 of the magazine, February 1983, he published The Last Journey to Delos, a short color science fiction story of just four panels with texts by Maria Teresa Contini. After this brief experience Rotundo would return to the magazine’s pages only ten years later with Tigre Tigre, another science fiction comic written this time by Riccardo Barreiro.

In the same period he debuts in the seventh issue of Orient Express (January 1983) with the fascinating comics tale called The Fisherman, with texts by Riccardo Barreiro, a science fiction story about a possible future devastated by man’s recklessness and subsequently, again on Orient Express, he publishes The Detective Without a Name scripted by Luigi Mignacco starting from issue 17 of the magazine in December 1983. Both comics were later reprinted in the Gli albi di Orient Express collection. In Orient Express issue 26 of November 1984, again with texts by Barreiro, he creates the short story of private investigator Lou Alcaide titled A Dragon on the Highway. Meanwhile he collaborates with numerous fashion and costume magazines but also with comics like Glamour and Diva.

In 1985 he begins collaborating with the magazine Comic Art with the story The City of No Return on texts by Giuseppe Ferrandino. The collaboration with the magazine will last long and will see the birth of some important characters. On Comic Art will appear the six episodes that make up the comic Esotica, created in collaboration with friend Franco Saudelli for the supplement L'Espresso Più starting from May 1987. In January 1987, in issue 29 of Comic Art, Sera Torbara debuts, a historical-set comic with complex characters and captivating plots, with its first episode: The Flight of the Gods. The protagonist, Sera Torbara indeed, is an officer of the Ottoman army, a deserter and an assassin. Followed by The Tears of Judas starting from issue 60 of Comic Art, October 1989 and Turkish March, a series of five short stories published starting from issue 66 of Comic Art, April 1990, composed of Boat Song, Gavotte, Allegro, Quadrille and Grand Finale, which are in fact a prequel to the events narrated in the first episode. Also in Comic Art from issue 66, April 1990, the character Tovarisc Nina appears, scripted and drawn by Rotundo, described by the author as the Perestroika comic, a curious pseudocommunist-tinged setting with fascinating, and undressed, little ladies soldiers with no interest but war. The first episode, titled Warm War, shows a near future where Russia has not collapsed and the USSR is still standing.

Rotundo also contributed to the multi-authored comic Rudy X published starting from Comic Art issue 37, October 1987; the series, produced by Comic Art itself, involved several authors dealing with different aspects of the comic. Rotundo studied the look, features and clothing of the characters while the other contributors were Traini, Pedrazzi, Saudelli, Coletta, Torti.

For the French publisher Albin Michel he published in 1988 the erotic series Ex Libris Eroticis which made him known and appreciated in France. It consists of very short stories where erotism is linked to history and to the culture of settings, each time consisting of a different city chosen as a background, reimagining in comics the erotic literature and illustration of the early twentieth century. The comic was later republished in the pages of the adult comic magazine Blue, starting from issue 4, April 1991, with the title Atlante Erotico. It was then republished in volume with the original title Ex Libris Eroticis. Rotundo’s collaboration with Blue began even earlier, since from the first issue of the magazine, including the cover of Blue’s January 1991 first issue. He would also create for Blue the series Chinagirl, again erotism but with a more exotic setting, the Far East.

Subsequently he is also appreciated for his transpositions of literary works into comics, among which La pelle di Zigrino (Balzac), Pasolini, based on scripts by Jean Dufaux and The Greek Myths. Comics by Luciano De Crescenzo.

Since 1998 he has been part of the Sergio Bonelli Editore stable, involved from the early stages of realization of the new character Brendon created by Claudio Chiaverotti, for which he drew several episodes, including the first Born on February 31, in June 1998. The series is set in a desolate post-nuclear future and Brendon is a classic fearless knight-errant. From issue 46 Rotundo has been entrusted with the covers of the series up to that moment by Corrado Roi. Since 2007 he is also the cover artist of the miniseries Volto Nascosto, created by Gianfranco Manfredi for Sergio Bonelli Editore, as well as the artist of some episodes.

For many magazines such as Métal Hurlant, Torpedo, Sette with which he collaborated, Rotundo has also created short and self-contained stories.

He has also collaborated with writer Giuseppe Ferrandino as a penciller for comics such as Nero and Sandokan.

Among his more recent works, produced directly in volume, is the horror-tinged saga Prediction (scripted by Pierre Makyo and colored by Emanuele Tenderini) which has currently reached the second episode and published by Delcourt.

Rotundo is also one of the founders and teachers of the Scuola Romana dei Fumetti and also works for cinema and theater. In cinema he has collaborated as an illustrator with costumer Milena Canonero on numerous films and theatre works. He has worked as a sketch artist for the films Crusade by Paul Verhoeven, Titus by Julie Taymor (Oscar-nominated for costumes), Wolfman by Joe Johnston, and Gangs of New York by Martin Scorsese. In animation he did the character design for the series Ulysses. My Name is Nobody (Kineo-Diamanti Cartoon On The Bay Venice Film Festival 2012) produced by RAI and The Animation Band.

Among the prizes won, in 1990 the Yellow Kid as Best Italian Artist at the Lucca International Comics Salon and in 1992 the F.M. prize from Trani, Foiano.

Rotundo is also a painter, a activity he carries out signing his works under the pseudonym “Max Grecoriaz.” In 2015 he drew for Sergio Bonelli Editore the Texone n. 30 “Tempesta su Galveston” written by Pasquale Ruju.

In 2018 he won the Romics Gold career award in which Martin Freeman and Tsukasa Hōjō were also honored.

In 2021 he drew for Sergio Bonelli Editore the special maxi Tex n. 29 "Mississipi Ring".

In February 2024 Sergio Bonelli Editore released the Tex à la française n. 18 titled "Bounty Hunters" with texts by Pasquale Ruju, on which Rotundo handles drawings, colors and cover."