In case you're interested in Duck Avenger's New Adventures, this might be interesting. The editorial team has apparently decided it might be better to give the series its own home again, instead of printing the stories in many parts on Topolino pages. There's a prologue in Topolino but the story will be released on its own. It's called "Un nuovo eroe" and has been written by Roberto Gagnor (his first stab at the PK universe) and drawn by Alberto Lavoradori (the artist of the PKNA origin story, but I liked his style a bit more back then). Cover's by Andrea Freccero:
One one hand, it's understandable (fans complained about the long breaks and about having to collect many issues with otherwise less interesting stories, likewise more traditional fans and younger readers weren't interested in comics based on a long, old continuity and with pretty complex storylines), but it also means a bigger financial risk.
So, if you want to support the creators and feel like the PKNA history should go on, I think you should try and buy the issues when they arrive (if you have the possibility to do so). The last time there's been a format like this was over a decade ago!
That is some good news for PK fans! I just wished IDW would do a hardcover collection of the story line they began to publish in comic book and trade paperback, too bad they had to cancel the title after just six issues of something like that. A hardcover collection would do better in US I think.
The biggest problem that Duck Avenger had in the US seems to have been that people were reading scanlations online versus actually buying the IDW books. Or if they did read them, they would nitpick every change made to the US editions, which I assume were mandated by Disney itself. The US and Italian markets are just two different things.
The biggest problem that Duck Avenger had in the US seems to have been that people were reading scanlations online versus actually buying the IDW books. Or if they did read them, they would nitpick every change made to the US editions, which I assume were mandated by Disney itself. The US and Italian markets are just two different things.
if that was the case, would not a thick nice hardcover collection/omnibus tap that audience? I mean I would prefer a hardcover with many issues and with good paper stock and professional coloring over reading old online pirate comics one by one, it would be so much easier and delightful experience I presume. and also no long wait for the continuation.
The prices of single issues increasing every other issue probably wasn't helping either.
IDW seems like they're done with Duck Avenger. We got another trade release with the next two issues but that was it. And with everything else IDW has had going on this year, I don't particularly want to see more Duck Avenger from them anyway. Best thing to hope for is if Fantagraphics decided to take it on and I have no idea how likely that is. It would have to be a big ongoing series of releases given how long each issue is.
Last Edit: Oct 27, 2019 16:05:22 GMT by squeakyboots
The prices of single issues increasing every other issue probably wasn't helping either.
IDW seems like they're done with Duck Avenger. We got another trade release with the next two issues but that was it. And with everything else IDW has had going on this year, I don't particularly want to see more Duck Avenger from them anyway. Best thing to hope for is if Fantagraphics decided to take it on and I have no idea how likely that is. It would have to be a big ongoing series of releases given how long each issue is.
agree on the pricing issue, 32 pages for 5 dollars in floppy format is not appealing when you could get 200 pages of carl barks in hardcover at amazon for 20 dollars. About Fantagraphics picking up Duck Avenger, I am not sure about how wise that would be, it is kind of a nishe title.. I rather prefer FB to keep their Disney Masters line going strong for a long time so we would get many volumes and diffrent artists featured there, picking up DA I would consider a risk, eating up their possible profit from Disney Masters.
Jonathan Gray’s scripts made the US version of Duck Avenger, so I would rather not see the likes of “E.B.” scripting them as blandly as possible. At the moment, with conditions the way they are, perhaps it’s for the best that DA takes a vacation from the US market.
The prices of single issues increasing every other issue probably wasn't helping either.
IDW seems like they're done with Duck Avenger. We got another trade release with the next two issues but that was it. And with everything else IDW has had going on this year, I don't particularly want to see more Duck Avenger from them anyway. Best thing to hope for is if Fantagraphics decided to take it on and I have no idea how likely that is. It would have to be a big ongoing series of releases given how long each issue is.
agree on the pricing issue, 32 pages for 5 dollars in floppy format is not appealing when you could get 200 pages of carl barks in hardcover at amazon for 20 dollars.
Uhhh... dude. Most of the Duck Avenger issues are almost 80 pages long. And according to IDW's site, they cost between $4.99 and $6.99 each (probably depending on the page count). Not a bad deal considering how many pages you're getting per issue.
