Today in pulp... I look back at an artist whose brazen, action-packed news images captured the essence of post-war Italy: Walter Molino! Image
Molino began his career as an illustrator and caricaturist in 1935, working on a number of Italian newspapers. But in 1941 he took the prize spot for Italian commercial artists: cover illustrator for La Domenica del Corriere. Image
La Domenica del Corriere came out every Sunday, free with Corriere della Sera, and its hallmark was always its cover illustration: striking, exciting and sensationalist! Image
Molino was following in illustrious footsteps: Achille Beltrame had made his career illustrating for La Domenica del Corriere and had defined its cover style - direct and dramatic. Image
Walter Molino would carry on this tradition for the next 48 years with a torrent of drastic, action-packed illustrations for the newspaper. Image
Molino's speciality was capturing the moment of acute danger: his illustrations seize the moment and foreground the action, no matter what the story was. Image
And Molino was a master of displaying tension: with tight composition and excellent use of perspective he thrust the viewer into the action. Image
No story was too trivial to capture Molino's imagination: if he could wring tension out of situation he would paint it. Image
Many of his covers for La Domenica del Corriere feature crashes, accidents or near-misses. The crunch of bones, figures flying through the air to disaster, the shock of the moment of impact: his illustrations captured it all. Image
But Molino also captured the changes to society that were rapidly happening: his art was about change as much as impact. He tried to make sense of mid-modernity to an audience struggling to keep up with the sheer pace of the modern world. ImageImageImage
He also captured the drama of everyday life in Italy; its passions and conflicts... ImageImageImage
...along with the strange and unusual! ImageImageImage
La Domenica del Corriere ceased publication in 1989, but its covers are still collector items thanks to Molino's eye for the dramatic. Image
So here's to Walter Molino: the artist who helped shape modern Italy through the power of the image. Proof that a well made illustration can sometimes tell us more than a simple photograph can.

More stories another time... Image

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Pulp Librarian

Pulp Librarian Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @PulpLibrarian

8 Aug
Happy #808day everybody! And as we're celebrating the Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer I make no apologies for sampling one of my favourite previous threads.

This is the story of digital synthesised music... Image
In the 1940s Musique Concrète introduced the idea of sampling and sound distortion into musical composition - often with the help of audio tape splicing.

It was all very avant-garde, but it was limited by the available technology. Image
However by 1957 the massive experimental RCA Mark II Sound Synthesizer had shown composers how an analogue synthesizer could be paired with a programmable sequencer to play music too complex for human musicians to manage.

Yes, it is big. Image
Read 14 tweets
8 Aug
Today in pulp... the mysterious JX Williams! Image
JX Williams was an alias used by many writers who knocked out cheesy sex pulp for Greenleaf publishing. At least 20% of each novel had to be sex scenes with the other 80% titillation, voyeurism or padding. Image
As a result Greenleaf plots were somewhat thin affairs: sexy sensationalism was more important than character arcs or the niceties of the three act drama. Image
Read 12 tweets
7 Aug
Time for a pulp countdown now, and today it's my top 10 of modern sins for the professional classes!

Sometimes the only way to go places is by going bad... Image
At #10: the sin of grade inflation! "Thou shalt not refuse to deduct marks for spelling..." Image
At #9: the sin of Agile software development! "Thou shalt not hide thy poor interface behind claims of 'permanent Beta'..." Image
Read 12 tweets
6 Aug
Meet the 16 year old entrepreneur interested in cryptocurrency: Image
OK, so you want accordion tweets again? We're going there today... Image
They're not laughing now... Image
Read 8 tweets
6 Aug
Time once again for my occasional series "Women with great hair fleeing gothic houses!"

And today it's a Queen-Sized Gothic special... Image
'Queen-Size' is a polite way of saying large print, which is a format that has a lot going for it. For a start it's much easier to read! Image
However for years the standard size for a paperback book was the dimensions of a coat pocket. Paperbacks were meant to be read on the train or bus, so they had to be compact. The US term for them was 'pocket books.' Image
Read 12 tweets
6 Aug
Today in pulp... proof (if it were needed) that all the ladies love a lad in lederhosen!

That's not Sean Bean btw... Image
I know, it's an idle vice... Image
"This is not what I meant Gretchen when I said stockings might spice up our love life..." Image
Read 9 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(