Frigidaire was a comics magazine published in Rome, Italy. The magazine had significant effects on graphic design, illustrations and written speech in the country during the 1980s.[1] In 2008 it folded, and from 2009 it became a supplement of Liberazione, a defunct communist newspaper.

Frigidaire
CategoriesComics magazine
Founded1980
First issueNovember 1980
Final issue2008
CountryItaly
Based inRome
LanguageItalian
WebsiteFrigidaire

History and profile

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Frigidaire was established in 1980.[1][2] The first issue appeared in November.[3] The founders were Vincenzo Sparagna, Stefano Tamburini, Filippo Scòzzari, Andrea Pazienza, Massimo Mattioli, and Tanino Liberatore.[4][5] The magazine had its headquarters in Rome.[2]

In addition to cartoons Frigidaire featured avant-garde reportages and interviews[1] and covers articles on visual art.[2] It also included investigative reports.[2] Over time the magazine became a mouthpiece for left-wing counterculture in the country.[2]

At the beginning of the 2000s the frequency of Frigidaire was switched to bi-monthly.[3] In 2003 Vincenzo Sparagna sold the publisher of the magazine,[6] which was temporarily ceased publication from April–May 2003 to 2006.[3]

In 2005, Sparagna moved the magazine's headquarters from Rome to a rural area near Giano. The estate, dubbed the 'Republic of Frigolandia', housed the magazine's museum. The estate acted like a micro-country, and was established with a constitution that values inclusion.[7]

On 25 April 2009 the magazine began to be published as an insert of Liberazione, a communist daily.[3]

In September 2002, the covers and some selected pages of the magazine were exhibited at the 7th International Comics Festival in Athens.[1] Frigidaire’s archives are housed at Yale's Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library.[7]

In 2020, a local right-wing party attempted to evict Sparagna from the Republic of Frigolandia, threatening the museum and its archives.[7]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d "Frigidaire". Athens International Comics Festival. Archived from the original on 6 March 2019. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
  2. ^ a b c d e Michela Ruggeri. ""Frigidaire" magazine and computer art". Arshake. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
  3. ^ a b c d "Frigidaire". Slumberland (in Italian). Retrieved 17 August 2015.
  4. ^ Federico Pagello (December 2012). "Cannibale, Frigidaire and the multitude: Post-1977 italian comics through radical theory". Studies in Comics. 3 (2): 231–251. doi:10.1386/stic.3.2.231_1.
  5. ^ Simone Castaldi (2010). Drawn and Dangerous: Italian Comics of the 1970s and 1980s. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi. p. 8. ISBN 978-1-60473-777-6.
  6. ^ Aldo Ricci. "'Frigidaire', abbasso la satira italiana!". Il Fatto Quotidiano (in Italian). Retrieved 17 August 2015.
  7. ^ a b c "Protest Culture in Peril: Frigidaire under Threat in Italy Today". Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library. 23 July 2020. Retrieved 5 June 2024.
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