Zerocalcare

Zerocalcare was born in Arezzo on 12 December 1983. After living in France, he moved to Rebibbia (Rome), a neighborhood to which the author is very attached. Always very active in the world of social centres, in 2011 he created his first comic book, " La profezia dell’armadillo ",( The Armadillo Prophecy) which in 2012 was reprinted in a color edition by the Milanese publishing house BAO Publishing. Also in 2012 he published his second book, “Un polpo alla gola”, in which for the first time he attempted a wide-ranging story. In 2013, " Ogni maledetto lunedì su due " was released, a collection of the blog's stories and from the same year "Dodici" was also released, a story of the apocalypse-zombie genre, a not too veiled declaration of love towards one's neighbourhood, Rebibbia. In 2014, " Dimentica il mio nome " was published, the author's fifth book, which in 2015 was nominated for the Strega Prize. After reaching the dozen finalists, the book won second place in the "Young People" section. In the same year, he obtained the "Book of the Year" award from the Fahrenheit program on Radio 3 Rai. Before the release of the second collection of the blog, " L’elenco telefonico degli accolli ", at the beginning of 2015, in the magazine Internazionale, Zerocalcare published a comic report entitled "Kobane Calling", in which he recounts his experience on the Turkish-Syrian border in support of the Kurdish people. The reportage, enriched by an unpublished second part, became a book in 2016, selling over 120,000 copies, winning the 2017 Micheluzzi Award for Best Book and which has been translated into eight languages.
2017 is the year of the Artist Edition of his masterpiece "“ La Profezia dell’Armadillo ", a title that inspired the film of the same name presented in 2018 at the 75th edition of the Venice Film Festival. The film, directed by Emanuele Scaringi, is presented in the "New Horizons" category. Also in the same year, Zerocalcare created the work in two volumes "Macerie Prime", divided into " Macerie Prime – Se una notte di inverno un armadillo " and "Macerie Prime - Macerie Prime – Sei mesi dopo ". The work only increases the popularity of one of the most important narrators of our era. In 2019, the success was confirmed by the exhibition dedicated to him Scavare Fossati – Nutrire coccodrilli "Digging Ditches - Feeding Crocodiles", exhibited at the MAXXI in Rome and for which BAO Publishing edited the catalog of the same name full of unpublished works and insights. Also in the same year, he published " La scuola di pizze in faccia del Professor Calcare ", a collection of stories and reviews of films and TV series that appeared on his blog and in the main national magazines, linked by an unpublished story. The updated edition of Kobane Calling, "Kobane Calling Oggi", comes out immediately after the national lockdown in spring 2020, while the author is creating and publishing the series of animated shorts "Rebibbia Quarantine" on the web. In autumn 2020 Zerocalcare returns to bookstores with a new graphic novel, " Scheletri ", a book that the author defines as "more brutal than usual", a story between reality and invention, between today and twenty years ago, between fear of the future and fear of the present. Also released in December is " A babbo morto ", a dark tale between illustration and comics which, through the figure of Santa Claus, becomes a metaphor for our precarious society. 2021 is the year in which Zerocalcare's following grows further thanks to the animated series for Netflix entitled " Strappare lungo i bordi ",("Tear along the edges") which receives universal acclaim from the public and critics and which in a very short time becomes a classic. A few months later, a new comic collection is released containing stories linked to social commitment combined with a consideration by the author on the personal journey undertaken to create the animated series: " Niente di nuovo sul fronte di Rebibbia ". In autumn 2022 "No sleep till Shengal" will be released, a reportage of his trip to the Middle East in the Iraqi enclave of the Ezidis, a community threatened by international tensions and protected by Kurdish militias, documenting their living conditions and struggle. On November 17th Zerocalcare announces the title of its new series on Netflix “Questo mondo non mi renderà cattivo”,(“This World Won't Make Me Bad”) with release scheduled for 2023. Meanwhile in December the exhibition “Zerocalcare. Dopo il botto ", dedicated to him, until 23 April 2023. The catalog published by BAO is also available. “Questo mondo non mi renderà cattivo”  will be released on Netflix on June 9, 2023. BAO Publishing publishes the volume "Zerocalcare Animation Art Book" on June 23rd, the story of Zerocalcare's journey into animation with unpublished materials and then in November 2023 "Enciclopædia Calcarea", a reasoned guide to the Zerocalcare universe.