Dylan Dog and Vasco Rossi 419: Albachiara, review

Dylan Dog and Vasco Rossi 419

After meeting Sally, the first woman of the Dylan Dog trilogy dedicated to the great Italian singer-songwriter Vasco Rossi, in this second appointment he could not miss the tribute to one of the most important Blasco songs of his career: Albachiara.

We do not want to assume that the readers of the Craven Road tenant are all fans of the Komandante, but we are sure that all of you at least once in your life have even hummed the songs of this great and undisputed singer-songwriter. Albachiara is one of these.

The editorial operation carried out by Sergio Bonelli Editore, which we recall celebrates its 80th birthday, has aroused the interest of not only the fans of this great Italian comic, but also of all music lovers and above all of our Italian one. We looked forward to this second issue of this very special trilogy, probably because it is inspired by one of the most famous Italian songs ever. But who is Alba?

Dylan meets the beauty of Albachiara

Albachiara is the undisputed workhorse of Vasco, a song that has managed to embrace at least 4 generations of Italians, those verses which are now omnipresent in her concerts since that distant 1979, the year in which she was recorded for the album “We are not Americans!”. Yet, life has reserved a strange fate for one who turns red just by looking at her and who does everything to go unnoticed. But after all, the “invisible” category is a favorite of Tiziano Sclavi's comics. A breach that the authors of this register have been able to fully exploit.

For this special mini cycle of Dylan's adventures, Albachiara was written by Gabriella Contu, who currently has 3 albums of the regular series, the last of which is always reviewed on these pages (Dylan Dog 415 - Vendetta in mask), a register that confirms how much the Piedmontese author is linked to youth social issues.

The story begins with Dylan struggling with his galleon until a mysterious customer screams at his door , but how to understand who is in front of you when he is invisible? The man who asks for help from Dylan is a person who has become literally invisible because he is ignored by society, but he does not ask for help for himself but for the woman he is very much in love with: Alba.

The girl imagined by Gabriella Contu looks so much like that of the Emilian rocker, she also likes to walk, she likes to study, but something torments her: a mysterious voice that can only be heard by her insulting, provoking and distressing her; this voice reminds her that she can never be herself, especially in the eyes of her friends around her. The possibility of being able to appear as you really feel inside is reserved only for the eyes of those who love her and have always wanted the best for her ... maybe those who are invisible to her eyes, just like Dylan's client.

But what is supernatural in this story?

We are invisible

Unfortunately we will find few elements of the supernatural (which we do not want to reveal to you ed), but as often happens in the investigator's stories of the nightmare we will have to deal with one of the daily horrors: that is the 1000 faces that are given to us by society, when perhaps none of them are really what belongs to us. The worst nightmare is when we are prisoners of these faces, of a person who in reality is absolutely alien to us.

There are invisible people who are ignored by society or who are simply not seen for what they really are. Do you know a worse nightmare than this? Perhaps, but we are sure that many of you have experienced it especially in that adolescence that is often told precisely by Vasco's songs. It is an excellent point of contact between the story imagined by Contu and the musical piece by Blasco.

Our Dylan, together with an invisible man, manages to help Alba to bring her back to her friends, avoiding the voice of her nightmares you take away forever. But the sadness of not being understood and being accepted remains until the epilogue packaged by the author. A profound ending that does not, however, leave enough space for the other protagonists of the story.

Sergio Gerasi's tables are perfect to accompany those stories that present themselves as authentic black fairy tales (his top in Anna forever # 403 of the regular series and To pay and to die present in # 4 of the Oldboy series ed). Also this time the designer surpasses himself, the beauty of Alba, the details of her young life and the nightmare she is experiencing, fully fill the pages of this book giving a fabulous touch to the whole story.

Con this second part of the cycle dedicated to Vasco Rossi, Fabrizio Tommaso returns with an even more evocative cover, which manages to perfectly mix the reality of Dylan with that of the Komandante stage. But despite the acclaimed skill of the guest cover artist of this series, the open-stage applause is all for Gigi Cavenago who once again returns one of his best works offering one of the most beautiful scenographic compositions.

The register it only partially satisfies our expectations which deviate from the authorial prejudice of Vasco Rossi's text, precisely to test its goodness as a narrative. The tributes to the musical text are present, but despite a basic idea that makes us reflect on the sociability of our days, it fails to enrich that ending that leaves a sense of emptiness.

For the reading of this register it is it is mandatory to listen to We are not Americans (a cult that you can rediscover on vinyl in this special edition). The appointment is for next month with ... Jenny.