Gad Sfortunato – Basso

What is being sought after cannot be felt even on the fingertips. This is a series about the extravagant lifestyle of a tattoo artist named Gad, and the circle of people who revolve in it.

Gad Sfortunato is a difficult manga to describe. It is, on the surface, slices of life of tattoo artist, Gad and the men in his life. There seems to be barely any plot.

Most of the scenes were mundane everyday stuff, tattooing, paying the rent and so on. With these ordinary things comes the sexual encounters of Gad and his men. Majority of these were casual hookups, friends with benefits or one-night stands, illustrating the various nuances of gay relationships.

Our Gad is, apparently, quite a catch. Very promiscuous but elusive to those who want him the most. The most lasting relationship he had was with his childhood friend, Alesso, who still influenced his life to this day. Alesso appears in other manga by Basso.

The feelings we get from the various key scenes were charged but somehow still lowkey. Nobody had outbursts or grand declarations. Dialogue was minimal, many were inside thought balloons. Half the time, I had to think about the point of each chapter, especially the endings. This is not exactly saying it was pointless, more like things are so subtly played out or they alluded to something unfamiliar that I didn’t entirely get it.

This manga is part of a series of works set in Italy. Characters from other stories make appearances here and there so I had difficulty keeping track of some characters. This is best read as an companion piece to Kuma to Interi, and Amato Amaro.