In Tear along the edges, the new animated series written, directed and dubbed by Zerocalcare, the author has inserted several easter eggs and many references to the universe of his comics – showing characters who have not been able to find space – but also to other comic works. Also, the tight editing of the series may have caused someone to lose some trivia.
We have therefore decided to collect below some of the main easter eggs of Tear along the edges:
• The background image of the Zerocalcare smartphone is a cartoon by Maicol & Mirco, author of the Scribbles. The cartoon in question exclaims: «He who is happy is an accomplice». Maicol & Mirco has poi published the image in screen saver version.
• In the first and fifth episodes, outside the bar that Zerocalcare frequents, there is a poster with the writing “Panini & Comix”, a possible play on words with the Panini Comics publishing house.
• In a scene from the first episode, Boar can be glimpsed, Zerocalcare’s friend with an obsession with sex, so much so that every life advice is reduced to the maxim «you have to fuck». Apparently the most reckless of the group, in the author’s comics Boar will evolve unexpectedly over the years, ending up starting a family.
• In the second episode, Zerocalcare imagines running for president of the United States and one of the campaign posters reads “The last beech tree”, a parody of the title “The last intellectual” with which The espresso had rebranded the cartoonist in 2020.
• Among the kids of the repetitions, Blanka appears fleetingly, a child to whom Zero tutored and who had appeared in the first comics. To protect its confidentiality, the cartoonist had drawn it with the features of Blanka, the character from the video game Street Fighter“raised in the jungle and raised by beasts”, as stated in the comic in which he debuts, Pedagogy. In that same story Zero instructed Blanka on the need to look I hate it1995 film by Mathieu Kassovitz of which Zero lends the DVD to Ludovico Lucertolini in the TV series (with the name crippled Which I hate).
• In a scene of the second episode, in which Zerocalcare is the protagonist of the metaphor of Plato’s cave, an amphora of Exekias appears, a potter who was the greatest exponent of black-figure ceramics. The vase, preserved in the Gregorian Etruscan museum of the Vatican Museums, portrays Achilles and Ajax engrossed in a board game of uncertain origin. It is an unpublished subject of Homeric iconography, an original creation by the artist that has no counterpart in any literary text. The find can be seen for a very short time but it is an indication of the attention to detail by the production.
• The children’s cartoon that Zerocalcare draws for Alice, The Prince of Tricksis a picture book in parody form that the author actually wrote and drew as a young man.
• In the third episode, in the scenes set in elementary school, Zero talks to Corrado Persichetti, the class bully who appeared in An octopus in the throat.
• During the scene of the “stocazzo” pizza (a hypothetical pizza with an unusual taste that Zerocalcare is tempted to taste), Zero imagines that the pizza is so good that it was served at Jesus’ last supper. apostles and some characters who have already appeared in the series, the Panda appears, the cynical and ruthless conscience of Zerocalcare who made his debut in Raw rubble.
• In the fifth episode, in a crowd scene that imagines Zerocalcare, we see Katja, a character introduced in Twelveand then reappeared in Raw rubblein which we see her stuck in an unsatisfying relationship and with a strong desire for motherhood.
• In a scene in which Zerocalcare talks about his willingness to help his friends with practical actions, we see him assisting Deprecable, who in the comics is Katja’s forty-year-old and debauched boyfriend.
• At Alice’s memorial, a boy in a K-shirt and panda mask appears in the crowd. We are talking about Giacomo Bevilacqua, friend of Zerocalcare and author of the series Panda likes… who uses the nickname Keison22 on the internet.
• The gentleman who, at the end of the sixth episode, calls Zerocalcare and his friends back to the gym is Michele Foschini, co-founder of Bao Publishing, the publishing house that publishes the author’s comics. Foschini also voiced the character, who is called “Tizio” in the credits.
