Gio
rgio Figus (http://www.fumetti.org/autori/figus.htm) was born in Turin on 7 November 1958. Desirous from an early age of becoming a comic book author, at the age of 17 he began drafting his first scripts, which he submitted to Edizioni Paoline. Passionate about Disney characters from a very young age, and Carl Barks in particular, he wrote his first Mickey Mouse story for “Topolino” in the autumn of 1980: it was “Zio Paperone e il Carro Ittita” (‘Uncle Scrooge and the Hittite Chariot’). With by now almost forty years of his career behind him, Giorgio Figus has explored, in most of his stories, the wide range of his interests and knowledge, achieving an effective synthesis between his personality and the stylistic and content cornerstones of Disney fiction. His stories, in fact, range from the science-fiction subject, to the social science-fiction one, as in ‘Papercelsius 154’, an obvious and successful parody of Ray Bradbury’s great ‘Fahrenheit 451’; from the naturalistic one, to the detective story. More recently he tried his hand at the adventure genre, and with historical stories]. In 1986 he created, for the monthly magazine ‘Il Messaggero dei Ragazzi’, the comic strip series ‘La Valle di Mook’, of which he wrote the first episode ‘Attenti al Pelosone!’. In 1997 he took part in the second edition of the ‘Acquaviva nei Fumetti’ competition, presenting a comic strip version of Totò’s famous poem ‘La livella’, drawn by Antonio Lapone. The story won 1st prize. In 2001, he produced, with cartoonist Paolo Mottura, a short comic strip story to advertise the use of the ‘Verde Sacchetto’ (the container for the collection of organic waste). The story was commissioned by the ACEA company of Pinerolo
Third Praetorian Guard vol 1, 2, 3 (Giunti, 2025 and 2026)
Three chapters of a new series of adventures set in the ancient Rome of Trajan, Rome, 113 AD. Sisto Corio and Cleo Zagaros are two agents of a proto-secret service that was actually established by Emperor Trajan. In each volume of the series, the two protagonists are called upon to solve mysterious cases in various parts of the empire.
THE ROAR OF THE VESUVIUS
Some thirty years after the eruption of Vesuvius, mysterious, flaming figures roam the ruins of the city of Pompeii – that was never rebuilt for fear that such a tragedy could happen again – spreading terror amongst the Roman legionaries. In the nearby town of Neapolis, several houses have inexplicably collapsed. Amidst giant crabs and agents of the Moloch Bat, Sisto Corio and Cleo Zagaròs’s new investigation will take them deep into Vesuvius, where a group of Samnites is working on a secret weapon to drive the Romans out of Neapolis…
THE DEADLY HISS
In Dalmatia, near the town of Solona, aggressive and deadly creatures suddenly and mysteriously appear. It seems that this has something to do with a mysterious object that fell from the sky (perhaps an asteroid—or something else—from space). Upon arriving on the scene to investigate, the two agents make another alarming discovery: after more than 250 years, the city of Carthage has been re-established in a secret location, waiting to return to being a great power and to counter the dominance of Rome. It also has a highly efficient secret weapon, the Moloch Bat, which will give the agents of the Third Praetorian Guard a run for their money!
THE AWAKENING OF THE BEAST
In Iberia, in a remote mountain village at the foot of the Pyrenees, a terrible Beast spreads terror among the legionaries of Rome’s garrisons. No one can capture or kill it, and the Roman army’s aura of invincibility begins to suffer. Sisto Corio and Cleo Zagaròs discover that behind the origins of the Beast lies the mysterious Atlantis, a highly advanced civilization that disappeared in ancient times.
