A chat with Leo Ortolani

Thanks to Bao Publishing, we had the opportunity to chat with Leo Ortolani, the Italian writer and illustrator known above all for Rat-Man, his major work, and which is coming out these days with his new book Bedelia, of which, together we had the opportunity to talk to many other topics, together with many other colleagues.



Read also: Bedelia: the review of Leo Ortolani's work

The meeting (which took place entirely remotely, via videoconference) begins with the introduction of Caterina Marietti, one of the founders of BAO Publishing, on the nature of the meeting. After that, the questions began, many of which refer to Leo Ortolani's latest work: Bedelia (if you haven't read the book yet, we advise you to read with caution, as some parts of this chat could contain SPOILERS).

The meeting began with a curiosity about how the author's jokes come out, if they are written every time they come to mind and retracted later, if they arrive while a story is being written, since there are so many that there should be notebooks full of jokes not yet used. Urgently, Ortolani replied:

“I have them! There are notebooks with jokes that come to mind, even if I never use them. When in doubt, I note that "you never know". I have this habit, for a while now, of marking them every time they come to mind, because once I was on the bus and I remembered one that I forgot shortly after and which I deeply regret. "

After breaking the ice, the author talked a little about Bedelia's creative genesis, her new story: