We present below the detailed and generous review by Anselmo Roveda dedicated to the illustrated book Marcello by Ruben Rovati. The piece, rich in insights and careful observations, appeared in the September 2025 issue of the renowned magazine Andersen.
When he is in the ring, he throws himself onto the ropes. He enjoys imagining playing a gigantic guitar.
Marcello, the eponymous protagonist of this illustrated book, is a big, burly, bald, and muscular man from Rimini. Or at least, in the seaside town of Romagna, he lives that way; feeding on 50 piadine a day and training on the beach, just to maintain his muscle mass. Muscles necessary for the profession of a pro wrestler, but perhaps also — gloves appearing — a boxer, at least for the sake of gimmick and showmanship.
Yet these muscles have also been an obstacle, being so cumbersome, in cultivating his passion for the guitar, which was soon abandoned. Thus, in the ring (see the quote above), he dreams of being a guitarist. Moreover, his muscles, more generally, influence how others perceive him: Marcello is seen by most as the strong man of the ring; not exactly a “normal” type.
Right in the ring — a stage as much as a battleground, where the fantastic is free to unfold — he meets Luisa, a referee in the customary black-and-white striped shirt for the sport-spectacle discipline. She looks at him differently, perceiving Marcello’s “normality” beyond appearances. Up to the penultimate illustrated page, Marcello’s story seems to conclude with a typical performance and usual farewell: no declarations, no break in the cycle of prejudices of which he is a victim, and perhaps an accomplice.
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For the resolution, narratively engaging and technically perfectly executed, we must wait for the final page, the endpaper. Luisa, captured in a close-up shot of her torso, discovers a note in her pocket (which is also a paper-engineered pocket, an imperceptible cut between the pasted endpaper and the cardboard of the back cover), handwritten by Marcello. The reader is invited to extract the note and read the declaration to Luisa: a sincere and moving text that closes the book and opens the story.
The vigorous linework and coloring, the short yet highly original narrative form, the poetic impulse — only apparently (and, one might say, deliberately) — in contrast with context and solutions, characterize this highly successful debut by Ruben Rovati, who studied at NABA Milan and ISIA Urbino. A talented author, he has already experimented with animation through a couple of short films and the hypnotic Lapsus (2024), a master’s thesis project later circulated at festivals, earning attention.
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Anselmo Roveda is a writer and scholar of children’s literature and the imaginary, author of numerous books for young readers, some of which have been awarded prizes and translated abroad. He coordinates the monthly magazine Andersen, directs the literary festival Cabirda, and teaches Screenwriting II at ISIA Urbino. His work includes radio dramas, stories, essays, poetry, and around twenty books for children. Among his most recent works are When Animals Didn’t Have Tails (2020) and Whose Swing Is It? (2022), both illustrated by Elisabetta Civardi.
Ruben Rovati was born in Milan in 1998 and graduated in Illustration from ISIA Urbino in 2024. To date, he has worked as an illustrator for Corriere della Sera and the record label Sugar Music. He has created three animated short films, one of which, Adolfo’s Dirty Clothes, won the 2024 Accademia Creativa Award. The illustrated book Marcello is his first complete story ever published.