Davide Toffolo Returns with Graphic Novel on Cumbia's Origins

Davide Toffolo, Italian graphic novelist and frontman of the band Tre Allegri Ragazzi Morti, has released 'Il cammino della Cumbia' (Oblomov Edizioni, 2018), a 216-page graphic novel exploring the roots of Colombian cumbia music. The book follows Toffolo's alter ego on a two-month, 8,600 km journey from Buenos Aires to Barranquilla, accompanied by friends Paulonia Zumo and Nahuel Martinez. Along the way, they interview 100 musicians and traverse Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, and Colombia. Toffolo, who first fell in love with cumbia twenty years ago during a trip to South America, describes the music as 'migrant and mutant.' The project originated from a mistaken purchase of three plane tickets to Buenos Aires with a return from Bogotá. This is Toffolo's first graphic novel in five years, following 'Graphic Novel is dead.' The book blends travelogue, musical investigation, and spiritual self-discovery.