Guido De Maria, the comedian who created Nick Carter and Giumbolo, has died
Author of *Gulp!*, *Supergulp!* and *Carosello*, he worked as an advertiser and came up with slogans such as ‘i piatti-tti’ and ‘the shirt with a moustache’
Just a few weeks after the death of Francesco Guccini and just a few days after that of Franco Fontana, Modena has lost another of its cultural pillars of the 20th century: Guido De Maria, the director, comedian and advertising executive who created such landmark programmes as Gulp! and Supergulp!, and created unforgettable characters such as Nick Carter and Giumbolo, as well as successful advertising slogans such as that for the famous ‘shirt with a moustache’. De Maria was a collaborator and friend of both Guccini and Fontana.
He was born in the province, in Lama Mocogno, on 20 December 1932. After moving to Bologna, in 1956 he abandoned his university studies to devote himself to humorous drawing, and his cartoons were published in all the major Italian daily and weekly newspapers, including *Epoca*, edited by Enzo Biagi, and *Candido*, edited by Giovannino Guareschi.
In 1960, he moved into advertising and, with the production company Vimder Film – of which he was a partner – produced hundreds of live-action and animated adverts, bringing to life numerous characters including Salomone, the chubby pirate for Amarena Fabbri and the series Brutos and Franco and Ciccio for Cera Grey. At the same time, De Maria devoted himself to cabaret – which he regarded as a hobby – with the Archibusti group, alongside Francesco Guccini, Beppe Bellecca, Mauro Mattioli, Franco La Polla and Annarita Torsello.
In 1968, he took part in the production of the film Flashback, directed by Raffaele Andreassi. In ’69, he moved to Modena, where he worked with the Bignardi studio. In 1971, he founded Playvision and devoted himself to comics, creating, together with his friend Bonvi (Franco Bonvicini), the character Nick Carter for the programme Gulp! Comics on TV, which De Maria produced and directed for Rai.
From 1972 to 1981, he produced 25 films featuring Nick Carter, several specials on famous comic-book authors – Bonvi, Hugo Pratt and Stan Lee – and a number of short films for the ‘Comics on TV’ series featuring well-known personalities. In 1975, he was director of photography on the film Decadenza, directed by Antonio Maria Magro.
