Birth and Development
From the ashes of Labor Comics, Star Comics was born in 1987 through the efforts of Sergio Cavallerin and Marco Marcello Lupoi. The duo proposed to Giovanni Bovini (owner of a printing press in Bosco, a district of Perugia) the low-cost publication of L’Uomo Ragno. The proposal was accepted, and the project launched on 6 March 1987, with Cavallerin as editor-in-chief and Lupoi as editorial coordinator. Sales were initially slow, but eventually rose enough for Star Comics to turn a profit and launch other popular titles such as Fantastic Four, Gli incredibili X-Men, Captain America e i Vendicatori (The Avengers), Il Punitore, along with lesser-known series and special one-shots.
The arrival of Marvel Italia in 1994, which acquired all rights to Marvel's publications in Italy, prompted Star Comics to completely rethink its superhero line. The publisher had to relinquish the series previously managed by Lupoi (who immediately joined Marvel Italia), but managed to stay afloat thanks to a new editorial team recruited by Ade Capone and led by Paolo A. Livorati, with translations by Andrea Cotta Ramusino and Valerio Lanari. In this "new phase" (1994–1998), Star introduced Italian audiences to comics from Image Comics (including Spawn and Gen¹³) and several series from Dark Horse Comics, becoming Italy’s main outlet for both major American independent labels. From mid-1995, due to the growing creative fragmentation of the Image consortium, Star focused on the WildStorm imprint, featuring characters created by Jim Lee.
At the same time, Star decided—under the guidance of the Kappa Boys—to expand beyond American titles and begin publishing manga (Japanese comics). This proved to be a fortunate move, coinciding with (and partly sparking) a boom in Japanese comics readership in Italy. Notably, with Dragon Ball, Star became the first publisher in Italy to release a manga in the original right-to-left reading format. The company also resumed popular series left incomplete due to the bankruptcy of Granata Press, such as Ranma ½[1] and Maison Ikkoku.[2] Since 1999, the Japanese sector has been the driving force of the Perugia-based publisher, with major titles such as Saint Seiya,[3] One Piece,[4] Shaman King
Star Comics has also published original Italian comics. Among these is Lazarus Ledd, created by Ade Capone, who wrote nearly all of the approximately 200 stories of varying lengths starring the character. The regular series began as a monthly in 1993 and shifted to bimonthly in 2004, concluding in November 2006 with issue no. 151, titled L'ultima battaglia ("The Final Battle"). However, two or three special volumes per year are still planned. In August 2004, Star Comics also acquired and relaunched Jonathan Steele, created and written by Federico Memola, which had been discontinued in July of that same year by Sergio Bonelli Editore.
The USA comics sector was closed in December 1998 due to several concurrent factors, including the sale of WildStorm characters to DC Comics by Jim Lee, a reduction in WildStorm's output, and internal disagreements regarding editorial direction.
In 2004, Star Comics returned to American comics with the launch of the anthologies Star Magazine New and Star Book under the supervision of Dario Gulli. However, the decision to distribute the magazines only through specialty comic shops failed to yield the expected results, and both publications were discontinued within two years due to low sales. Likewise, the magazine Star Fantasy, overseen by Ade Capone, ended after just a few issues.
After a failed attempt to expand into the television magazine sector, the Perugia-based publisher decided to focus entirely on manga and Italian comics, launching the self-produced miniseries Nemrod and Khor in 2007.
In 2009, Star Comics published Rourke by Federico Memola, continuing its investment in original Italian titles.
Thanks to the success of these Italian comic series, Star Comics has increased its investment in local projects since 2010. Notable titles released after that year include Factor V, Valter Buio, Pinkerton S.A., The Secret, Dr. Morgue, Kepher, and San Michele: I Sigilli della Folgore.
On the manga front, 2009 was a pivotal year: in the early part of the year, Star Comics ended its long-standing collaboration with the Kappa Boys, who had served as consultants and talent scouts. Although the publisher attributed the split to a "divergence of objectives,"[7] the Kappa Boys never made a direct statement, though they implied—without going into detail—that there may have been some contractual breaches.[8]
2013 marked the debut of Suore Ninja, a humorous comic scripted by Davide La Rosa and illustrated by Vanessa Cardinale, produced following the success of their previous self-published work, Zombie Gay in Vaticano.
From January 2014, supervision of the Western comics division was entrusted to Davide G.G. Caci, appointed as publishing manager after several prior editorial experiences. In September 2016, Cristian Posocco—formerly head of Flashbook Edizioni for a decade—was also brought in as publishing manager, but for the manga and Eastern division.
In February 2021, the publishing house announced a new logo and the creation of two labels: Star (for manga, managed by Posocco) and Astra (for Western comics, managed by Caci).[9]
