Customer Reviews

To See the Stars: The Adventures of Giuseppi Bergman

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Adult black & white graphic novel (maybe the only black & white Milo Manara book I've seen).

"To See the Stars" is a book about a strange warped woman that has the need to recreate what she sees in a book filled with pictures.

The story begins with Giuseppe Bergman meeting up with a hot blonde, who is wearing skin tight pants and a leather jacket. Bergman is in some park-like area near a city, waiting for some friends when a strange woman walks up to him and asks him if he was going to the toy land also. A man nearby calls over to the girl to bring Giuseppe over to him. The man explains that he is dying of AIDS, and wants Giuseppe to take care of the girl, because she can't take care of herself. Giuseppe is told that she isn't stupid, or crazy, just not completely connected with the world around her.

The dying man asks if the girl is nearby, Giuseppe states that she had been reading a book and has now wandered off. The book is open to a picture of Ophelia drowning herself in a lake. The dying man tells Giuseppe to hurriedly get over to any nearby body of water, because that is where the girl is likely to be found. Sure enough, the girl is lying stretched out on her back in a body of water, attempting to recreate the picture she saw in the book. Giuseppe saves her and tells her that he can't look after her. When she hears what he says, she pulls out one of her breasts, and states that she wants to pinch her nipple for him, and then proceeds to do so. Giuseppe grabs the book and spots a picture that is somewhat similar to what she is doing.

A bus is approaching, and the girl, claiming that it is a stagecoach, runs to it and boards. Giuseppe follows her. They ride the bus into a city.

When they arrive, the girl separates herself briefly, and when Giuseppe catches up with her, he finds that she has removed her clothes and is sitting with some bikers. She is attempting to recreate one of the pictures in her book, one showing a nude woman in a park with two men. Giuseppe tells her to get dressed and begins to leave. The bikers ask Giuseppe to explain the situation, and he does. While he is thus distracted, the woman runs naked through the park, past some old men on a park bench. Giuseppe catches up with the girl, pus a jacket on her, and just then an angry mob rushes by yelling "Love and Money!" while wearing AA shirts, and waving AA flags (AA = Amour et Argent; it is a political rally). The book proceeds in a similar fashion for another 34 pages of the girl reenacting something she saw in her book and Giuseppe trying to keep her from harm.

Overall, the artwork is good, though hindered by being in black & white, and has a very strange story-line. A little too confusing and meaningless. The book contains: exhibitism, jail, and not much else.

Giuseppe Bergman is the starring of the oldest Manara's comic books. In this episode you can live his metropolitan fantasy, you can live the dream of a young and sweet lady and you can see how art can be confuse with the real life. This is one of the best Manara's techincal performance. His illustrations for "to see the stars" will be impressed in your memory forever!

Ever wanted to jerk off to a comic book? Well, now you can!