Dylan Dog #24

History

The concept originated with writer Luigi Mignacco, who conceived the idea of a murderous cartoon rabbit after watching Evil Dead II in a cinema, and proposed the subject to Bonelli's editorial director Decio Canzio, who rejected it outright. Sclavi, who served as the series' creative overseer and wrote the final dialogues for the issue, quietly retrieved the story, told Mignacco he liked the idea, and handed him the full screenplay assignment in what Mignacco himself described as an unofficial arrangement made 'un po' sottobanco' (somewhat under the table). Mignacco also personally roughed out layouts for the Pink Rabbit action sequences — sketching the character in an overcoat with prominent ears — which he passed to artists Luigi Piccatto and Cesare Valeri, who preserved his compositional intent while bringing their own interpretation. The finished cover was, as for the series' first 41 issues, provided by Claudio Villa.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Title: 'I Conigli Rosa Uccidono' (Pink Rabbits Kill); published September 1, 1988, as issue #24 of the regular Dylan Dog monthly series by Sergio Bonelli Editore; 94 pages, black and white, standard Bonelliano format (16×21 cm).
• First appearance of Pink Rabbit (internally named 'Jumbo'), a cartoon-rabbit killer who murders victims using grotesquely literal cartoon-world methods — anvils dropped from windows, sticks of dynamite, chainsaws — establishing one of Dylan Dog's most recognizable recurring antagonists.
• Plot and script by Luigi Mignacco; dialogues by Tiziano Sclavi; interior art by Luigi Piccatto and Cesare Valeri; cover by Claudio Villa. The dual-artist interior team blended a realistic style for Dylan's world with a cartoonish visual register for Pink Rabbit's sequences.
• Ispettore Bloch appears as Dylan's client for the investigation — the mystery centers on a series of cartoon-method murders targeting staff at the Sandy Sidney animation studio — with Groucho also appearing in his customary supporting role.
• Mignacco conceived the story independently and without any knowledge that Robert Zemeckis was simultaneously producing 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' (1988); the parallel was purely coincidental, as confirmed by Mignacco in multiple interviews.
• The story makes explicit internal references to earlier issues in the series continuity, specifically issues #12 ('Killer') and #15 ('Canale 666'), tying the Pink Rabbit narrative to the series' earlier explorations of media-technology horror.
• The issue has been reprinted extensively in Italy: a first reprint (July 1991), a second reprint (July 1993), the Collezione Book edition (May 1998), Dylan Dog Grande Ristampa #8 (December 2007), the Collezione Storica a Colori #8 in full color (April 2013, distributed with La Repubblica and L'Espresso), and the Viaggio nell'Incubo #34 'Pink Rabbit' collection (March 2020). A Brazilian edition ('Coelhos Assassinos', Mythos, December 2004) and Croatian editions also exist.
• Pink Rabbit returned in subsequent stories — 'Il Paese delle Ombre Colorate', 'I Conigli Rosa Colpiscono Ancora', and 'I Conigli Rosa Muoiono' (2018, Dylan Dog Color Fest) — making the character introduced in #24 the foundation of an ongoing sub-saga within the Dylan Dog universe.

Cast · 4 characters

Full credits

Key issues in Dylan Dog