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Fiordilatte

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L’antico borgo di Bessaniga fa da sfondo agli intrecci e alle relazioni morbose di Marco, Stella, Lulu e Daniele. Con uno sguardo voyeuristico e disincantato, Vila mette a nudo i personaggi, osservandoli nelle loro ipocrisie, insicurezze e desideri inconfessabili. Un soft-thriller psicologico e grottesco sull’ossessione erotica e la dipendenza affettiva, ambientato nella provincia veneta più profonda.

176 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2021

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248 people want to read

About the author

Miguel Vila

5books23followers
Miguel Vila is an Italian cartoonist, born in Padova in 1993. His first book Padovaland (2020, Canicola) won the Cecchetto prize for Breakthrough Artist (“Artista rivelazione�) at the Treviso Comic Book Festival and the Gran Guinigi Award for Best New Artist (“Miglior esordiente�) at Lucca Comics. The following year, his second graphic novel Fiordilatte (Canicola, 2021) - translated as Milky Way by Fantagraphics Books - received the Micheluzzi Award for Best Comics at Lucca. Third in his 'trilogy of the North-East' is Confortless (Canicola, 2023). He has also released Fortezza volante (Minimun Fax, 2023), written by Lorenzo Palloni. Vila's books have been published in France, Spain, Finland and the US.

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5 stars
88 (23%)
4 stars
162 (43%)
3 stars
88 (23%)
2 stars
21 (5%)
1 star
11 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 55 reviews
Profile Image for Urbon Adamsson.
1,490 reviews57 followers
July 27, 2024
This book delivered everything I expected.

While it's hard to summarize, I'd describe it as the story of Marco's emancipation. Marco, a boy who feels emasculated and constantly pushed around, can't even perform intimately.

When Marco meets Lulu, everything changes. Through sexual release, Marco begins to come out of his shell. However, with his newfound freedom, less desirable traits emerge, and I found myself calling him "an idiot" as I read.

The plot is much more complex, involving other characters that enrich the story.

One interesting aspect of this book is its unique approach to depicting the passage of time. Typically, comics use several panels and pages to convey this, but the author employs a technique I've never seen before: a single page with very small panels that sequence events effectively without needing multiple pages. I think this is genius.

