series of Wonderland were taken years later, collected in three volumes by Panini Comics. 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-publish the comic book series 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), 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, Doctor Doom and Elektra in Rat-Man stories; however, copyright problems have since prohibited such use of characters in the Rat-Man world. Successful parodies Ortolani created several popular parodies of famous works of fiction and blockbusters in his Rat-Man stories. In 1999 Leo Ortolani created Star Rats, a parody of Star Wars. In 2004 he created Il Signore dei Ratti, a parody of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. In 2005 Ortolani published Star Rats - Episodio I, a parody of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, which was the best selling Panini Comics book in the release month. In 2007 Ortolani created 299+1, a parody of 300 and one of his best works. In 2009 he created Ratto, a parody of Rambo films. In 2010 he published Avarat, a parody of Avatar. In 2011 Leo Ortolani created La Quadrilogia dei Sacrificabili, a parody of The Expendables series, that won the award "Fede a strisce 2011" at RiminiComix. In 2012 he created Il Grande Magazzi, a parody of Harry Potter and Twilight series. That same year he published also Allen, a parody of Alien. In 2014 Leo Ortolani published Star Rats - Episodio II, a parody of Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, and then soon after in 2015 he published also Star Rats - Episodio III, a parody of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. The end of the series Rat-Man In 2016 Ortolani stated his intention to close the series Rat-Man with issue #122, which was published around September 2017. Main works Le meraviglie (1994-1996) Rat-Man (1995-2017) Gli intaccabili (1995) Venerdì 12 (1996-2004) La lunga notte dell'investigatore Merlo (1997) Star Rats (1999) Il Signore