Dylan Dog #69

History

The story was written by series creator Tiziano Sclavi and drawn by Piero Dall'Agnol, marking their first-ever direct collaboration — Dall'Agnol had previously worked on Dylan Dog stories scripted by Claudio Chiaverotti. Sclavi conceived the issue as a pointed response to a real Italian parliamentary inquiry of 1990 that targeted horror comics, particularly the publisher ACME's 'Splatter' magazine; though Dylan Dog was never directly named in that inquiry, Sclavi was personally moved by the climate it created, and the real-life case of publisher 'Silver' facing legal action from a parent became the story's narrative spine. A letter Sclavi sent Dall'Agnol at the outset of production — later reproduced in the 2015 Bao Publishing deluxe edition — survives as a primary-source document of the creative process. The issue was published on 1 June 1992, edited under the general direction of Decio Canzio with Tiziano Sclavi credited for concept ('ideazione').

Trivia · 9 facts

• First appearance of Daryl Zed, a fictional comic-book monster-hunter created within the story as a thinly veiled in-universe analogue to Dylan Dog himself, introduced as the creation of Dylan's friend, artist Justin Moss.
• Written by Tiziano Sclavi (his 44th scripted story for the series) and drawn by Piero Dall'Agnol; published by Sergio Bonelli Editore, cover-dated June 1992.
• This issue marks the first direct creative collaboration between Sclavi and Dall'Agnol, who had previously drawn Dylan Dog scripts written by Claudio Chiaverotti.
• The story is a metafictional critique of comic-book censorship, drawing a structural parallel between early-1990s Italian parliamentary pressure on horror publishers and the tactics of the medieval Inquisition — Sclavi was responding specifically to the real 1990 parliamentary interrogation that targeted horror titles like the ACME magazine 'Splatter.'
• The issue carries a formal editorial notice on its opening page declaring that the story is not split into two parts and that the ending is deliberately left open to the reader's interpretation — an unusual structural break from the series' self-contained format.
• The cover illustration, depicting Dylan Dog and Groucho confronting a crowd of monsters, is a deliberate visual reference to Italian painter Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo's famous 1901 painting 'Il Quarto Stato.'
• A Nathan Never (another Sergio Bonelli Editore character) poster is visible in a background panel on page 51, serving as an in-universe crossover easter egg.
• The issue has been reprinted numerous times, including a First Reprint (April 1995), Second Reprint (February 1997), Collezione Book #69 (February 2002), Grande Ristampa #23 (June 2010), Collezione storica a colori #23 (July 2013), and a deluxe hardcover edition by Bao Publishing (July 2015) that included bonus material such as Sclavi's original letter to Dall'Agnol.
• Daryl Zed returned in a Color Fest story ('Caccia agli Inquisitori,' 2017, written by Tito Faraci, art by Nicola Mari), and subsequently received his own six-issue Bonelli miniseries in 2020, making #69 the seed of the only Dylan Dog supporting character to be spun off into a standalone title.

Cast · 4 characters

Full credits

Key issues in Dylan Dog