Overall, it was a great read and probably one of the best this month.
Profile Image for Alberto Martín de Hijas.
1,018 reviews51 followers
October 22, 2023
Una historia de amores y desamores "retorcidilla" Los personajes son tremendamente antipáticos pero a pesar de ello (¿O quizás gracias a ello?) la historia funciona. No es para todos los públicos, eso si.
Profile Image for Flavio.
43 reviews
December 16, 2021
Benvenuti a Bessaniga, capoluogo della provincia omonima in Veneto, città tra le più ricche e operose del nord Italia sin dai tempi dell'antica Roma. Situata all’estremità orientale della pianura padana, incuneata tra le province di Padova e Vicenza, ha sicuramente dato i natali a qualcuno di importante.
Durante la permanenza potrete assistere all'esondazione del nulla dalle pagine di Padovaland fino alla periferia di Bessaniga, evento che ha causato la cancellazione dei riferimenti e di ogni sistema di valori. A seguito del vuoto generato, la popolazione locale si è ritirata all'interno dei propri cervelli annacquati dagli spritz, impiegando il loro tempo in attività amene quali l'intreccio di relazioni squisitamente disfunzionali, la coltivazione di un egoismo patologico e la confusione sistematica tra realtà e rappresentazione.
Luoghi di interesse: Euganea smart, un centro commerciale come gli altri, ma con la dicitura smart; la gelateria Fiordilatte non lontano dalla galleria Giorgione; il Duomo bessanighese; il castello ghibellino. Esplorando questi luoghi, incontrerete alcuni esemplari della gioventù locale disadattata:
Marco, studente universitario in preda a una paralisi esistenziale. La sua ossessione per l'allattamento è l'emblema della sua incapacità di crescere. Il lutto di sua madre, il tentativo subcosciente di riportarla indietro con una relazione "paraincestuosa" (o qualunque altro nome si voglia dare ad una relazione sessuale con un surrogato materno) potrebbe spiegarne in parte le cause.
Stella, il cui bisogno di accudimento e di conferme continue le impedisce di troncare la relazione tossica instaurata con Marco.
Daniele, viscido zizzaniatore di stampo shakespeariano. Sorta di parassita suburbano mosso unicamente dall’invidia e dal desiderio.
Ludovica - detta Lulù - incarnazione ipostatica delle immagini della fecondità e della maternità nelle fattezze di una venere di Willendorf. Il suo bisogno di un padre è in tutto e per tutto speculare alla condizione di Marco e innesca il cortocircuito sentimentale che mette in moto la trama.
Potrete infine apprezzare l'arte di Miguel Vila, autore che � operando una grande forzatura, me ne rendo conto � mi spingo a definire horror, data per assodata la sua familiarità nella rappresentazione di quell'horror vacui dei riferimenti andati a farsi benedire, sostituiti da una ipertrofia comunicativa (spesso in forma digitale) lobotomizzante e devirilizzante. Prosegue su queste pagine la raffigurazione di un territorio caratterizzato da due strati che non arrivano mai a sfiorarsi. Il piano delle informazioni è infatti del tutto scollegato dal reale, mancando completamente il collante capace di tenerli uniti, vale a dire la capacità di giudizio, di immaginazione, di leggere il mondo in cui si vive. Da qui tutti i disagi psicoemotivi e l'emergere di ossessioni di un'intera popolazione che vive senza alcuna prospettiva, incapace di vedere oltre l'orizzonte dei bisogni primari. Scollatura che diventa più che mai palese se si osserva il catalogo delle brutture umane vignettato dal Vila � che comprende: dettagli pelosi, crateri dell'acne, costellazioni di efelidi, ramificazioni di capillari rotti, addomi dilatati, nasi osceni, ascelle pezzate � così sgradevoli e tuttavia così normali, che contrastano con i modelli iperperformanti della vita aumentata rispetto ai quali la realtà non riesce in nessun modo a tenere il passo.
Con una scelta che va in una direzione opposta rispetto a Padovaland, Miguel Vila scrive una fabula che ha la forma essenziale di un triangolo amoroso - con un utilizzo più spinto del medium in confronto al recente passato - iscritto però in un altro triangolo, che è il luogo in cui tutti alla fine si smarriscono, incapaci di sfuggire al mostro invisibile contro il quale nessuno dei protagonisti ha mai avuto alcuna possibilità di fuga: la solitudine.
In rapporto di perfetta continuità con l'opera precedente è lo stile grafico, dove però va segnalata un'evoluzione nell'uso della griglia sia come strumento in grado di dettare il tempo di lettura con i pieni e i vuoti della pagina utilizzati magistralmente, sia come obiettivo capace di indirizzare l'attenzione sui dettagli più minuscoli o di allargare improvvisamente il campo con i vertiginosi decolli verticali divenuti a questo punto il marchio di fabbrica del Vila.

Fiordilatte segna la crescita artistica di Miguel Vila, che si conferma come uno degli autori più interessanti del panorama italiano e non solo.
Profile Image for Carlos Miguel.
123 reviews2 followers
February 5, 2023
Interesante por raro, divertido en momentos, bizarro en su mayor parte, pero muy muy original.
Profile Image for Marcello S.
616 reviews272 followers
October 11, 2022
Dopo Padovaland, Miguel Vila si conferma ad altissimi livelli.
Uno degli apici del fumetto italiano, oggi.
Super.

[80/100]
Profile Image for Topanga.
26 reviews1 follower
July 29, 2023
si buscas “bizarro� en internet debería salirte este libro lol
Profile Image for Laura.
46 reviews1 follower
December 27, 2023
Non l'ho posato finché non l'ho finito.
Profile Image for Dat-Dangk Vemucci.
92 reviews3 followers
January 23, 2024
the real is too real... if you look closely enough everybody's ugly... a microscopic focus on skin imperfections, stretch marks, bruises, varicose veins, and food in the process of being masticated, stuck between the teeth of an imbecilic smile...

in a book filled with grotesque imagery touching on taboo subjects the most uncomfortable panels are those close-ups on character's faces in moments of emotional extremes, such as when the grating "nice-guy" protagonist bursts into tears apologising to his girlfriend for his ED, his chin scrunched in his neck, his mouth a pink wobbly 'O'. The story is already voyeuristic, but Vila's pitiless linework draws us into such uncomfortable proximity with these people's inner lives it feels overwhelming and claustrophobic.