You can't really compare Duck Avenger (or PKNA) to a standard, 32-page American comic book issue, because they simply aren't the same format. Duck Avenger's format with a 70+-page long story in each issue was one that was very popular in Italy in the 90s and 2000s, and was also used for other Italian comic book successes like W.I.T.C.H. and Monster Allergy.
agree on the pricing issue, 32 pages for 5 dollars in floppy format is not appealing when you could get 200 pages of carl barks in hardcover at amazon for 20 dollars.
Uhhh... dude. Most of the Duck Avenger issues are almost 80 pages long. And according to IDW's site, they cost between $4.99 and $6.99 each (probably depending on the page count). Not a bad deal considering how many pages you're getting per issue.
You can't really compare Duck Avenger (or PKNA) to a standard, 32-page American comic book issue, because they simply aren't the same format. Duck Avenger's format with a 70+-page long story in each issue was one that was very popular in Italy in the 90s and 2000s, and was also used for other Italian comic book successes like W.I.T.C.H. and Monster Allergy.
dude, I refer to the standard page count to price in that quote, for US single issues in general.I have no idea of how long that business idea will be somewhat feasible. I know about each title's success for 15 to 25 years ago when both paper and comic books were much cheaper then today and the internet was not what it is today, the problem is that that old product package do not work now in 2019/2020.
Apparently Roberto Gagnor is writing these new stories with the US in mind, but it seems unlikely at this point...
Not necessarily. The translation likely wouldn't be good, but a new and exclusive Duck Avenger miniseries seems like it would fit right in with New IDW's obsession with event miniseries (see: Donald Quest, My First Millions,Young Donald Duck).
Apparently Roberto Gagnor is writing these new stories with the US in mind, but it seems unlikely at this point...
Not necessarily. The translation likely wouldn't be good, but a new and exclusive Duck Avenger miniseries seems like it would fit right in with New IDW's obsession with event miniseries (see: Donald Quest, My First Millions,Young Donald Duck).
That’s not necessarily IDW’s “obsession”, as all of those but First Millions were produced for Disney Publishing Worldwide versus Topolino magazine’s publisher itself.
Apparently Roberto Gagnor is writing these new stories with the US in mind, but it seems unlikely at this point...
Not necessarily. The translation likely wouldn't be good, but a new and exclusive Duck Avenger miniseries seems like it would fit right in with New IDW's obsession with event miniseries (see: Donald Quest, My First Millions,Young Donald Duck).
I'd think that the non-success of the PKNA issues and the fact that there's lots of stories that interested readers would like to read before would prevent any quick US release of the new series...
The biggest problem that Duck Avenger had in the US seems to have been that people were reading scanlations online versus actually buying the IDW books. Or if they did read them, they would nitpick every change made to the US editions, which I assume were mandated by Disney itself. The US and Italian markets are just two different things.
Somehow, I doubt that. Obviously skinflints like Scrooge exist in real life too (!) but when you look at Banker's posts, he recommends buying and supporting the official issues several times, and several commenters have also said similar things. Admittedly, he could at least have removed the download links to the issues that were officially translated, but again, I doubt the difference would be that big.
The sad fact seems to be thus... Disney comics have become a niche in the US, and PKNA is a niche *within* that niche. The problem is that IDW have not managed to reach any new audiences, despite this being a much more mature and daring comic than most stuff associated with Disney. (I know of PK fans, both in the German speaking area as well as in Italy, who don't read classic Disney at all and might only accept Mickey Mouse Mystery Magazine and DoubleDuck as worth reading.) This suggests to me, among other things, a failure of marketing and distribution.
...Getting back to the translation thing, I don't see why it should be allowed to rain WAKstorms on Erin Brady et al while randomly changing facts and introducing continuity errors is somehow OK? Why is criticizing the latter petty when criticizing the former seems not just a God-given right but even an obligation... something does not compute here, folks!
As for the new series... I certainly won't buy this particular issue because... I can't read Italian, and I can't read Lavoradori! Unfortunately, I think the former is more easy to fix than the latter...
I'm more than a bit surprised that fans are disappointed by Lavoradori's art style, even go as far as saying that it looks rushed or that they liked him prior to this... it's exactly the same style he has been using in virtually all his comics since his Disney comeback in 2012. Personally, I hate it, but it's not any different from all those short stories he's done since then. (Well, maybe he's in a hurry all the time - the art certainly gives off this nonchalant attitude.) And in the case of PK Tube, it was mainly the excellent colouring that made it look relatively good...
