Italian, 1933-2003 Late Italian artist Guido Crepax is revered by artists and comic historians as a revolutionary for the medium. The artist devoted himself to exploring the boundaries between dreams and reality through the sexual escapades of his most prominent original character, Valentina, and his other heroines. He worked almost exclusively with black chinese ink, developing a scratchy, lighter style over time to shape the contorted figures of Valentina and her peers. His series of small, simple lines are evocative of Charles M. Schulz, elevated by seductive character design and a fluid transition between genres. An admirer of master comic artists such as Dino Battaglia, Hugo Pratt, Philippe Druillet and Jules Feiffer, Crepax owes largely the literary eroticism of Marquis de Sade, Charles Baudelaire, and Leopold von Sacher-Masoch for establishing a foundation for fetish art as a vehicle for social commentary or political dissent. It was said by Crepax that his comics represent a "personal psychoanalytic diary drawn day by day." He blurs the boundary separating dreams and reality when exploring his heroines, either by traveling across the surface of their skin or by plunging into the murky depths of their hidden desires. Crepax detested violence, saying "I have drawn whips, chains and bonds of all kinds... But I hate violence, lack of respect for oneself or for others, and all forms of excess. There is never a single drop of blood." Guido Crepax's final comic story was an adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein in 2002. He is survived by his three children.