From an experimental project on Instagram to a case study in international academia. This is the path of Isa wins it all, the webcomic launched in 2022 from an idea of the Museum of Palazzo Ducale in Mantua, which transformed Isabella d’Este, Marchioness of Mantua and one of the most influential figures of the Renaissance, into a 21st-century teenager capable of moving with irony, intelligence and critical spirit among memes, digital languages and historical references. The announcement comes from Toronto, Canada, where Italian Comics in the New Millennium, a two-volume collection edited by Alessio Aletta of the University of Toronto, was published in September 2025. The work explores the most innovative productions of contemporary Italian comics and counts among the case studies precisely Isa wins it all, recognizing its ability to combine historical popularization and digital communication tools.
The comic, as recalled, was born in 2022 from an idea of the Museum of Palazzo Ducale in Mantua, with the production of Rulez and the signature of two authors already known for their research on the language of contemporary comics: Lorenzo Ghetti at the script and Rita Petruccioli at the drawings. From the beginning it was conceived as an “Instagram-native” series, that is, built to live and develop on the social platform. The protagonist is Isabella d’Este (Ferrara, 1474 - Mantua, 1539), who is reincarnated into a young woman of our time. Not a simple caricature transposition, but a multifaceted and coherent character, capable of using the grammar of social networks without sacrificing philological precision and timely references to the artistic and cultural heritage of the Renaissance.
The public responded immediately. In less than a year, the Instagram account @isavincetutto surpassed ten thousand followers, becoming a point of reference for young readers, students and comics fans. The success soon translated into official recognition as well. In 2022 the work won the Carlo Boscarato Award at the Treviso Comic Book Festival and, in the same year, was presented in print form at Lucca Comics & Games, the most important comics and gaming festival in Italy. In 2023 it won the Young Readers Award at COMICON in Naples, while in 2024 it won the Romics Award for best comic book for children. The project thus made a decisive transition from the digital to the publishing dimension. Today, Isa’s adventures are collected in two volumes published by Rulez, Isa Wins Everything and Isa Wins Again, which have consolidated her fortunes even among a non-social audience.
The academic recognition that came with Italian Comics in the New Millennium represents a new stage in this journey. The essay dedicated to the project, authored by Lorenzo Bonoldi, art historian and scientific advisor to Isa wins it all, traces the genesis of the comic strip, its narrative and graphic choices, and the cultural value of an experiment that sits at the crossroads between popularization and entertainment. Bonoldi, who closely supervised the popularization and social communication part, thus accepted the challenge of making a historical figure of great complexity accessible and engaging without simplifying its scope.
Isabella d’Este was one of the absolute protagonists of the European Renaissance, a collector, patron and refined intellectual. Known for her role as promoter of the arts and for her ability to converse with the leading artists and men of letters of her time, from music to painting, from collecting to politics, the marquise of Mantua is rethought in a contemporary key as a digital influencer, but she remains faithful to the characteristics that made her famous: curiosity, acuity, and a taste for intellectual confrontation.
In this sense, Isa Vince Tutto is not just a narrative experiment, but a popularization project that exploits the channels most familiar to new generations to bring a fundamental character of Italian history back to the center of attention. The choice of Instagram is not accidental: the social of images and stories becomes the ideal ground for a comic strip that plays with visual languages, references to Renaissance art and meme codes.
The international success of the project, culminating in its inclusion in the University of Toronto volume, shows how contemporary Italian comics is increasingly able to dialogue with a global audience and academic research. Italian Comics in the New Millennium devotes ample space to new forms of digital comics, recognizing in experiences like Isa wins it all a frontier that combines creativity, experimentation and cultural rigor.
With this recognition, Isa’s journey seems to demonstrate that the figure of Isabella d’Este has not ceased to fascinate and interrogate the present. From Renaissance courts to Instagram timelines, from comic book festivals to university classrooms, the character continues to embody a vitality capable of crossing centuries and different languages, remaining ever relevant.
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| Comic strip on Isabella d'Este from the Ducal Palace in Mantua becomes an international case study |
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