Also, people seem to have forgotten that even in 1996 Lavoradori's art had to be "retouched" by somebody in France to make it more in line with the Disney "rules" (same goes for Intini in the third issue, who felt so insulted by this that he didn't want to be credited for the art anymore). So even the PK of 1996 is not the pure undiluted Lavoradori that we got now.
Got to say, the timing couldn't be worse... now everybody's comparing the new story unfavourably to the re-releases of "If..." (finale of the original PKNA series), "Ducklair" (first issue of its follow-up Pk²), "Potere e Potenza" (the beginning of PKNE) and "Droids" (the last PKNE story released on Topolino so far).
Also, it seems to have been a repeated complaint that the PKNE stories were hard to understand because they built on the rarely-reprinted Pk² stories. So now that Pk² is finally getting its reprint in the PkGiant series, what do we do? Cut off the ties to those stories and start something unrelated. It does seem badly thought out...
I do wonder... wouldn't this "Topolino fuoriserie" also be the perfect home for a return of X-Mickey?!
At least, the artist announced for the next issue is Roberto Vian. Not among my absolute favourites, but I certainly prefer him to Lavoradori, and he's actually "new" to PK (although he's drawn the classic Paperinik a few times, with some pretty good results).
One offshoot of “working” for the German fan magazine Bertel-Express is the possibility to ask creators things. I sent Roberto Gagnor a few questions when it became public that he’d be the writer of the new Duck Avenger series, which I followed up with a few more questions and comments later (after reading not the story, but some Italian reviews). I’m still working on the German translation (which also includes a few non-PK-related questions, I’ve edited them out for this forum/thread), which will probably come out in a few months, but I thought it was interesting enough to post the more or less unedited original conversation here.
Part 1 (November)
Gagnor: As I promised, here are the answers to your questions: PK - Un Nuovo Eroe is finally out and has been selling very well at Lucca Comics, apparently, so… now I can answer them all! :-)
Me: In our last interview, we asked if you'd like to work with Pikappa at some point. Little did we know that a few months later you'd already be confirmed as the first "new" writer to deal with the character in over ten years! How do you feel about this? Could you imagine it happening when we asked you…
Well… to be sincere, I DID know I was going to be the new PK writer back then, but I couldn’t talk about it, it was very early and was just beginning work on it!
But I have always wanted to write PK: so when my Editor in Chief, Alex Bertani, and my Chief Comics Editor, Davide Catenacci, asked me to work on it, I immediately jumped at the chance: and I’m very grateful to them for trusting me with this character, his world, his mythology.
In 2016, Francesco Artibani listed the PkTeam as thus: "Davide Catenacci, Stefano Petruccelli, Alessandro Sisti, Claudio Sciarrone, Max Monteduro and Lorenzo Pastrovicchio under the guidance of Valentina De Poli". De Poli has now resigned, Artibani said he won't write future Pk stories. Are you now part of that team, and are the others mentioned still part of it? Anybody else who has been invited?
At the moment, the team is: me and Alberto Lavoradori on the stories, Davide Catenacci editing them and Alex Bertani as EiC, as usual. The covers are from the brilliant duo of Andrea Freccero and Max Monteduro!
Do you know whether the coming stories will also follow up on the events of the previous stories and pick up more plot threads left hanging from PKNA and Pk², or are we now dealing with a clean slate (tabula rasa)?
It’s not, and I emphasize NOT, a reboot: but I’m not following Artibani and Sisti’s plot threads either. They are master writers and a huge inspiration for me, but I decided to go my own way and open up PK’s universe to new paths. So it’s still that world, but with new places to see, new people, new planets. No picking up other plots, for now. That has been our direction from the beginning.
Is PKNE destined to return to shorter stories, does it have a fixed page number again like the old magazines? If so, a higher frequency would probably make sense.
We are sticking to 44 pages, as they could also sell well in the US. I get to tell shorter stories, but that fits quite well with my writing rhythm: I tend to write fast, action-crammed stories, so I see it as a plus, not as a limitation. As for the frequency, the next PK will come out in March 2020, for Milan’s Cartoomics comic event. Then… we’ll see!
Why Alberto Lavoradori? Did you specifically request him as an artist? To say that fans' opinion is divided on him is being kind...
Alex and Davide had the very good idea of using Alberto, as he was the very first artist on the very first PK story (Evroniani), and I loved the idea too!
