Zamp-Woon, the Indigestible

Of course you know there's a story behind this piece of art, don't you?

It goes back, way back, when Giorgo Comolo and I first met at a comic-con in Milano many years ago. He was strolling around the show and I was exhibiting with some portfolios of art on my table, so he stopped by and started browsing through them, no doubt looking for some Kirby. I noticed the art-sized folder in his hand and asked if he had scored anything yet. He said he didn't because he couldn't afford it, but added he had some of his own artwork with him, so I asked if he'd mind showing it.

He pulled out a manilla folder containing some of his advertising work, and the first piece of the batch was this picture of a zampone, an Italian meat specialty consisting of a pig's trotter stuffed with seasoned mincemeat which, with its nail-less brother cotechino (of which he had an illustration too, together with a shirt, a cat and something else), is traditional chow during X-Mas festivities around here, usually with lentils and mashed potatoes.

Odd choice of artwork to take to a comic-con, but it rapidly disappeared from view when he took out some of his Caza/Moebius-influenced space and fantasy art, which prompted me to offer him my services as an agent in case he'd be interested in selling it. At first he seemed a bit dubious about the concept of anybody givin' him money for his artwork, but he accepted and, 125 commissions delivered and about 250 pieces sold (or traded for Kirby, Ditko, Colan, Bisley -and more- art, something that leaves Giorgio dumbfounded to this day) later, the rest is history.

Back to our zampone: for some reason, that picture remained ingrained in my mind and it kept popping up in our conversations whenever we happened to talk about ridiculous pieces of art or outrageous concepts. So much so that, one day, Giorgio decided to give the zampone his "Kirby Treatment" and turned it into one of those pre-superheroes monsters The King and Steve Ditko excelled at: Gomdulla, Spragg, Monsteroso, The Blip, Gargantus, Sserpo, Zzutak and their ilk finally had some Italian competition under the guise of Zamp-Woon, the Indigestible!