Writers: 1. Carl Barks 2. Don Rosa 3. Casty 4. Floyd Gottfredson 5. Bob Gregory 6. Lars Jensen 7. Knut Nærum and Tormod Løkling 8. Maya Åstrup 9. William Van Horn 10. Alessandro Sisti and Ezio Sisto 11. Evert Geradts
Artists: 1. Carl Barks 2. Don Rosa 3. Casty 4. Floyd Gottfredson 5. Tony Strobl 6. Arild Midthun 7. Daan Jippes 8. Freddy Milton 9. William Van Horn 10. Alberto Lavoradori 11. Flemming Andersen
Yes, when these three work together they never disappoint me. Especially Knut Nærum and Tormod Løkling, they deserve more attention.
Very interesting. I share most of your problems with I-coded duck stories. From a storytelling perspective the divergence from Barks's style was deep from the beginning, and it has been going on for 65 years now! They are a completely different form of Disney comics. But I have important, although different, concerns with the North-european duck stories, too. The silliness of plots in the average Egmont duck story is so frustrating. At least the Italian writers can be good. I find myself divided between lame plots in a narrative style that I generally like (North Europe) and plots that I generally like in a lame style (Italy). I am not satisfied with any of the two, but I must admit that I see no Artibani working for Egmont.
On the matter of exposure to Italian stories in the US, I think that the greatest missing is Tito Faraci, who is in a way the 'Italian Rosa'. Not because his style is similar to Rosa's. Just because his Mickey Mouse stories stand out compared to the rest of the Italian authors much like Rosa's stories stand out of other D-coded writers. It has, in other words, a strongly authorial flavor, based on a personal mix of humour and sentimentalism. Unfortunately he does not have the same *quantity* of great stories as Rosa, since he does not focus only on Disney.* Except for this specific pick, the IDW publications are covering past and present I-coded stories in a balanced way. (Even if they can only give just a taste.)
(*the analogy with Rosa goes further: just like the master from Kentucky, Faraci found in Italy great praises inside and outside the Disney fandom community, and a few great haters within the Disney fandom community.)
So, I'm obviously not anti-Italian across the board. But why are they still in the minority? Only a quarter of favorite writers overall (15 out of 60), with no I-coded Italian Duck writer in my top ten.
I wonder what do you think of Artibani? His writing style is generally good, I think; and he seldom uses Brigitta. He wrote a lot of parodies and AU stories (PKNA, double Duck etc.), which might count for the last two reasons, though.
I like the Artibani & Arena "Magica's family" trilogy. I enjoyed "Scrooge's Last Adventure" well enough while I read it, but it's not one I'm going to save to re-read. Love "Moby Dick," though I think that's mostly for Mottura's art.
As you say, a lot of Artibani's highest-rated stories are either parodies or AU stories. Or Mouse stories. It's not unheard of for me to save and re-read a Mouse story (Casty's, for the female characters he creates; maybe a dozen others), but on the whole I'm a Duck woman.
I think I just ordered a book that includes his Duck lunar expedition story, though, so we'll see how I like that one.
Yes, when these three work together they never disappoint me. Especially Knut Nærum and Tormod Løkling, they deserve more attention.
I much enjoyed Nærum & Løkling/Midthun's "Orphan's Christmas". Haven't got to read a lot of their other stories so far. I did like the Løkling/Midthun A Treasure for Sure
a *lot* more than the Inducks raters--*really* loved Magica's lookalike pirate ancestor.
Which Nærum & Løkling stories would you suggest I look for next?
Yes, when these three work together they never disappoint me. Especially Knut Nærum and Tormod Løkling, they deserve more attention.
I much enjoyed Nærum & Løkling/Midthun's "Orphan's Christmas". Haven't got to read a lot of their other stories so far. I did like the Løkling/Midthun A Treasure for Sure
a *lot* more than the Inducks raters--*really* loved Magica's lookalike pirate ancestor.
Which Nærum & Løkling stories would you suggest I look for next?
I much enjoyed Nærum & Løkling/Midthun's "Orphan's Christmas". Haven't got to read a lot of their other stories so far. I did like the Løkling/Midthun A Treasure for Sure
a *lot* more than the Inducks raters--*really* loved Magica's lookalike pirate ancestor.
Which Nærum & Løkling stories would you suggest I look for next?
Thanks! Clues of the Klondike is now on its way to me from Germany...a couple weeks ago I finally found someone selling that issue on German eBay. I will keep an eye out for The Christmas Train.
Since Korhonen is my favorite Duck writer after Barks and Rosa, I've been pleased to see him turn up on other commenters' top-five lists. Back in December 2016 I noted that he had made Donald Duck34's top five writers list. Since then, three more people have included him in their top-five-writers lists: grupaajord, Daniel Maline and fredj. Fredj also includes him in his top five current artists. So that's five of us who have placed him in our personal top-five. I just wanted to celebrate this! I don't think he's one of the "usual suspects" when people imagine who will turn up on fans' top-five lists.
For me, after Barks and Rosa, Korhonen contributes significantly more stories to my overall list of favorite Duck stories than any other writer. The #4 spot is much more contested and changes hands over time, since that is held by writers who only contribute fewer than ten stories to my overall list. There are currently 22 stories by Korhonen on my favorites list, without even counting his two sets of "life of Scrooge" stories, which I also enjoy enough to read more than once. Right now the #4 spot is a competition between Per Hedman and the McGreals (who rank that high partly thanks to Rota's art on several of their stories).
I'd love to contribute some day to a collection of short pieces in honor of Korhonen's work. I have a particular admiration for the stories where the plot and humor are very deeply rooted in character--in the personalities of the characters, beyond just a stock trait like Donald's temper or Gladstone's luck, and in the ways the characters relate to each other and to people in general. Another One for the Album pictures the relationships between Donald and the other central characters, in ways I find very satisfying; Globetrotters has Donald win in a competition with Scrooge by virtue of the way Donald relates to other people; Which Witch? explores the personalities of Scrooge and Magica when they switch bodies; To Supply a Demand and Mr. Gearloose Leaves Town both address the basic tensions created by Gyro's personality and work patterns; And Then There Were Two deals with the intra-triplet relationship; and Bunny and Sweetums provides me one of the most attractive-yet-believable pictures of the Daisy/Donald relationship (it's *not* the title relationship!).
Casty was #4 on the list I first posted on this thread, but that was for Mouse stories. I'm generally not interested in Mouse stories, as you have no doubt gathered. There are only about 30 Mouse stories which I've ever wanted to re-read, vs. hundreds of Duck stories. But a third of those 30 are by Casty.