Alberto is doing a brilliant, innovative job and I love working with him: sure, his art may look strange and weird to some, but that’s because he’s one of the most avant-garde Disney artists. And that’s precisely why I enjoy working with him. PK IS the avant-garde frontier of Disney comics, to me: the space of experimentation and wild ideas. So it’s only fitting to have him as my artist!
Et voilà! Let me know if that’s good for you, if you have further questions… and when is it going to be out! :-)
All the best,
Roberto
Part 2 (February)
Thanks for the replies! Very enlightening and kind of you. My thoughts (as a fan), not necessarily intended for public consumption, although some questions may be hidden there too ;-)
Does PK still use the new suit/costume introduced in "Potere e potenza" or has he gone back to his "old" shield?
He’s back to the old shield… but there will be changes!
I know Alberto has his fans too, but most of what I've seen from him recently has - harsh as it may sound - hurt my eyes. It also often comes across as lazy (e.g. three Beagle boys that have the exact same awkward body position, looks like copy&paste), although PkTube looked a bit better from what I've seen (but that may have been also down to the coloring).
Personally, when I discovered PKNA with the German collections from 2012 onwards, I was glad the art became more attractive once Sciarrone took over for the 2nd and 4th episode (and after that, artists like Guerrini, Barbucci, Pastrovicchio or Mottura have impressed me most, and helped to make me a fan). The mix of different artists was a huge strength of the series, as if there was an artist you didn't appreciate, you could be sure the next issue would be by somebody else. I'd strongly suggest to keep Claudio on the project if possible (although I'm not as crazy about his digital style as his 90s works) and consider a few other artists too. Younger artists I like? Libero Ermetti, Stefano Zanchi, Renata Castellani...
Comics are a visual medium, and normally the reader is supposed to understand what's going on mostly from the art. There's one artist that has not always succeeded in doing this in the last few years and his name is Alberto Lavoradori. I often can't tell what he's trying to show due to the messy perspectives and non-existent backgrounds. As the writer yourself, you obviously KNOW what's going on in your story so you may not perceive it like that, but keep the reader in mind... I think Lorenzo's and Claudio's recent efforts showed that you can be artistic without being off-putting.
Imagine your wonderful Tor Korgat story drawn like this... unimaginable! It would not have achieved nearly the same classic status. I feel that this will hurt sales in the long term.
Lavoradori has a very interesting and peculiar style; he fits PK, having been PK’s very first artist, but I can understand his style can be divisive for some readers. Still, I’m very happy with his ideas for Un Nuovo Eroe. Anyway, the next volume will be drawn by Roberto Vian!
About choosing the artists etc., I have no say in that: it is an editorial decision. Same with colors. Of course I love the names you mentioned, and I’m actually working with Stefano Zanchi on a non-Disney graphic novel, Le Gocce, coming out in October! With Claudio, a cycle of Qui Quo Qua stories is coming out very soon in Italy: my story, his art, and I’m very happy with them!
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[NOTE from me – see below]
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I'm also a bit worried about leaving aside the narrative paths and open endings from PKNE. Working with something already existing (be it a character from PKNA or PK², or Don Rosa expanding on and continuing various classic Carl Barks stories, or Faraci or Casty writing a Gottfredson or Scarpa sequel) shouldn't be a goal in itself, but should make narrative sense, and if the result is good, it doesn't really matter whether all readers are familiar with the stories. In fact, I'm sure I got to know many classic Barks tales only after reading Rosa's sequels, and it didn't diminish my enjoyment. Some themes from those classic series (Fenimore Cook? Mary Ann Flagstarr? Urk?) clearly still have potential too.
Sisti has always been the backbone of the series - e.g. in the second half of the original PKNA run he was the only one who paid attention to the fact that Donald was no longer working in the Ducklair Tower, and thereby maintained a "mundane continuity", so to speak. And in this particular case I'm sure lots of fans would like to know what he had in mind to follow 2016's "Chronicle of a Return" story. Seems almost like a waste now to bring Xadhoom back if the events from that story won't be referenced again at some point?
Besides, not to insult you as I've liked most of the stories you've written, but I don't see why PK should become a single person's endeavor. It was never like that (Sisti did dominate the first few issues, but it was a teamwork, with Ezio Sisto also co-writing the plots, the idea for the Evronians having come from Lavoradori, and Sisti apparently himself declined writing the whole series, giving way to Artibani, not forgetting amazing stories by Faraci or Enna, etc.), and I think PK's artistic spirit came from the collaboration of different writers. I would've preferred to see you *added* to the already existing team instead of completely replacing it, as you could've collaborated with each other and gotten some assistance (especially from Sisti - also, Lorenzo has co-written Artibani's PKNE stories, and Claudio has advanced to writer recently). That would've made the change smoother and also made fans more easily accept your writing style.
