Italian cultural association Venezia Comics has announced an exhibition at its Festival next month by Commando comics artist Paolo Ongaro, largely focused on his work in his home country, particularly Spazio Chiama Atlantide.
Venezia Comics is continuing in its work promoting great masters of Venetian comics and, after the retrospectives dedicated to Stelio Fenzo and Miro Missaglia, now pays homage to another recognised teacher: Paolo Ongaro, with the presentation of the first volume of reprints of his stories, Spazio Chiama Atlantide, curated by Storytelling Edizioni, and an exhibition featuring a range of his published work.
During this year’s Festival (1st – 3rd May 2026), Venezia Comics, in partnership with Storytelling Edizioni, will present the premiere of the exhibition “Paolo Ongaro, il poeta dell’avventura” (“Paolo Ongaro: The Poet of Adventure”), complementing the publication of the author’s work, along with a curated selection of his works across his career.
The plan of the work opens with five fundamental titles, stories of adventure, mystery, science fiction and westerns, reflecting the strength and variety of Paolo’s work: Spazio Chiama Atlantide, Ultima Frontiera, L’Immortale, Old America and Autobus 84.
Paolo Ongaro, a recognised master of Italian comics, was born in Mestre in 1946 (he calls himself “orgogliosamente primo fumettista mestrino”, first cartoonist of Mestrino cartoonist) and made his debut in comics in the early 1960s, collaborating with publishers such as Rizzoli, Mondadori, Universo, Disney and Bonelli, as well as publishing abroad. His credits span Italian publications including Il Gazzettino, Il Giorno, La Nazione, Guerin Sportivo, Tutto sport, and Autosprint.
In France, he worked on the Franco-Belgian comics magazine L’Écho des Savanes and Pif, while, for television, provided illustrations for Canale 5 and Rete 4.
Through his career he has drawn numerous internationally known characters, including Tarzan, Diabolik, Mickey Mouse and Martin Mystère – which earned him the Atlantis Prize at Lucca Collecting 2022 – in addition to Dago, a series that he still draws.
His work for the British market has been mainly for Commando, for DC Thomson, which he continues to work on today, but he also drew war comics for IPC Fleetway in the 1970s.
Paolo Ongaro will be present at the festival all three days. It will be possible to meet him for signing copies and a chat with the “Old Mestre” from 10.00am to 12 noon, and in the afternoon from 4.00pm to 6.00pm at the Storytelling Edizioni stand, but also inside the official Artist Alley of the festival.
There’s more information here about the exhibition (in Italian)
In addition, at the Storytelling Edizioni stand for the duration of the festival it will be possible to meet most of the authors of the publishing house. Guests include Massimo Perissinotto, Maurizio Ercole, Leonardo Bonesso, Karbo Karbokroma, Cristiano Zentilini, Simone Brisotto, Elisa Biondo and Andrea Sponchiado.
Storytelling Comic School, a school of Comics, Painting and Creative Writing in Treviso, aims to professionally train workers in the field of visual communication arts such as comics, editorial illustration and storyboarding for any audiovisual form (cinema, television, video clips, advertising). Through teaching cycles with trained specialized professionals, their goal is to personally follow the individual students in order to create strong artistic personalities.
• Venezia Comics is online at veneziacomics.com
• Storytelling Edizioni is online at storytellingcomicschool.it
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
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