News
Quipos is giving its web site a complete makeover. With nearly forty years of experience in comics and illustration behind it, the new Quipos Agency web site offers a complete range of services for the publishing, merchandising, advertising and animation sectors. Here you will find an exhaustive list of the authors represented by Quipos, together with an explanation of the various possible licensing agreements for the use of their creative material, for which Quipos is responsible legally and commercially. The site also contains a link to the Store, which offers customers a chance to purchase merchandise featuring the characters created by our authors.
FOUR VERY COOL CATS AND AN ABSENT- MINDED MOLE
For 2011, Akena, a leader in the greeting card sector, will print and distribute a new line, featuring Annamaria Passaro's irresistible cats. Four mischievous felines to characterize greeting cards for new births, birthdays, valentines, weddings and other occasions, by Akena. Meanwhile, Gallucci Editore continues to publish new books of adventures featuring the very absent-minded but lovable mole, Luigina, who gets herself into all kinds of funny situations.
BIG CHANGES UNDER WAY AT PIMPA'S PLACE
A year of new licensing agreements for Pimpa, a huge favorite for children from two to six. Napkins, mugs, bowls and plates for toddlers' breakfasts are being produced by Bergamaschi&Vimercati, a housewares company, while Bonin, which already held the license for children's bike helmets, extended its license to include bicycle seats and b-Bip cycles, for the very first rides. Akena, a leader in the greeting card and calendar sectors, has renewed its license and extended it to wrapping paper. Garda has extended its license to produce children's undergarments for another year (the eighth year running) and Cotonella has joined in with women's undergarments.
Franco Cosimo Panini Editore, which has been a proud promoter of the character for many years now, has added to its long list of Pimpa titles in print and, while sales of the monthly magazine have held steady, in order to keep up with technological developments, Panini Editore has developed an app for iPad and iPhone, featuring Pimpa animations in listen, read and play modes.
For the past couple of years, Pimpa has also been translated into the principal second languages spoken in Italy.
Another important new development is the beginning of work on a co-production - RAI Panini Quipos - of the third series of animated PIMPA films, directed by the author, Altan. This will involve the production of 26 five minute episodes, to be broadcast in 2011. The fourth 26-minute special was produced in 2009.
Last-minute flash: Pimpa goes to Stockholm, to the Dockteatern Tittut, where theater performances for children will include some of her specials.
A THIN LINE...LA LINEA, BY OSVALDO CAVANDOLI
The success of La Linea is guaranteed by its versatility, charm and simplicity. Year after year, licensing increases in various sectors, including advertising, publishing and merchandising. This year, new licenses have been granted for greeting cards and calendars by Akena, a line of leisure time bags produced by Simar, pajamas and undergarments by Cotonella and T-shirts and sweats by Rogue Monk for German-language countries, Japan and the United States.
In addition, for more than two years now, Mycrom, a Turin-based company, has produced elegant fabric wall décor panels featuring La Linea, for homes and public spaces. In the advertising sector, La Linea has long been popular, especially in northeast Europe. A considerable production of advertising spots and print ads for K&H, one of Hungary's largest banks, has been under way for a year. An equally significant print initiative has been growing under the tutelage of Carlo Gallucci Editore and La Linea DVDs are distributed by Medialia throughout Italy and in Germany and Holland thanks to licensing agreements.
LUCA NOVELLI PRESENTS SCIENCE TO ADOLESCENTS
The worldwide success of the “Flashes of Genius” series seems limitless. This hugely popular series of science books for younger readers, created by Luca Novelli, the most recent of which tells the story of the Lumiére brothers, has also been adapted for television by RAI, with a series entitled “Flashes of Genius on TV”, focusing on the lives of famous scientists. At the same time, Rizzoli has published the second and third volumes of “In viaggio con Darwin” (Travelling with Darwin), Novelli's accounts of his travels on the trail of the great biologist, and “The Ice Age”, by the same author and publisher, is due out shortly.
CINZIA GHIGLIANO, PAINTER AND ILLUSTRATOR
Cinzia Ghigliano's talent as an illustrator results in continual proposals for collaborations and reissues of previously published volumes. Mondadori has assigned her two new books in the “Sassolini” (Pebbles) series and Editoriale Scienza sought her out for a new volume in the “Mini Darwin” series, consisting of science books for young adolescents, while Bononia University Press has asked her to illustrate a biography of Quirico Filopanti, a scientist and statesman of the late eighteen hundreds. Comma 22, a publishing house, has already reissued the first book in the Solange series, featuring the adventures of a female heroine created by Cinzia in the seventies, who was also popular abroad. Five more volumes are scheduled to follow. Along with illustration, Cinzia Ghigliano also paints, drawing her inspiration from the songs of Fabrizio De André and the poetry of Edgar Lee Masters and Cesare Pavese.
MORDILLO
Greeting cards featuring Mordillo characters are a guarantee, with Akena renewing its license for the seventh straight year, while Bergamaschi&Vimercati, in addition to the mugs, espresso cups and table mats, has introduced pizza plates and glasses, and Bibanesi has decided to use Mordillo's drawings on its bread stick packaging. This year, the ranks of the licensees have swelled to include Eurostil, with T-shirts, tops and dresses branded Mordillo, while in the print media Mondadori and Gallucci Editore continue to offer a wide selection of long sellers in their catalogues.
ALTAN
The sardonic humor and drawings of Altan have never been a fad, but rather a continuing voice commenting on the most burning issues in Italian society. In fact, in 2009 Dalmine chose the Cipputi character for a large-scale in-house campaign on safety in the workplace, while Telecom used his drawings for the logo of one of its business units and the national television channel La7 used Altan's vignettes to comment on its “Domino Effect” program.
Meanwhile, Gallucci Editore has assigned him two new titles; “Aquarello” and “Il bimbo sul leone” (The boy on the lion), from its series of books with music CDs and has also reissued books published in past years.
In addition, Salani and Longanesi have chosen his vignettes for two new books, “Altanterapia” and “Donne nude”, and the Val d'Aosta region is initiating an ambitious project promoting French-Provencal culture and language featuring Altan's drawings.
NICOLETTA COSTA
Giulio Coniglio, the rabbit character drawn by Nicoletta Costa, is growing in popularity with toddlers, and in fact Panini Editore has reached the fifth year of publication of the magazine with the same name and has also published many books featuring the same character. In addition, since 2008 Franco Panini has also marketed backpacks, children's umbrellas and trolleys for schoolbooks characterized by Costa's character, and Bibanesi has used her drawings on its breadstick packaging. Arbos and Il Leccio have renewed their licenses to use Costa's drawings for stationery, school supplies and wooden toys. In 2010, the Luzzati Museum, in Genoa, held an important exhibition of original drawings by Nicoletta Costa.