About leaving aside other authors’ plot strands: if I tried to replicate Alessandro and Francesco’s amazing work, I would do a disservice to myself and the fans. What is the point of trying to be Artibani or Sisti, if you’re Gagnor? Instead, I want to be the best possible Gagnor and do things my way. Hickman is blazing a fantastic trail with the X-Men right now, using what he needs from past stories and yet putting his own spin - with great results. So there’s no point in replicating them, as mush as I respect them as masters of my craft and I love their really outstanding work over the years. I do have a plan with my PK stories and I will follow it through, though, don’t worry! Right now, I am the only writer of PK, working closely with Alex Bertani, our chief editor, and Davide Catenacci, Topolino’s comics editor. So this is our team now.
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[Another NOTE from me: see below]
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As for the US release, I don't want to crush your ambitions, but are you aware that IDW's PKNA series was cancelled for the second time? Disney comics are having a hard time in general in the US, and if the audience didn't appreciate the relatively moderate styles of the early PKNA issues enough to sustain interest, I can't imagine them appreciating the modern, completely off-the-rails Lavoradori, especially if he's the only artist of the series now. Not to mention that if I was an American reader I'd like to read the intermediate stories first, instead of jumping from "Portrait of the Young Hero" immediately to your new stories...
What happened to Monteduro's colouring? From the scans I've seen, the colours look worse than the 90s PKNA (no 3D-ish shades at all, lots of "screamy" primary colours), while they were breathtaking throughout all samples I've seen of PKNE. Is Max only working on the covers now or what? Seems like another questionable artistic decision to me, especially since the colouring probably was a reason why Pk Tube looked much better despite the same artist working on it. Artibani said of Monteduro in 2014 "Only he could recreate the PK atmosphere".
Even the cover looks (apart from the colouring) a lot like the regular Duck Avenger from Paperinik Appgrade or Paperinik Cult, probably because Andrea Freccero did loads of covers for those series. I don't like Lavoradori's style but if he's given the task of drawing the story why not also get him to draw the cover? The PKNE stories so far were always accompanied with covers by the respective artists - and Lavoradori did create one cover for the original run (PKNA 0/3) plus two for PkGiant (01, 24), so it's not like he couldn't do it. Or vice-versa, although Freccero isn't among my favourite artists either, I wouldn't mind seeing him draw a PK story again. (Though if I could get one artist of the original run back, it has to be the marvellous Francesco Guerrini! He really makes a comic 'come alive'. Incidentally, I see the two of you have worked together only once, in 2005...)
Max and the colors: it is an editorial decision as well. You can like or dislike an artist, or request one, but these are all enquiries you should place at Panini’s editorial department, not to me.
I've taken a look in the papersera forum (thanks to the wonders of Google Translate) and it seems that some people are saying the same things (but I wrote most of the above before reading people's opinions!), which confirms my feeling that there are some fundamental issues that need to be addressed. Especially when it comes to coloring. Should the new story be reprinted in a "collection issue" with its sequel(s?), I'd strongly advise [Panini to improve] the coloring.
I read an interview where you say that in sci-fi "everything can happen". I noticed this in Raceworld, where suddenly all the characters can materialize their thoughts... but it feels like a writing shortcut to me. It was OK for Raceworld but one reason why I wouldn't put it into my favourite stories. In PKNA certainly, a lot of things are NOT possible; I think this is what makes it great, because Donald (and One too) constantly has to overcome obstacles.
Also, PKNA isn't just sci-fi... what about Pk² and Donald's private life?
Well, so much for my enthusiasm! Still, I wish the project the best luck...
I appreciate and consider your thoughts, but you must also remember that I do have a plan, it is in motion, and I’m definitely working, with all of Panini, to bring you and all the fans some great PK stories. Of course, things must change, to get somewhere else, or we’d just rehash old ideas. We are not going to give the audience what the audience thinks they want: we’re going to give them what they don’t know they want yet. Go into it without expectations or prejudice and give it time: my plan is unfolding over several issues. I hope you will like it.
Thanks for your questions and your passion: so, where will this interview appear? Thanks for the other link, but where is the link to my previous answers? Let me know. :-)