Bao Publishing announces the release of Melvina and the Gift of the Serpent by Rachele Aragno, April 28. Rachele Aragno has grown tremendously, as an artist and as a storyteller, since Melvina’s first adventure…and the main character of this story has grown too, compared to the previous book.
She is now a troubled teenager who becomes introverted. An unexpected call to the world of Aldiqua convinces her to reunite with her friends Otto and Benjamino, whom she had neglected for a while, to solve a disturbing mystery. Meanwhile, the evil Malcape secretly plots a plan to regain the power and prestige he lost through Melvina.
This story has multiple levels of reading, and the meanings that seem symbolic at first glance are admirably revealed in their inevitability as the young heroes continue in search of the truth, to save a world and the Chosen One. Melvina struggles with the difficulties associated with growth, with new emotions she feels within herself, with her changing body, difficulties that lead her to eating disorders.
Rachele Aragno was born in 1982 in a small town in Tuscany. He immediately started drawing and planned to become a cartoonist. After graduating from high school, he graduated from the International School of Comics in Rome. The apprenticeship lasts several years, during which time he works for several independent publishers. During the same period, he collaborated with the World Health Organization on an illustration for a brochure on depression and participated in the collective exhibition “Rudy Valentino in Matera”. 2017 is the turning point: it illustrates the constellation of the Bird of Paradise for the charity project “Costellarium” of the Rêverie Studio and, on Ave di Attaccapanni Press, Melvina, a short story appears. In 2019, he published the graphic novel Melvina with BAO Publishing, a project that he has curated for years but is still closed, awarded the Artemisia Prize in France in 2020 and candidate for the Micheluzzi Prize in Italy (which includes several foreign editions, in France for Dargaud, in Spain for Liana Editorial and in the United States for Random House Graphic).
In 2020 he designs the cover variant of Hellboy: The Hidden Land (Dark Horse) and collaborates with Deagostini, il Castoro and Treccani. The following year he illustrated the children’s book Elinor Puffygal (Marietti Junior) and participated as a jury member in the 24hours Short Comics Marathon on the occasion of the Shorts International Film Festival in Trieste.
The American edition of Melvina was nominated in late 2021 by the committee of the ALA, the Association of American Libraries, as the best reading for young people.
He is currently working on a comic with Barbara Canepa and Bruno Enna for the series Métamorphose, on a still secret project with Dark Horse and on a short comic based on Odio Favolandia with Skottie Young.
Source: Lega Nerd
