The Italian embassy in Vietnam on May 21 introduced ‘Gaia Blues’, a graphic novel by Italian comic writer Daniele Bonomo, at the Trung Nguyen Creation Rendezvous, 36 Dien Bien Phu Street in Hanoi, as part of the Italy-Vietnam Programme 2012.



In recent years, comics have been targeted to adult readers as well as children and extended their content to universal issues such as the environment, war, hunger and poverty. ‘Gaia Blues’ touches upon environmental pollution, a problem that has attracted a lot of attention from people all over the world.

The title of the book, ‘Gaia Blues’, combines ‘Gaia’, the name of the great Earth Mother in ancient Greek mythology, and ‘Blues’, the slow, melancholic music genre, to represent Mother Earth’s sadness.

‘Gaia Blues’ is the lament of three members of a polar bear family living on an island of garbage, the result of thoughtless human littering and pollution. The story is told in sequential images like a movie without any text.

“Contrary to popular educational publications which usually have more words than pictures, I believe that the pictures in my work will be a wake-up call for readers to look back on how they are treating the planet and urge them to start saving the environment immediately,” said author Bonomo at the press conference.

“The wordless comic also encourages readers’ imagination and creativity so they can use the pictures to create a story in their own words,” he added.

The book has sold five million copies in Italy and is also very popular in Italian schools and libraries.

Daniele Bonomo, whose pen name is Gud, was born in 1976 in Rome. After graduating from the International School of Comics in 2000, he has been teaching comic and animation history at the school. He has also collaborated with many well-known Italian comic magazines such as Next Exit - Creativity and Work, iCOMICS as a comics, animation and illustration editor.

Nhan Dan