Roberto Raviola, better known as Magnus, was an early pioneer of Italian fumetti neri (black, or adult comics). Like Georges Pichard, Raviola started out as an illustrator before switching to comics in 1964. Italian comics went through a huge renaissance in the ’60s and were deemed the epitome of chic at the time. Raviola adopted the pseudonym Magnus, a derivative of the Latin expression Magnus Pictor Fecit (A Great Painter Did It), and teamed up with writer Luciano Secchi (aka Max Bunker). Inspired by the Giussani sisters’ success with Diabolik—a sexy and violent criminal series—Magnus and Bunker launched a slew of successful pocketbook titles like Kriminal and Satanik in 1964, and Dennis Cobb in 1966. As a result, the duo became a mainstay of Italian comics throughout the ’60s.
In 1975, Magnus started the series Lo Sconosciuto (The Unknown) that was published in English as The Specialist. The story of a disillusioned ex-mercenary, Unknow, was remarkable at the time for its frank depiction of violence and sex. Magnus began working with Renzo Barbieri’s Edifumetto publishers, and after several years of research, managed to revolutionize erotic comics in Italy by creating several sexy series such as Milady 3000 in 1980, which blended Chinese culture, Flash Gordon, Star Wars eroticism, and hi-tech gadgetry into a science-fiction tale.
The following year, Magnus returned to the pocketbook format with the humorous, skilfully told, and highly pornographic series Necron. Written by Ilaria Volpe, Necron recounted the explicit sexual adventures of the strip’s heroine, Frieda Boher.
Magnus’s work was published extensively in French magazines like Métal Hurlant and L’Écho des Savanes, and in the latter he created the oriental-inspired erotic series, The 110 Pills, which was later continued by Georges Pichard. In 1987, Magus drew another erotic tale—The Enchanted Women—before embarking on his last graphic novel for Bonelli, the cowboy strip Tex Willer. He passed away in 1996.
An intimate scene from Magnus’s graphic novel The 110 Pills, where a servant girl pleasures her master.
This cover reveals Magnus’s masterly use of brush and pen and his sense of color.
The evil dominatrix Frieda Boher and her robotic zombie slave Necron get up to their old tricks in the third volume of Magnus’s Necron series. The strip typically mixes extreme cartoon sex and violence.
