English 
Italiano 
New presentation for the newest Fermoeditore book, Whodunit, blue cat?. This time the location was in Milan, in I.E.D. (European Institute of Design) headquarters. Title of the meeting, “Whodunit, blue cat?: from thesis to book.”
The authors were there, once again – Giulia Coppola, Silvia Magnani and Paolo Zadra – and they explained their project to an audience of approximately fifty students of city art schools, attentive and curious to know the details of the “blue cat” adventure directly from the three protagonists.
Using a projector, they explained the illustrations in the book, page by page, describing the events in the stories – it is the same story told by three different points of view, a child, a murderer and a detective, divided in three separate volumes – and speaking of their stylistic choices. Even the plot is unique, and makes a virtue of gaps: unspoken bits add mystery and leave room for imagination.
Authors then went on to describe the “secrets” of the book: uniting the three back cover you can reassemble the map of the places where the story takes place, and each section is drawn with a style that changes depending on the character (for example, the child uses colored pencil and smudge), then, the three volumes are bound by the cat’s tail, which give an idea of chase that winds in the early inside pages: uniting them you get a kitten with a very long tail. The covers instead give to books a precise sequence, which can be upset beginning to read at any place you want.
Giulia, Silvia and Paolo then explained to potential future I.E.D. students the techniques they used, answering some questions from audience; last but not least, the considerations of personal growth related to the thesis: they have learned team work, were encouraged to use new drawing techniques, and they had to take into account the point of view of a potential reader, leaving school homework perspective.
What about the blue cat? “We wanted something that would unify the three books, in fact, the cat is drawn by a single hand, Giulia’s… the black cat is a typical noir element but we wanted to do something different to create curiosity.”
Between the project and the finished product there are also editorial choices: one reduced size, a paperback special thanks to which the pages of the books have thicker coasts or the binding margins, the choice of translating the texts into English.
A successful short meeting on Saturday, January 18, with great satisfaction of the audience: the three authors came together to sign their first autographs.