Vila seems dubious about the extent of our much-vaunted agency and consciousness; the characters seem doomed to follow repeating patterns in their lives against all rationale, following the incline of a deep psychological groove leading ever darker, ever inward into the self. Desiring desire itself, and all that
Profile Image for Rick Ray.
3,342 reviews23 followers
May 8, 2024
Miguel Vila's first English translated graphic novel Milky Way features a tightly constructed, character-driven narrative about how dominating sexual predilections and fetishes can be. The subject of the story is the fizzling out relationship of Stella and Marco, where the latter's sexual preferences soon become an all-consuming obsession. The target of Marco's leering gaze is Lulu, a working-class older woman who works at an ice cream shop which shares the name with this comic. Marco's obsession begins with a passing interest in lactating breasts, the subject of his pornographic searches that soon dovetail into his inability to become aroused by his current partner, Stella. With the lens on the Lulu-Marco-Stella sexual triangle, Vila elaborately builds the façade of a functioning young yuppie romance only to rapidly deconstruct it with an intricate examination of fetishization.

The refreshing aspect of Milky Way is the use of a minimal cast of characters to really dive deep into the motivations of the primary three characters. That isn't to say this comic isn't ambitious, because it clearly is given the rather uncomfortable nature of the subject matter. Vila is more than ready to put the taboo stuff right in the forefront, and nothing is sugar-coated. In the hands of many other cartoonists, the story here could have felt more exploitative or entrenched in the male gaze, but Vila handily shuts that down. The characters are drawn like regular people - mildly attractive at certain angles, but the flaws are also just as apparent. Lulu is primed to be a pinup-type character, but instead is presented as a woman with a rather unflattering profile for much of the story. The premise could easily be misconstrued as an erotic thriller, but it's more like a awkwardly sexual slice-of-life story instead.

The artwork also really delivers here. Vila opts for a series of tightly-woven grid layouts which also finds a way to deviate in structure and rhythm when needed. The panel grids are not consistent as the story often goes into slight nonlinear narrative tangents that are reflected by offset panels. It feels very inspired by experimental formalists like Chris Ware, though Vila's approach is novel enough to give him credit for the strong sense of design used here. The backgrounds make great use of pastel colors to evoke a warmness to the story, and the strong, colored lines add a sufficient pop to the designs in the forefront. There's a nice subtlety to the artwork that matches the fairly subdued and naturalistic sensibilities of the story, even if the subject matter is very out there. It's well worth checking out, mostly due to the sheer creative novelty in which Vila operates in.
Profile Image for Raro de Concurso.
557 reviews1 follower
August 12, 2024
Como soy bastante ignorante para hablar de novela gráfica, no haré ni un sesudo análisis de los dibujos, ni buscaré referencias en los baldosines de Chris Ware para describir el orden de las viñetas. Es más, como mucho, podría decir, que las ilustraciones me han parecido a un Álvarez Rabo que dibuja algo mejor.
Y éso es malo o es bueno? Ni idea. A mí me ha parecido estupendo. Estupendo en el sentido que el autor me ha llevado a donde quería llevarme. A su huerto. A la sordidez de la historia, al feísmo de sus personajes, a la angustiosa relación del protagonista, al juego de deseos.
La trama me ha atrapado, tanto como para leérmela en un día, casi del tirón. Y en ningún momento he sabido por dónde iba a tirar.
Es cierto que trata temas algo "delicados", no aptos para estómagos sensibles, dicen por ahí. Para que mi estómago se queje con ganas me tengo que leer "La desconfianza del CEO" o "Una chica mala para Dorek" (títulos reales, ojo :D). El mundo tiene cosas que a ciertas personas no les gustaría verlas, pero no por ello van a dejar de existir. Y hay más verdad en una teta de Miguel Vila que en cien de Manara.

