For those familiar with Italian comics artist Alessandro Barbucci and writer/colorist Barbara Canepa there is a special treat in the current (Summer 2006) issue of Heavy Metal Magazine.
The issue is a special that collects all three of the French comics albums of Barbucci and Canepa’s Sky-Doll series and presents them together, conveniently translated into English.
If you’re not familiar with Sky-Doll, see my previous post on Barbucci and Canepa.
In addition to Sky-Doll, Barbucci and Canepa are also the artists/writers of the French Witch children’s comics series (from which the American TV series W.I.T.C.H. was adapted) and the delightful Monster Allergy stories (first three issues, I think).
If, like me, you’re a fan of Barbucci and Canepa’s charmingly stylized and wonderfully imaginative comic art, you would be perfectly happy to pay upward of 20 Euros for each of the three French Sky-Doll albums, plus who knows how much for importing and shipping, and be happy to have them in French. To have all three translated in one magazine for $6.95 is an amazing treat.
(You have to ignore the entirely unrelated cover. What were they thinking? With so much striking Barbucci art available, why… oh, it’s Heavy Metal Magazine… never mind.)
There is still a Sky-Doll album not reprinted here, Sky-Doll: Doll’s Factory (Amazon France link here), which is essentially a “making-of” book, with sketches and penciled pages.
Note: Sky-Doll, Heavy Metal Magazine and some of the sites linked here contain nudity and sexually suggestive images. Avoid them if you’re likely to be offended.
Addendum: Hai writes that Barberra and Canepa contributed content to the first six issues of Monster Allergy and supervised the rest. There is new monsterallergy.com web site devoted to the new animated series. I don’t know the degree of B & C’s involvement with development of the show.
