The history of Akim

From the source: http://www.lazonamorta.it/lazonamorta2/?p=10835

“Akim” is a very particular comic book character: he is certainly the most famous Italian tarzanide (characters inspired by Edgar Rice Burroughs' "Tarzan") and he crossed over with the fantasy spectrum much more willingly and often in his stories, in all its forms and meanings, from fantasy to science fiction, from weird to horror to mystery, than his "literary progenitor" had in film. "Akim" was also one of the most enduring and long-lived series of the comics scene in our country of Italy: in all its "career" it had the beauty of four editorial lives for a total of around 2300 issues.

Its first issues were the so-called "strips" and were published in Italy from 1950 to 1967 by the M. Tomasina Typography on a weekly basis on texts by Roberto Renzi and drawings by Augusto Pedrazza for a total of 894 issues. The publication was divided into two periods, the first series includes 99 issues from 10 February 1950 to 28 December 1951, while the second series had 795 issues from 3 January 1952 to 31 March 1967. Furthermore, from 1954 to 1968 the strips were reprinted by the M. Tomasina in “Akim Gigante”, a publication consisting of five series of books including then-unpublished stories for another total of 508 stapled books.

And these were the first two lives of "Akim".

Eight years later, "Akim" returned to newsstands with a comic series in a Bonellian version: released between 1976 and 1983, this third life of the character took up the homonymous version of 1950 and was published by the Altamira publishing houses (the current Sergio Bonelli Editore) from 1976 to 1980 and Quadrifoglio from 1980 to 1983, for a total of 84 monthly issues plus a special register. The texts were once again Roberto Renzi and the drawings were always made by Augusto Pedrazza, who was assisted by Pini Segna.

The fourth and last life of "Akim" is recent history, given that for some years If Edizioni has been proceeding with the complete reprint of the Bonellian version in double albums with new unpublished covers by Corrado Mastantuono, which has so far reached just under a dozen issues.

Up to here the editorial history of "Akim", but now let's see who exactly this character is.

Inspired partly by Salgari's novels, partly by Kipling's “Kim” and “The Jungle Books” as well as being partly by Burroughs' "Tarzan", Akim has aristocratic origins and in reality his name is Jim (like the orphan boy he will later adopt): son of an English consul in Calcutta, which is now Kolkata, Count Fredrick Rank, he was shipwrecked as a toddler child off the coast of Africa and was saved by reaching the mainland with his mother. However, the woman is immediately torn to pieces by a hungry panther, while the child is saved and raised by a village of monkeys and great apes, headed by the gorilla Arab (later renamed Kar due to many factors). The child grows up and learns to talk to all the animals of the jungle, being accepted and respected by all species and soon becoming their king.

In the newly written stories produced for France (a total of 756 numbers added to those of the Italian edition, bringing the tally to over 2000 published stories, or in short, 2256 stories, the most official Italian and French ones of any non-Anglophone Tarzanide character on record other than Zembla), the authors begin the saga with some variations: here we find an airplane in trouble falling into the jungle, igniting a crash; a young child named Jim is saved by the gorilla Kar, son of Udug, who adopts him and gives him a new name, Akim.

If at first glance it seems the same script as "Tarzan", in reality "Akim" differs from his Burroughsian ancestor, both for the unprecedented anthropomorphism of the various animal species that he meets in the stories and for a strong ecological sensitivity of the series, with frequent references to a more balanced relationship between man and Nature.

The appearances of members of Akim's clan are numerous and vary from episode to episode: the core is however more or less constant, with the gorilla Kar and the mischievous and lazy monkeys Zig and Ming. They are often joined by two human characters: Rita, Akim's partner, and Jim, an orphan boy adopted by the king of the jungle. Minor roles are also occupied by the kings and queens of the various animal species: in particular the elephant Baroi, the lion Rag and the bear Brik.

Akim's historical enemies are also numbered by the dozen, and all of great character and figurative weight: the hungry and devilish black panther Orrg who killed his mother; the bloody Gabon tribe led by the invader Matù, a follower of the idol of Kaha*; science fiction (mad) scientists like Mister Gold, Genius and Doctor Xor; the transforming alien Mixor; the invisible Professor Winter; the masked Atomix, Kadabras and Mysterior; General Samura; the pirate Cin Fu*; the occult Black Spider; the warmongering colossus Kid Motimbo; the monstrous Tiger Prince, Drug and Terror. Not to mention the incursions of disappeared peoples, such as the ancient Romans, Mongols, Vikings, Indians, Arabs, Africans, Martians from Mars and (even) unicorns, minotaurs, monstrous dinosaurs and carnivorous plants. In short, everything and more!

*Armed with rather questionable implications, characters from the fictitious Gabon tribe are likely adapted loosely from uncomfortably outdated Portuguese, French and Spanish depictions of the Beti Pahuin, a widespread Bantu ethnic group subfamily in most tropically forested parts of West Central Africa.

*Although violent piracy is still a highly questionable thing in many tropical waters regardless, Cin Fu’s design was likely outdated even for its day and also by European Union standards.

To get a better idea of ​​the fantastic 360-degree character of the series, just take a look at many of the titles of the books that leave no room for doubt on the issues addressed: "The Timeless Island", "The Hawk Men", "Terror Comes in the Rain", "The Sorcerer's Revenge", "The Vampire Trees", "The Lord of Darkness", "Space Base", "The Queen of the Galaxy", "The Ice Swords", "The land of giant iguanas", "Genius and the super robots", "The man who came from space", "Black ghosts", "The robot idol "," The reptilian men", "Insects invade the world", "Axor, the planet of diamonds ”, and “The Pharaoh's curse" are just a few examples, but certainly not all! Totally, Fantasy was at home in "Akim" and has been for a long, long time!