Caravaggio: The Palette and the Sword Volume 1 is the first half of Milo Manara’s two-volume epic biography of the hot-tempered Italian master painter depicting Caravaggio’s early years in Rome as he struggles to capture truth on canvas — only to have his art condemned to be burned by the Church and then is forced to flee when he kills a man in righteous fury over the death of a prostitute.

The two volumes of Caravaggio mark the return of Manara to U.S. readers and the debut of a new series of affordable graphic novels from Fantagraphics of maestro Manara’s internationally acclaimed work. (Volume 2 will follow in Spring 2025.)

Discover the bawdy, swashbuckling life of one of the greatest painters in history through Manara’s passionate, personal tribute to his artistic idol, Michelangelo Merisi, whom the world would come to know as Caravaggio.