Igort

He began his career in Bologna at the end of the seventies, collaborating with numerous magazines: including Linus, Alter, Frigidaire, Métal Hurlant, L'Écho des savanes, Vanity, The Face. Since the nineties, he collaborates with the Japanese publishing houses Kodansha, Brutus and Hon Hon do.

In 1994 he exhibited his works at the Venice Biennale.

Igort at Lucca comics in 1998

In 2000 he founded the Coconino Press publishing house.

In 2002 he publishes 5 is the perfect number, a Neapolitan noir, that he began drawing in Tokyo and completed after about 10 years of processing and rewriting. The book, labeled Coconino Press, came out simultaneously in 6 countries and won the Book of the Year Award at the Frankfurt Book Fair. It is Igort's most popular book to date.

Fats Waller will follow, an imaginative biography of one of the most popular Jazz musicians of the Thirties, in collaboration with the Argentine writer and screenwriter, Carlos Sampayo. Igort's work begins to spread further abroad. He moved to Paris and began the Baobab series, which tells the parallel lives of a Japanese boy (Hiroshi Oolong) and a young South American (Celestino Villarosa). Baobab series comes out simultaneously in Italy, France, Spain, Holland, Germany and the United States.

In 2010, after a long residence, between Ukraine, Russia and Siberia, Igort writes and draws Ukrainian Notebooks, published in the Strade Blu series of Mondadori.

In 2011 he published Russian Notebooks, drawn following a report by the Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaja. The volume Pagine nomadi (Nomadic pages) follows, its publication coincides with the large exhibition dedicated to graphic journalism hosted at the Milan Triennale.

In 2013 he starred in the documentary Igort, the secret landscape, by director Domenico Distilo which illustrates the research carried out for the trilogy on the Soviet Union, the birth of the graphic novel and its relationship with the story through images.

In the last half of 2014, Igort announces on his personal Facebook page the publication of his next work, Japanese notebooks, a memoir, comic essay, travel book and drawn reportage that tells the author's years spent in Japan. In December of the same year Nostalgia is published, a book which is a preview of a work to be published. In November 2016, the novel My Generation comes out, which tells about the Punk and New Wave era. In the same month he released Gli assalti alle panetterie (Assaults to the bakeries), a volume written by Haruki Murakami that Igort illustrated with watercolors.

On 21 February 2017 Igort announces on Facebook that he leaves Coconino Press because he is no longer able to do his job there serenely.[1]

In 2019, Igort directed the live action adaptation of 5 is the Perfect Number, starring Toni Servillo and Valeria Golino.[2]

• 2017 Prize Golden Romics to career at XXI Edition of Romics.
• 2016 Winner of the "Premio Napoli" in Naples for the diffusion of italian culture in the world.
• 2016 Winner of the "Best artist" award at Naples' comic Festival. Comicon 2016 for "Quaderni Giapponesi".
• 2016 Winner of the "Author of the year" award in Lucca Comics Festival. 2016 for "Quaderni Giapponesi".
• 2013 Winner of "Mostra Internazionale dei Cartoonists" award in Rapallo, 2013, as best realistic artist.
• 2013 Winner of the "Best script " award for the "Cahiers russes" in Pibrac. Prix lycéen de la BD.
• 2012 Winner of the "Book of the year" award in Naples comic Festival. Comicon 2012 for "Quaderni Russi"
• 2012 Winner of the "Book of the year" award. Prix Region Centre. In Blois comic Festival.Comicon 2012 for "Les Caihers Russes"
• 2011 Winner of the "Prize in memory of Holodomor" in Paris, November 2011 for "Les cahiers Ukrainiens"
• 2011 Special prize at Napoli Comicon for Quaderni Ucraini
• 2007 Prize Italia Criminale at Treviso Comics for Dimmi che non vuoi morire
• 2006 Prize Best book of the year at Napoli Comicon for Fats Waller
• 2005 Winner of International event of the year award at Treviso Comics for Fats Waller
• 2004 Prize Lo straniero al Negroamaro festival (Lecce)
• 2004 Prize "libro jazz dell'anno" per Fats Waller al jazz festival "Swing a Xirocourt"
• 2003 Prize Best book of the year at Frankfurt Bookfair for 5 is the perfect number[7]
• 2003 Prize Coccobill: best author at Milan comics festival Cartoomics
• 2003 Special prize A.N.A.F.I. (Associazione Nazionale Amici Fumetto Italiano)
• 2003 Grand prize at Romics for 5 è il numero perfetto [8]
• 2002 Prize Pulcinella at Naples Comicon

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Igort.

• Official website
• Igort at IMDb 
• Igort discography at Discogs