The great Disney historian Alberto Becattini has written a new book entitled "Disney Comics. The Whole Story" (Theme park press). It´s a great scholarly opus, informative and enjoyable. You can read all about the evolution of Disney Comics in the whole world, form Argentina to France, from USA to Denmark and Italy, from its beginning in the 30ies to 2016. All important Disney comic authors and artists, form Gottfredson to Noel Van Horn, form Barks to Scarpa, from British William Ward who created the first long adventures with Donald as main character to Casty and Don Rosa are presented in this volume. I think it is really a must for all Disney Comic fans who want to know more about the great variety and development of Disney Comics.
As Alberto is an Italian, and he is well aware that Greek Disney comics have always used Italian produced stories as a heavy % of stories printed in their own publications, I suspect that his book does cover the content of Greek publications.
I'm greatly amazed that this hasn't generated any more discussion.
I haven't read all of it yet, but it seems to be very comprehensive and fact filled, which is good. But that's also the downside of the book. Since it wishes to contain "everything" in it's pages, it is in some parts just long lists of names, comic book titles and years. It lacks critical note and it examines comics without tying them in their historical framework and background. It might have been more contemplative in it's approach, getting wider cultural picture of times and societies that made those comics. And most of all, since it has no pictures at all, I would have wanted more descriptive passages on those comics. What kind of stories, what kind of art... and so on.
I know... that way it would have been over one thousand pages long instead of those 450 it has now.
I'm greatly amazed that this hasn't generated any more discussion.
I haven't read all of it yet, but it seems to be very comprehensive and fact filled, which is good. But that's also the downside of the book. Since it wishes to contain "everything" in it's pages, it is in some parts just long lists of names, comic book titles and years. It lacks critical note and it examines comics without tying them in their historical framework and background. It might have been more contemplative in it's approach, getting wider cultural picture of times and societies that made those comics. And most of all, since it has no pictures at all, I would have wanted more descriptive passages on those comics. What kind of stories, what kind of art... and so on.
I know... that way it would have been over one thousand pages long instead of those 450 it has now.
Timo
Not only would THAT desired book be more than 1,000 pages, but with all the photos we'd want in it, it would cost € 1.000,00!
To be fair, I must add to my previous post that I have wanted to read this book for decades (original Italian book published in 1995) and that it is in most parts interesting and fascinating reading. Especially when there are historical first hand information from artists and editors themselves.
Anyone seen the book for sale elsewhere than Amazon?
I’m excited to read the book but haven’t ordered it yet... As Amazon doesn’t offer free shipping to my country I use to order/pre-order 5+ books at the same time. That way I save some money on shipping. Or I use other dealers like Book Depository that offer free shipping worldwide. But Disney Comics: The Whole Story seems to only be available on Amazon.