Cartoons flying high.
Trento 2007
With the support of the Gianni Caproni Aeronautics Museum
Curated by Piero Zanotto. Catalogue by esaExpoedizioni

The exhibition presented an in-depth study of comics featuring the world of flight, directly or indirectly, from the early years of the twentieth century up to the present day. Aeroplanes, helicopters, airships and hot air balloons abound in this display, which was researched and catalogued by the curator so as to have an international flavour. It embraced countries besides Italy where the culture of the speech bubble (or perhaps we should say the "talking cloud" in this context) has traditionally found favour with readers and critics alike, such as the United States, Belgium, France and England. The result was a rich corpus of material including over 150 printed works (albums, comics and books), with seventy accompanying original plates produced by the best cartoon illustrators of the twentieth century (Dino Battaglia, Kurt Caesar, Attilio Micheluzzi, Hugo Pratt, Alex Raymond, Sergio Toppi, Kevin O’Neill and more besides). The exhibition is divided into six sections: "Dreams and humour", "Adventure", "The skies of war", "Flying in peacetime and civil aviation", "History and derring-do", and "A flight by chance". It illustrates how flight-themed comics have spanned all genres, from comedy to fantasy to detective stories, as well as - the pièce de resistance - the most thrilling forays into the skies of war. Many of the great characters are featured, from the dreamy Little Nemo – which originally appeared in 1910 in the pages of the New York Herald – to Disney's Mickey Mouse, from Snoopy to Phantom, Brick Bradford to Steve Canyon, Johnny Hazard to Tintin, and Buck Danny to Mister No.