Zerocalcare

Michele Rech (Italian: [miˈkɛːle ˈrɛk]; born 12 December 1983), known as Zerocalcare ([ˌdzɛrokalˈkaːre]), is an Italian cartoonist. His pen name, meaning "zero limescale", is based from a TV commercial jingle for a descaler product that came to his mind when he had to quickly come up with a Internet nickname.

Rech was born in Cortona, Tuscany, Italy, to an Italian father from Rome and a French mother. He was raised in France and later in Rome (Rebibbia-Ponte Mammolo area), where he graduated at the Lycée français Chateaubriand. In 2003, at the age of 20, he began working as an illustrator for several newspapers. At the same time, he worked on a webcomic for Zuda Comics, the online division of DC Comics. In 2004 he created a comic about the 2001 G8 summit protests in which he took part.

He published his first graphic novel, The Armadillo Prophecy, in October 2011 and in November he created zerocalcare.it, a website where he published autobiographical comic strips. In September 2012, the blog won the Macchianera Award as 'Best draftsman-Cartoonist' and the Gran Guinigi Award at Lucca Comics for best short story with The Armadillo Prophecy.

In April 2016, his fourth graphic novel Kobane Calling: Greetings from Northern Syria was published. The work had been previously published in 'Internazionale' and focused on the conflict between the Kurds and the Islamic State. Kobane Calling won the Micheluzzi Award as best cartoon at Naples Comicon, 2017. The same year, he was invited to attend San Diego Comic Con following the English release of Kobane Calling, but only obtained his US Visa last minute, due to his travels to Rojava.

On September 2018 a live-action adaptation of The Armadillo Prophecy was released. In November, the MAXXI museum of Rome hosted an exhibition of his works, titled Zerocalcare: Scavare fossati, Nutrire coccodrilli, which lasted until March of 2019. The same month a theatrical adaptation of Kobane Calling debuted at Teatro del Giglio in Lucca, during the Lucca Comics & Games, and toured Italy as part of the 2019/2020 theatre season. In 2020 he gained further exposure thanks to his animated short series "Rebibbia Quarantine", broadcast on LA7 inside the variety show Propaganda Live during lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy.

On December 2020 he announced that he would be creating an animated series for Netflix titled Tear Along the Dotted Line. The show premiered on 18 October 2021 at the Rome Film Festival. On 16 November, Ablaze Publishing announced that they would be releasing English translations of Zerocalcare's first three graphic novels, The Armadillo Prophecy (2011), Tentacles At My Throat (2012) and Forget My Name (2014). Tear Along the Dotted Line was released on Netflix on 17 November 2021 to positive reviews. A follow-up, titled This World Won't Tear Me Down, was released on 9 June 2023.

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