Paolo Eleuteri Serpieri

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Paolo Eleuteri Serpieri (February 29, 1944, Venice) is an Italian comic book writer and illustrator, known for his highly detailed rendering of the human form, particularly erotic images of women. He is perhaps best known for his work on the Druuna erotic science fiction series.

Serpieri was born in Venice but moved to Rome in his youth. He began studying painting and architecture at the Fine Art Academy in Rome under Renato Guttuso. He began his career as a painter in 1966 to much critical acclaim, before starting his career in comics in 1975. A big fan of the American Old West, Serpieri co-created L'Histoire du Far-West ("The Story of the West"), a series about the history of the Old West, with writer Raffaele Ambrosio, which was published in the magazines Lancio Story and Skorpio. Some memorable titles of his include L'Indiana Bianca ("The White Indian") and L'Uomo di Medicina ("Medicine Man").

Beginning in 1980 Serpieri worked on collections like Dcouvrir la Bible, as well as short stories for magazines such as L'Eternauta, Il Fumetto and Orient-Express. In 1985, he created the saga of Druuna, comprised of eight volumes published from 1985 to 2003: Morbus Gravis, Morbus Gravis 2: Druuna, Creatura, Carnivora, Mandragora, Aphrodisia, The Forgotten Planet and Clone. The series is noteworthy for featuring perhaps the most realistic-looking and explicit content in terms of both graphic violence and sex in comics. Creatura, in fact, features near-totally explicit sexual penetration, and the three subsequent books feature totally uncensored penetration, but the series returned to a non-explicit depiction of penetration in such scenes with The Forgotten Planet.

Serpieri has also published numerous sketchbooks, such as Obsession, Druuna X, Druuna X 2, Croquis, Serpieri Sketchbook, Serpieri Sketchbook 2 and The Sweet Smell of Woman. These books were very successful, selling more than a million copies in twelve languages. The sex scenes in Serpieri's work often place a heavy emphasis on sadistic anal sex, with numerous female (and some male) characters being sodomised against their will. Serpieri's obsessively lush, fetishistic and erotically charged depictions of the well-endowed heroine have earned him the undisputed title of the "Master of the Ass".

Serpieri is also credited with design work on the 3-D video game Druuna: Morbus Gravis, which is based on his curvaceous heroine.