Nine Antico, patron saint of comics: “At night, I was afraid of finding myself face to face with a bloodied Christ”

Brush up on your art history lessons before meeting Nine Antico. This January morning, in a cafe near the Maison de la Radio, the author of BD seeks to describe the vaulted structure of the houses of her great-aunts, where she stayed as a child, in southern Italy. Apse? Round arch? “In any case, the houses look like churches, with their windows closed because of the heat. And then there are all those statues and pious images. At night, I was afraid to open my eyes and find myself face to face with a bloody Christ. »

In the manner of saint, these baroque religious vignettes, the very rock’n’roll Antico remixes in “Madones and Whores” the life of Agata, Lucia and Rosalia, famous Sicilian martyrs. She mixes the fatal destiny of three young girls who share their first names. The first, sent to a sanatorium at the foot of Stromboli after her mother’s feminicide; the second, shaved for having frequented a German soldier; the third, inspired by Rita Atria, who paid dearly to break the omerta.

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