ABSTRACT
Fantomas is a character belonging to the large group of heroes of French serial novels known as roman noir (crime novel) where the protagonist is a criminal. A typical story presents a series of ingenious, atrocious and often gratuitous crimes performed by Fantomas who, thanks to extra-ordinary physical strength and agility, always escapes the implacable pursuit of the almost equally cunning police Commissioner Juve. Pierre Souvestre and Marcel Allain published the first Fantomas story in 1911, and its immediate success led them to write another thirty-one sequels in the following four years. The character became an international myth through the films of Louise Feuillade. Fantomas is known as a criminal genius, an elusive master of fear who constantly changes his identity, an extraordinary actor who triumphs in all his roles. The novels were published in Italy one year after the French edition and republished with some success in 1963. But it is in the comic book field that the influence of Fantomas was paramount, helping to generate the character of Diabolik, founder of the fumetto nero.
