Danger: Diabolik

New "Mario Bava"-book by Spanish writer Carlos Aguilar

A new phantastic book about the great Italian filmmaker "Mario Bava" was published this March 2013 in Spain, by the author Carlos Aguilar. The book forms part of the publisher Catedra’s Cineastas collection. Carlos Aguilar is a Madrid based author, who writes both novels and cinematographic essays, among which some of the most successful of the series have been on Clint Eastwood, Sergio Leone, Jesús Franco and Giuliano Gemma, as sole author, and those about John Phillip Law, and Eugenio Martin, written with his wife, teacher and writer Anita Haas. This is the first book ever on Mario Bava published in Spanish by Aguilar, contains around 330 pages and 60 photos. It describes the career of the great Italian filmmaker, combining objective information with subjection evaluation. It also includes a detailed filmography as well as an extensive bibliography on both Bava, and others who worked with him, in front of and behind the camera. Among them is, of course, the one and only Marisa Mell and the film Diabolik forming an important part of the work (no less than 15 pages!). A must-have book on this genius of Italian cinema, who knew how to reconfigure the parameters of fantasy and horror genre, adding a unique macabre sensuality and an enveloping, baroque atmosphere, and creating two such contrasting currents as Italian Gothic and Giallo.

This book on one of the greatest directors ever costs 13 euros and can be found on Amazon, or get a signed copy from the author at: carlosaguilargutierrez@gmail.com. Highly recommended!

Diabolikal Partner

The Italian editorial home and publisher "Astorina" of the fumetti cult anti-hero "Diabolik" has realised that, not only their icon is still very popular in Italy and the world, but also his partner in crime since ages "Lady Eva Kant"! Since a few years, they not only publish next to their monthly title Diabolik an annual dedicated to their main character but also annual stories with Eva Kant as the main character.

To honor this event they created a seperate website next to the main Diabolik website (http://www.diabolik.it/) with the entire history and back log of Eva Kant's life in the fumetti's, print, media, movie... and so much more. (http://www.evakant.it/)

Astorina, together with their commercial webmaster, has really put some thought into it to make this site a feast for the fan and the causal reader. You can see the historical surroundings from the creative birth of the character untill today.

It is an ideal mix of words and pictures. The site does not collapse, like so many other websites, under it's own lay-out often being heavy on words or pictures. It is like reading a book, not on paper, but on your PC. The advantage over a paper book is that you can really dive into the pages of this site. At the bottom of each page you have a control bar so you can navigate in the page, not only up and down, left or right but can also blow up the pages to better see the pictures or photo's on it. The only negative point is that these pages and the entire site are only in Italian but that is understandable from the editor's point of view. The main target audience of Diabolik are the Italian readers who buy each every month since 1963 their titles and not the English language markets. Nevertheless, due to still growing popularity of the Mario Bava movie "Danger: Diabolik!" it would be nice to also cater to the English language readers in the world. Maybe this will happen in the future! Speaking of the Diabolik movie, there is also a nice entry regarding this film and it's stars "John Phillip Law" as Diabolik and "Marisa Mell" as Eva Kant.

The information about the movie is some general information that if you are fan of the movie you already know. So nothing new in that department. Even the photo used of Marisa Mell in her movie Eva Kant outifit is a generally known picture. It would haven been nice to see a little less known picture or even a behind the scene one of Marisa Mell.

Diabolik-Cronistoria di un Film (Diabolik Club)

Today I got my copy of the premium book for 2008 from the Italian based "Diabolik Club" called "Diabolik-Cronistoria di un Film" written by Roberto Altariva. It has a print run of 700 copies. The book is in black and white with a color cover. It has 176 pages and comes with your annual subscription of the club. The book is completely in Italian, sorry no English. You can also have a subscription without the book what makes the annual fee a little cheaper.

After viewing the content of the book I was pleasantly surprised. A lot of people have written about Mario Bava's film "Danger: Diabolik" so it would be hard to write about this movie from another new angle than the usual ones. Therefore the books focusses completely on the publicity side of the 1968 movie. It has I believe almost all the articles that have appeared in the Italian press running up to making the movie, during its production and its press junket afterwards.

But that is not all. There are a lot of bonusses that makes every "Danger: Diabolik!"-fan's heart go faster: all the Italian and international promotional material starting with the Italian locadina, Belgian posters, international posters, all the Italian and international lobby cards, press books, all the movie versions, all the soundtrack versions... and finally a list of bloopers in the movie that you problably didn't know existed. What is also great about the book is the number of photo's that have not been seen during almost 40 years unless you are in the possession of the original articles from the Italian magazines or newspaper clippings. But that is not all, you even get the complete fotoromanzo of the movie and finally an interview from 2001 with John Phillip Law. If you are fan of the movie and would not like to cash out a lot of money for all the clippings and magazine articles regarding the movie "Danger: Diabolik!" then this book is a very cheap alternative! Highly recommended!

Diabolik - Cronistoria di un Film (Diabolik Club)

This autumn 2008 the Italian based "Diabolik Club" is publishing in Italian (sorry no English version) for its members a book called "Diabolik - Cronistoria di un Film". The book is written by the curator of the club Lorenzo Altariva. He is the guiding force behind the club since more than 10 years and does an excellent job in keeping the club interesting and fun. He is an expert on Italian fumetti's but especially everything regarding Diabolik and his rich history.

Next to the standard quarterly club publication "La Gazetta di Clerville" with all the news regarding Diabolik in Italy and the world, the club gives also annually its members a premium that is not available in stores or on the internet. These premiums in the past were chain keys, cards, special editions of the comic book, ... This year, due to the 40 year anniversary of the movie "Danger: Diabolik!" directed by Mario Bava with John Phillip Law as Diabolik and Marisa Mell as Eva Kant, the club will give this book "Diabolik - Cronistoria di un Film" to their members who are inscribed for the year 2008. The book will be printed in a very limited quantity and will not be available anymore once the initial run has been distributed to its members. Ordering as back order will not be possible. So if you are interested get your copy now by becoming a member of the club for 2008!

You can get more info at: http://www.diabolikclub.it/