EsseGesse, Il comandante Mark

EsseGesse, Il comandante Mark. China su cartoncino, cm 33x24.


EsseGesse is the denomination of an artistic partnership composed by Giovanni Sinchetto (1922-1991), Dario Guzzon (1926-2000) and Pietro Sartoris(1926-1989), authors of famous comics characters such as “Il grande Blek”, “Capitan Miki” and “Comandante Mark”: starting from the 1950s to the 1990s they made the history of the Italian comic by selling up to 400.000 copies every week.
They debut individually in 1949 with their own projects but then they decide to work together under the acronym EsseGesse which are the three first letters of their surnames. They collaborate with “Edizioni Alpe” realizing their first character: Olenwald the Nibelungo, created graphically by Franco Donatelli.
The next year the group publishes “Kinowa” written by Andrea Lavezzolo who will be published for only two years. In 1951 the series “Capitan Miki” will be a huge success and two years later with “Il grande Blek” their success will grow even more. There were characters published by the “Editoriale Dardo” and with an editorial longlife sometimes with hundreds of thousands of sold copies. At the time Guzzon realizes the draws who will be brushed over with ink by Sinchetto while the backgrounds were Sartori’s works.
The remarkable organization of the group is also the reason for their domination since in their best moments they could sell from three to four hundreds of copies.
In 1965 they interrupt the collaboration with the “Editoriale Dardo” due to economic reasons leaving their most successful creatures with the copyrights. In 1966 they propose to Sergio Bonelli a new series that took place during the War of Independence in America with the main character who’s a courageous head of a group of patriots: the Comandante Mark. The series will be published for 24 years always realized by the trio of authors.