Vittorio Giardino was born in Bologna, Italy, on Christmas eve 1946. His first career was as an electronic engineer; while working in America he was exposed to the work of European comics artists like Hugo Pratt and Guido Crepax and at 31 he decided to become a professional artist. Giardino's first published story, "La Citta Futura", appeared in 1978 written by comics scripter 'Linus' (Pierre Christin.)

Giardino's aim was to create comics with sophisticated plots and characterization. Literary comic strips did not have a large audience when Giardino entered the field but, at least partly due to his influence, it was to attract the attention of intellectuals like Umberto Ecco.

The adventures of private detective Sam Pezzo appeared in 1980 and the 1930's spy Max Friedman was introduced in 1982 in the espionage thriller "Rhapsodie Hongroise". In 1983 Giardino created a 'hommage' to one of his inspirations, Winsor McCay, with an erotic satire on Little Nemo, "Little Ego". His 1991 album "Dangerous Liasons" is a series of short stories of sex and violence with ironic twists.

In 1993 Giardino created the character Jonas Fink in "L'enfance", which won the "Alph'art" best foreign album award at the Angoulême festival in January 1995.

written by Andy Etris