Y ya está bien por hoy. Un vasito de leche y a la cama :D
Profile Image for Myfischer.
250 reviews2 followers
January 7, 2024
J'ai, étonnement, aimé le dessin, la mise en page, et même la construction du scénario, d'où les deux étoiles. Par contre l'histoire... un jeune homme incapable d'avoir des relations sexuelles avec sa copine mais qui se découvre soudainement un fantasme pour le lait maternel. Avec un peu de "sa mère est morte donc il a "besoin d'une maman"" pour psychologiser le tout à la va-vite et du côté de son amante allaitante, une sordide histoire préalable de détournement de mineure mais bon, on apprend à la fin qu'a priori c'est volontairement qu'elle s'est fait mettre enceinte par un vieux gars dans le but de tourner du porno 🙄 On souffle très fort, comme devant certains gros plans anatomiques féminins du reste... Vraiment mais la fin c'était pire que tout.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Brian.
1,855 reviews52 followers
February 22, 2024
This book was one of the most disturbing graphic novels I've read in a long time. The book is about a man who is dating a woman and they have a semi normal relationship. The man becomes obsessed with another woman for a very unique and disturbing reason. I won't go into it here but let's just say this book is very raunchy and has some pretty interesting drawings.
20 reviews
January 21, 2025
É como se pelo sexo e pelo desejo houvesse uma possibilidade de escapar e de se descobrir ao mesmo tempo .
Texto divertidísimo , e uma arte que apesar de bem caricatural se constrói a partir do realismo .
Profile Image for Katerina.
93 reviews
March 6, 2025
I picked up this book because I loved the artwork. I didn’t expect it to be so explicit, but I ended up reading it in one sitting.
Profile Image for Jacob Brogan.
20 reviews6 followers
August 30, 2023
Challenging, troubling, and formally complex. Vila’s dense, unbounded page layouts sometimes evoke the conceptual architecture of Chris Ware’s layouts, though the book’s style is beholden to no other artist. It’s an effect most pronounced in the books most erotic episodes, where tiny panels evoke both the quickening of the pulse and the fumbling of hands in the half-light. It’s a text that will reward repeat reading and careful investigation, but I’m not sure that I’ll really ever want to come back to it. Impressive as it is off-putting.
Profile Image for Celia.
3 reviews
April 19, 2023
Creo que es la primera vez que me indentifico con una teta dibujada por un hombre, y eso es tan guay como triste xd
Las texturas de la piel resultan súper creíbles, así como los cuerpos y caras variopintas que se presentan.
Una historia tan incómoda como seductora. Bastante turbia en general aunque vestida de colorinchis pastel y personajes con apariencia de enrollados
Profile Image for Cozy Ginger.
187 reviews32 followers
October 11, 2023
I can get behind kinky bizarro-esque themes and off putting characters and odd art styles. Completely down for that. What I can’t get behind is adding in h*mophobic and fatphobic commentary that adds nothing to the plot and is just lazy writing to make a character unlikable.
Profile Image for Titus.
403 reviews49 followers
June 6, 2024
This is a frank examination of broken people and unusual sexual fetishes, covering similar thematic ground to the excellent “Ripple� by Dave Cooper. Just like “Ripple�, it follows an awkward male protagonist overcome by an intense sexual obsession with a woman who by conventional beauty standards would be considered unattractive and by bourgeois social standards would be considered to totally lack grace or refinement. However, where the main character of “Ripple� is a middle-aged artist, the male lead in “Milky Way� is in his late teens, so his infatuation is placed in the context of adolescent sexual discovery and emotional turmoil.

“Milky Way� also calls to mind the work of Nick Drnaso and Ben Gijsemans � in terms of subject matter (unhappy, disaffected male characters), mood (downbeat, tense) and pacing (slow, pensive, quiet, meandering). That said, the artwork is a lot more aesthetically pleasing than Drnaso's, with lovely pastel colours, a gorgeous setting in northern Italy, and bold, clear-lined backgrounds that calls to mind Chris Ware. A Ware comparison is also warranted by Vila's creative use of unusual page layouts, with panels of various shapes and sizes arranged in innovative ways, with no fear of leaving blank space.

Overall, this is a sophisticated and very accomplished comic, which has left me curious to see its author’s other work.
Profile Image for Marii.
86 reviews5 followers
May 3, 2023
Brutto, sporco e perverso.
Lettura incredibile.

Spinta dalle molte recensioni positive e dal consiglio di Fior, ho dato una possibilità a questa graphic novel e a Miguel Vila.

E ho fatto bene: storia ben strutturata - anche nella disposizione delle vignette - e scritta, personaggi principali estremamente umani e antipatici, schifosi e con cui non vorresti avere nulla a che fare perché ipocriti ed egoisti. Tema scabroso, perverso, ma interessante.

I temi e la vicenda si sposano alla perfezione con lo stile grottesco dell’autore, che riporta su carta tutte le caratteristiche di un corpo qualunque, che vedi tutti i giorni per strada: nei e orecchie sporgenti, pelle non perfetta, villosità di tutti i tipi, denti non perfetti e via discorrendo.
A leggere sembrerebbe una collezione dei peggiori difetti che un corpo può offrire, ma alla fine questo siamo. E nonostante tutto, è uno stile grafico piacevole da vedere.
I colori, vagamente sul pastello e quindi mai troppo accesi o vividi, addolciscono il tratto grottesco.

