Thursday, January 19, 2012

Foreign Favorites: Kriminal

With his origin appearance in August of 1964, Kriminal was the first anti-hero as the protagonist of his own book created by Luciano Secchi  and Roberto Raviola under the pen names "Magnus and Bunker". Anthony Logan was an English master thief who was unusually cruel and wicked in the early episodes motivated by revenge of his father's death at the hands of criminals. For the early 1960s the combination of sex and sadism in these Italian tales quickly caused a sharp outcry from many civil groups as the lawsuits and seizures started. After much controversy, publisher Andrea Corno decided to change his "king of crime" into a married suave gentleman with a trusted Asian assistant, Shan-Ton, in his later toned down and more heroic adventures. Starting as a monthly feature, it popularity made it change to a fortnightly and finally weekly schedule, due mainly to the creators keen social and political satire they wove in their entertaining story lines. Spawning two Italian motion pictures in 1966 and '68 the comic series ended in 1974 after publishing four hundred nineteen issues.

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