Presented by Francesco Cappellotto
With all the skill of a consummate artist, Jacopo Starace evokes atmospheres redolent of Stephen King and David Lynch
A sleepy little American town tries to heal after the collective trauma of the disappearance of dozens of people two years earlier, in an accident that has never been explained. When a fresh disappearance triggers fears that evil has returned to Emmanuel Parish, a group of students starts investigating, but they are not prepared for what they will discover. A story about the misdoings of humanity and the justice that nature imposes on those who threaten it. A moving tale, bleak and profound, infused with a memorable atmosphere.
Jacopo Starace graduated with a degree in set design from the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan. Over the years, he has worked for Italian and French publishers such as Sergio Bonelli Editore, Edition Sarbacane, Eris Edizioni, Comicon Edizioni, Beccogiallo, and Passenger Press. He illustrates articles and covers for magazines like L’Espresso, il Manifesto, and Jacobin, as well as online comics and condom companies that believe in him (Control Italia). Starace still designs covers for publishers of fiction and non-fiction (Editore XY.IT, 21Lettere, and Moscabianca), and he drew the poster for the 2019 Trieste Science+Fiction Festival. Between 2018 and 2021 he joined the Progetto Stigma, publishing his own first comic for Progetto Stigma/Eris Edizioni, INN. In 2022, he wrote and illustrated Il teatro dei demoni in Dylan Dog Color Fest no.40 – Estreme Visioni for Sergio Bonelli Editore and published his second comic book, Essere montagna, for the French publisher Edition Sarbacane. In Italy, this one was published by Bao Publishing, which would also bring out Il diavolo di Smiling Woods in 2025.
