Luca Torelli- TORPEDO 1936

(Bernet Torpedo commission)

Spanish comics series Torpedo, or Torpedo 1936, written by Enrique Sánchez Abulí, and drawn by Jordi Bernet, tells the story of the rather antagonistic character Luca Torelli, a hit man, and has a “light- relief” sidekick Rascal, in context of the rather violent organized crime of the Great Depression era of New York.

The series was created by Abulí and artist Alex Toth; he drew the first two stories in 1981.

Toth decided he did not share Abulí's dark and sometimes humorous view of mankind, and was replaced by artist Jordi Bernet, whose gritty, artistic style fits the dark and violent book.

(Alex Toth - Torpedo)

Torpedo 1936 was first published in # 32 of Spanish horror comics magazine Creepy in 1982.

The first two issues feature Alex Toth's artwork, then # 34, De perro a perro, Jordi Bernet takes over.

Torpedo made appearances in various Spanish comics and magazines; Thriller, Comix International, Totem el comix, Co & Co and Viñetas - to name a few- and then it was translated in several languages.

After winning a few awards across Europe in 1991, Torpedo got his own magazine named Luca Torelli es Torpedo.

In 1989 America had a Torpedo book, which was translated but it lost the original feel -  it did stay with the original illustration which is black and white, but that was all it had going...

Whereas the French kept the translation in the correct context, but they coloured the art so it lost much of the fabulous dry brush work of Bernet and ended up being a mulch of grey tones.

But all is not lost!!

England and America are seeing TORPEDO being published how it should be for the very first time, in five glorious hard back editions, which I recommend if you like dark and gritty noir.

It is translated by Abuli himself and the art kept to its original format.

(Torpedo cover- Bernet)

Now you have the back story, here is a synopsis of the story so far:  I say synopsis as I have been careful not to include any kind of spoilers.

Luca Torelli (Torpedo) was born in Sicily around 1903, his family are poor and dwells in a broken home marked by spousal abuse.

His parents are Vittorio Torelli and Luciana Petrosino, and as the series unfolds, we start to see an ugly and dark childhood.

It appears his older brothers real father was their grandfather (who raped his own daughter) and it is implied that Lucas own biological father was the local kingpin, who raped Luciana in exchange for mediating peacefully in the conflict between the Torellis and the Petrosino families.

Luca sees his older brother die due to a severe beating by their drunken father; he then starts the process of vengeance against his father as a reaction to seeing the suffering of his mother.

Eventually he is fostered by his uncle Vincenzo. Involved in a vendetta, he has to flee for America and as a teenager he works as a shoe shine. This is where we meet senior police officer named MacDonald, who subjects Luca to abuse.

Luca falls into various shady dealings and eventually becomes a hitman. ("Torpedo" is 1920s slang for a contract killer). Sometime later, he gets his sidekick, Rascal.

As we don’t see a linear narrative it is hard to date, except for references to the Volstead Act and Spanish civil war.

Apart from Rascal and characters in flashback stories, there are very few recurring characters and very few dates are given for his present day stories also.

The only character which you do see again is a woman called Susan, who consistently outwits Torelli.

She appears in the first story by Bernet (De perro a perro), a second appearance in Vol. one (La dama de los camelos), and her third (El día de la mala baba).

It is suggested at least thirteen years  have passed between her second and third appearance;  she is assumed to be a high-class prostitute in the first two (who was solicited by Torelli himself in the past), and now a "reformed" widow , housewife and mother, who had presumably "fucked her [old and rich] husband to death", as Torelli puts it.

I have no idea as to where and how this story is going to end.

As a reader it puts you in a position of where I don’t really want to say ‘rooting’ for Torilli as his character is a irredeemable, murdering, raping, misogynistic villain but due to the reader witnessing how he has become the character and hitman; it may not really be an understanding or pity for this character, but this is the guy the author expects you to connect with which makes for certainly interesting reading.

I keep expecting the BATMAN or similar to come and kick Torellis’ ass to kingdom come and back… but this of course never happens…

THERE. IS. NO. GOOD. GUY. IN. TORPEDO…

BUT. IT. IS. GREAT. READING!!...