Editing Leonardo Ortolani (section)

=== Popularity and the contract with Marvel Italia ===
In 1995 Leo Ortolani published ''[[Venerdì 12]]'' as a series of the comic magazine [[L'isola che non c'è]]. That same year, Ortolani chose to [[self-publishing|self-publish]] the [[comic book]] series ''[[Rat-Man (comics)|Rat-Man]]'' alongside his primary job as a [[geologist]]; however, in 1997 Leo signed a contract with [[Marvel Italia]], today a brand owned by [[Panini Comics]] (and, at the time, a branch of [[Marvel Comics]] itself<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://comics.panini.it/chi-siamo/curiosita/|title=Panini Italia: Curiosity|access-date=October 28, 2018}}</ref>), to publish the comic under the Marvel brand, which allowed Leonardo to become a full-time comics author. The contract also allowed him to use popular Marvel characters like [[Spider-Man]], [[Captain America]], [[Wolverine (character)|Wolverine]], [[Doctor Doom]] and [[Elektra (comics)|Elektra]] in Rat-Man stories; however, [[copyright]] problems have since prohibited such use of characters in the Rat-Man world.