Ovviamente, trigger warning come se piovessero: SA, shaming vari e temi sessualmente espliciti.
Se non vi dà fastidio leggere di questi temi, vi consiglio di dare una lettura a questa graphic novel: ne uscirete probabilmente sconvolti e darete voi le vostre conclusioni.
Profile Image for Mar de  Luces.
100 reviews11 followers
May 27, 2024
Ha sido una lectura indescriptible. No me gusta hacer reseñas negativas sobre los libros y siempre cuento que no han sido para mí o que no me han gustado, comprendiendo que a otras personas puedan llegar a gustarles por distintos motivos, porque en muchas ocasiones los libros que yo no considero para mí son libros magistrales en la Literatura o se trata de libros que encandilan a un sinfín de lectores. Eso no quiere decir que sean malos, ni muchísimo menos. Sencillamente son gustos y opiniones diferentes, valorando siempre el trabajazo de los autores, ilustradores, traductores y todo el equipo editorial.
Sin embargo, en este caso, buscaba otra novela gráfica más en la biblioteca con la que entretenerme y por su sinopsis parecía que podía aportarme algo diferente que se saliera de mis esquemas. Sin lugar a dudas, así ha sido.
Se retratan un cúmulo de perversiones que te dejan con el corazón encogido y te apetece pasar las páginas y no mirar sus viñetas. Pero no solo eso, se lleva a cabo una normalización y romantización de la p0rn0gr4fi4 alucinantes. Me ha provocado un rechazo terrible la mirada masculina con la que está narrada la novela y la "fetichización" de ciertas cuestiones que me han resultado atroces.
Por desgracia, muy desagradable y NO es un libro para estómagos sensibles.
Profile Image for Betzim Gdolot.
97 reviews
December 6, 2024
This is an erotic psychological thriller.

Marco is a loser. He has an erectile dysfunction and can't get it on with his girlfriend Stella. He has a porn induced erectile dysfunction and his penis works only when he masturbates to porn. One day he "unlocks" a new fetish when he finds out about lactating porn.

Lulu is white thrash. She has a kid she grows without too much care, she is drinking heavily even though she breast feeds and has to take care of her child.

Stella is the girlfriend of Marco and is babysitting Lulu's kid. She's in love with Marco and is willing to do anything for him, out of love and compassion.

This is a story about toxic relationships and human beings that are living their lives dependent on their partners.

The art is beautiful and I really liked the Chris Ware feeling of each scene change where the author drew many small squares that really help making the setup.
Profile Image for Louise.
155 reviews1 follower
March 19, 2025
I don't know how to preface this review aside from "I was at the library at lunch, was drawn to the pastels, and left with a stack of 4 blue books, one red book." Filed under "did not read the full blurb" and also filed under "good thing I'm working from home today and therefore didn't end up in a situation at work where I have to explain I'm reading a graphic novel about a dude struggling with his sexual performance until he meets a woman with large breasts and is breastfeeding." So. There you go.

4 stars for illustration, and to be exact: the scenery. Although, credit where credit is due? the grotesque is also (tastefully?) done. I also really liked the panels of two of our main characters, Marco and Stella, before we get to know them. Overall lots of pleasing and soothing colours for a story that's anything but.
267 reviews
November 20, 2024
Un cómic bizarro y feísta pero a la vez hermoso. Hermoso por la composición y el ritmo de sus páginas, por los tonos dulces que colorean esa línea elegante del dibujo. Y, sin embargo, toda esa belleza gráfica se pone al servicio de una realidad incómoda, antipática, repulsiva por momentos, con un trío de protagonistas con los que es imposible empatizar y muchísimo sexo tan explícito y kink como crudo en su realismo.
Ámalo u ódialo, pero el autor te lleva exactamente por donde él quiere por más que te desagrade. Precisamente por eso es un gran cómic. Precisamente por eso no pienso releerlo jamás.
174 reviews
January 5, 2024
Grotesque is probably the right adjective, in the sense that each of us examined closely and from a certain angle is grotesque from some perspective. There wasn't quite a strong mental illness/mental health angle but it did showcase perhaps fixation (more than obsession). The art was strong with a clear Chris Ware influence (geometry and coloring in particular) but Vila is no Ware-clone either. I think this was his first book that has been translated into English and I hope others follow, including new work.
Profile Image for Raiba.
3 reviews1 follower
April 5, 2024
i loved the rawness of the art style, however a lot of the story line just felt like a kink that needed to be drawn out; visualized , and some commentary made no sense - i really wish they explored more of how stella was feeling , more of how ludovica felt, and marco’s issues
Profile Image for Abi.
2 reviews
March 29, 2025
I came across it in library randomly as the covering really looks into my eyes. Had an engaging 1hr read.

Kinda nsfw and not vanilla friendly, but so beautifully drawn and layered out. Like it when humans are just humans, imperfect, complex, irritable while vulnerable.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 55 reviews

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