Petra Cherie

Set during World War I and originally published in serial format from 1977-1982, Petra Cherie follows the adventures of Petra De Karlowitz, ‘Cherie’ to creator Attilio Micheluzzi, who addresses her throughout the book. Born to a Polish businessman and the most beautiful woman in Paris, raised in Canton, China, and now based in neutral Holland, she is a spy who answers only to herself. Evoking but cleverly eschewing stereotypes of the femme fatale, Petra is equally at home in the cockpit of an airplane and behind the wheel of a motorcar. More than that, she is an endlessly fascinating enigma and one of the most iconic characters in Italian comics. In short, thrilling tales across sky, sea, and land, zipping from Northern Europe to Mitteleuropa, from the Balkans to the Bosphorus to the nascent Soviet Union, Micheluzzi grapples with an era when Europe’s borders were in flux and battle lines were often blurred. Petra steps in where national allegiances come into conflict with our common humanity. Attilio Micheluzzi, an architect by training who grew up between Istria, Libya, and Naples, brings his international experiences and his keen sense of perspective to his work. In the tradition of the Corto Maltese adventures and stylish look of Guido Crepax’s Valentina, Petra Cherie is the touchstone book in Fantagraphics’ comprehensive Micheluzzi library, prepared in collaboration with the author’s daughter Agnese Micheluzzi.

Author Biography

Attilio Micheluzzi (1930-1990) was an Italian comics artist. Born in Umag, which was then part of Italy, Micheluzzi graduated in architecture and worked for several years in Africa. Returning to Italy in the early 1970s, in 1972 he started collaborating with the magazine Corriere dei Piccoli, often under the pen name Igor Arzbajeff. Among the best-known comics created by Micheluzzi, there were the science fiction series Roy Mann, with texts by Tiziano Sclavi, and the adventure series Petra Chérie and Johnny Focus. Jamie Richards is an Italian-to-English translator from Southern California currently based in Milan, Italy. She holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Oregon and an MFA in Literary Translation from the University of Iowa.