I’ve recently made this 4-page comic for a competition regarding the upcoming 150th anniversary of the unity of Italy. The deadline has been postponed by the organizers to the 31st of July, so there’s still time to take part in the competition. Here’s the link.

My contribution is called “The Great Boyg”, and is taken from the famous Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen’s play “Peer Gynt”. The Boyg is a creature from Norwegian folklore, and usually takes the shape of a giant serpent blocking a traveler’s way. In “Peer Gynt” the boyg has as a ghostly, shape-shifting nature, and represents more of a psychological hindrance to the protagonist.

Ibsen spent many years in Italy, and wrote his best work there. In 1867 “Peer Gynt” was first released. This is also the year that Ibsen left Rome and Italy, at least partly because of the rumors that Guiseppe Garibaldi (a man Ibsen supported) was marching towards the city. Rome was not part of Italy at that time, it was controlled by the French. Although Garibaldi’s campaign against Rome didn’t work out as planned (he was stopped along the way), he is regarded as one of the most important individuals of the unification of Italy, and liberated many parts of the country.

In my comic the two events of Ibsen writing “Peer Gynt” and Garibaldi marching to Rome, clash into one story.