The Ape - Milo Manara / Silverio Pisu

Milo Manara, the well-known illustrator of adult graphic novels, began his career working on "fumetti", the cheap illustrated paperbacks popular in 1950-60s Italy. In 1976, his career took off after his work for the illustrated magazine Pilote. He also became known for his work designing posters for the films of Federico Fellini.
Manara and Pisú launched the publication of Lo Scimmiotto (The Ape) in AlterLinus in 1976.
Based on the 1000 year old story The Adventure of the Monkey God (Hsi yu chi), by Wu Ch'eng-en and Arthur Waley's version of it.
What makes the ape so attractive is the social political comentary present in every frame. It gives us an insight to the atrists interpitation of the socialist ideals and events of china during the late 70's and early 80's in direct relation ship to the US as viewed by a european socialist.