The 26th of September, 2011, Sergio Bonelli died. For those who do not know him, "Sergio Bonelli Editore" is the most important Italian publisher of comic books. In its typical "Bonelli format" (one-hundred B&W pages, paperback), many of the most popular and lasting Italian comic characters were published: Tex, Zagor, Martin Mystère, Dylan Dog, Mister No, Julia, Nathan Never, Magico Vento, and many others. More than 60 years of comics forged a new way in which stories (in Italy, but in many other countries, too) are told and drawn, and affected the imagination of several generations of readers, youngsters and not-so-young, too.The 5th of October, less than two weeks after, Steve Jobs died, too. He changed the industry, but also the everyday life of many people throughout the world. He was the well-known father of Apple – and then of Apple II, Mac, iPod, iPhone, iPad, and iTunes – and less known founder of Next – where Mac OS X essentially comes from – and of Pixar – so, the father of Woody the Cowboy and of many other great characters.
If one would wonder what they do had in common, well, I am not here to tell exactly: but to me, they changed almost every day of my life in the last thirty years. In too many ways to be recollected in a few words here. And so, I'm deeply grateful for what they did, and I am so sad they no longer belong to this world.
Well, one thing surely they had in common: both were remembered generally for their many successes, whereas they both liked to remind everyone of their many failures, pointing out many times how failures had shaped anyway their path toward their best achievements.
And so, now, we who are left to remember them, looking around in slight despair to see whether other men of similar level and impact would ever rise again, and change our life in the same way Bonelli and Jobs did... we are then left with one hope, at least. That someone else with comparable genius and creativity will be strong enough to travel over the arid lands of his own mistakes and failures, so to come and share the beautiful toys he crafted for us.
Thanks Sergio, thanks Steve.
