Anonymous asked:

How dare you Caputo, do a crossover of Over the Garden Wall with Dante Alighieri?! He's a racist and homophobe! How can you make a fan art like this, especially on a program for children? A person who condemns and curses innocent gay and muslims in the flames of hell, he is none other than a monster! You can't do that! He only deserves to be censured with all his books! Remove immediately your fan art of OTGW, or we will take serious action against you.

You know what dear anon?

You now are the real racist and monster.

Do you know why? With this your message, not only you offend me, but also most of my cultural heritage, because I’m Italian; and like many others before me, I studied in school, and loved one of the largest and oldest masterpieces of Italian literature. What I read in your post is just ignorance and puritanical hypocrisy.
Very likely that you have not studied this book in your school. You must know that when Dante wrote hell between 1304 and 1320, we are talking about the Middle Ages. A historical period, made of wars, conspiracies, betrayals, and where at the top of all this there was the dispute of power between the Empire and the Church, that is, between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines. And in turn between whites Guelph; and blacks Guelphs.
In this period Dante wrote the Divine Comedy, or after he was exiled from his beloved Florence, was there that he “carried” his mystical journey to the three realms of the Christian, that is: Hell, Purgatory and Paradise. Telling all sins, vices and virtues of that era. According to the beliefs, ideals and culture of that historical period. Putting also characters both from the past as Caesar, Alexander or Attila, and from his era like Farinata Umberti, Paolo and Francesca, Count Ugolino, etc.
And for my fan art, that was just a tribute, because: OTGW and the same Inferno have a dark forest. In the first canto of Hell, Dante is lost in a dark wood, lost in sin and fulfills his long journey thanks to his guides, as Virgil for Hell and Purgatory and Beatrice for all the Heaven. 

While Wirt and Greg are lost because they ended up in a sort of limbo, a dark forest: they try to find the way home and almost risked death because of an accident, and are accompanied by Beatrice throughout their journey.
Therefore, I can only tell you: yes, I enjoyed the cultural reference; and no I don’t ever censor my art for a silly propaganda totally ignorant and offensive towards work and culture.

Like every other artists: i draw and i do what i want.

And get a culture!