Zerocalcare

Michele Rech (Italian: [miˈkɛːle ˈrɛk]; born 12 December 1983), known as Zerocalcare ([ˌdzɛrokalˈkaːre]), is an Italian cartoonist. His pen name, meaning "zero limescale", is based from a TV commercial jingle for a descaler product that came to his mind when he had to quickly come up with a Internet nickname.

Rech was born in Cortona, Tuscany, Italy, to an Italian father from Rome and a French mother. He was raised in France and later in Rome (Rebibbia-Ponte Mammolo area), where he graduated at the Lycée français Chateaubriand. In 2003, at the age of 20, he began working as an illustrator for several newspapers. At the same time, he worked on a webcomic for Zuda Comics, the online division of DC Comics. In 2004 he created a comic about the 2001 G8 summit protests in which he took part.

He published his first graphic novel, The Armadillo Prophecy, in October 2011 and in November he created zerocalcare.it, a website where he published autobiographical comic strips. In September 2012, the blog won the Macchianera Award as 'Best draftsman-Cartoonist' and the Gran Guinigi Award at Lucca Comics for best short story with The Armadillo Prophecy.