Torpedo 1972: Ablaze Previews Sequel to 80s European Gangster Comic (2024)

Posted in: Ablaze Publishing, Comics | Tagged: Torpedo 1972 #1

Torpedo 1972 is a sequel to hit 1980s European comic series Torpedo by original writer Enrique Sánchez Abulí and artist Eduardo Risso

Torpedo 1972 is the new series from writer Enrique Sánchez Abulí and artist Eduardo Risso, the co-creator of the Eisner award-winning series 100 Bullets, that reimagines the classic 1930s Spanish crime noir series Torpedoand updates it for the bloodiest era of the NY mafia in the 1970s.

TORPEDO 1972 #1

Written by Enrique Sánchez Abulí, art by Eduardo Risso ·SRP: $3.99·Available March 6^th

"In the 1930s, Lucas Torelli, known as "Torpedo," was a legend of the suburbs of New York. A tough, trigger-happy Sicilian who only knew how to make friends–anyone else is no longer here to say otherwise. Nearly forty years later, the Big Apple has changed quite a bit. Torpedo, not so much. As a persistent journalist prepares to write an article about the Caputo family, the demons of Torpedo's past resurface, along with his dirty old habits…"

The original Torpedo, published in the 1980s and known in the West as Torpedo 1936, was also written by Abulí and illustrated by first Alex Toth, then Jordi Benet. The series was an uncompromisingly violent and brutal gangster series featuring often self-contained stories following ruthless mob hitman Torelli and his comically bumbling but no less brutal sidekick Rascal as they traipse through Depression Era New York City doing jobs for the mob, killing without remorse, looking for a good scam or hustle to line their pockets without getting killed themselves. Torelli is not a hitman with a code or a heart of gold. He's a self-interested co*ckroach who survives by being more ruthless and immoral than everyone else, with Rascal tagging along not as his conscience but his comic foil and frequent punching bag.

The world that Abulí wrote was not a place where any kindness or compassion might peak out as a possible ray of redemption. It was a dog-eat-dog world where everyone was out for himself. Torelli was never meant to be seen as heroic by any stretch of the imagination. He and Rascal were unapologetic misogynists and occasional rapists who treated women like dirt. Any woman that thought she could charm Toreilli or melt his heart was in for a rude surprise, sometimes a fatal one. Women were constantly brutalised in the series by Torelli, Rascal, and literally, every man in the series, and Torelli and Rascal often got almost as much as gave the same amount of bloody violence.

Fifteen Torpedo graphic novels, or Bande Desinée as the French call them, usually around 48 pages, were published in Europe throughout the 1980s. Torpedo 1972 brings Torelli to 1970s New York, a time when crime was high and the city was almost as brutal as it was in the 1930s. He probably hasn't changed, so it might be interesting to see a gangster out of his time in the late 20th Century.

Torpedo 1972 #1is out on March 6th from ABLAZE as part of their eclectic lineup.

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