The Mattei Calendar Novel 2017 was presented in the conference hall of WOW Spazio Fumetto, an editorial project that Ing. Enea Mattei SpA, iconic Milanese company operating on the international market of industrial compressors, developed together with the students of the School of Comics in Milan, breeding a reservoir of talents in this sector for the last forty years and a leader at Italian level.
During the six months collaboration with the company, the School’s young 2nd year students tackled the graphic novel narrative technique to illustrate the applications of the Mattei compressors, creating an original result of huge visual impact.
Mattei's almost centennial experience and the work of the School's students were brought together by the mutual passion for creative research and innovation. This aspect was highlighted by Massimo Comina Chief Commercial Officer of Ing. Enea Mattei SpA: “Despite its almost one hundred years of history, Mattei is a company that strives towards the future, aiming to involve the younger generations and convey the values in which it believes. Using comic techniques, the School students managed to interpret and communicate our compressors perfectly, underlining the originality and the highly innovative aspects of their exclusive technology and the diversification within the various segments we operate in. In addition to this, Mattei compressors are a representative of Italian design throughout the world: another element that goes hand in hand with creativity, of which the comic is an extraordinary expression”.
This was underlined by the Director of WOW Spazio Fumetto, Luigi Filippo Bona, who also steers the Fondazione Franco Fossati and manages this cultural project: “We are the only museum in Italy dedicated to comics to keep the tradition of this extraordinary language alive. Italy has some of the best comic creators in the world and Mattei took advantage of this exceptional opportunity: that of exploiting comics as a means of communication, giving them the importance and dignity they deserve even in such a particular context such as the industrial sector”.
The founder and Director of the School of Comics in Milan, Giuseppe Calzolari, is of the same opinion and confirmed the value of the project: “Mattei proposed to us a truly winning challenge. The youngsters put into practice what they are studying, extending their knowledge with an interesting work experience and offering the company a truly innovative editorial product. At the end of the day, comics use a language that communicates simplicity and immediacy.”
“After the positive experience last year with the students of the Santa Giulia Academy of Fine Arts in Brescia, we decided to pursue the collaboration with an entity of such educational and cultural excellence as the School of Comics in Milan, assigning them the artistic calendar for 2017 – stated Silvia Barone, Marketing Manager at Ing. Enea Mattei SpA - The result was truly extraordinary. The students studied our products and the different applicative contexts, building a series of original stories around them that touch many of the genres so typical of comic literature: from noir to adventure and fantasy. The result is a vision that not only exceeds all language barriers, but one that also mirrors that adopted by Mattei featuring continual innovation focused on creativity”.
The guest of honour at the event was Eleonora “Lola” Airaghi, former student at the School of Comics and today a successful professional in the field, in particular with the series “Morgan Lost”, who wanted to give a message to the students: “I was born and bred on comics and now it is my job. It is not difficult to work with comics if you understand their value and importance as an instrument to interpret all aspects of life. Never fear comparing yourself to others or lose your curiosity for what goes on around you”.
Silvia Contaldi, CFO and CEO at Ing. Enea Mattei presented the awards: the winning cartoonist and script writer won 2 days at the Lucca Comics and Games event.
The calendar, designed in two formats (wall and table) and printed in two languages (Italian and English), will be distributed to Mattei customers, retailers and dealers all over the world and will be a special occasion for the students to divulge their creativity in the job world. An e-book has also been created to present the protagonists of the project and their stories, plus a short film that narrates the collaboration between the school and the firm, again using the comics technique and storytelling formula.
