Post by Spectrus on Mar 11, 2020 16:20:37 GMT
My two footnotes:
1: At the time I wrote this, it still sounded as if all issues would be done by the same team. Not wanting to totally tear down Lavoradori’s reputation, he should get credit for designing many of the recurring PKNA characters, including the Evronians, Everett Ducklair, Xadhoom and Camera 9. But even from those early character studies to the first PKNA issue, I think you can see an artistic decline, and a pretty inconsistent style.
I read the news about Vian being the next artist literally a few hours after asking my question! I think this is good news, Vian is an interesting artist, and somebody who has not been involved with PK at all – although he’s drawn the classic Paperinik a few times, with pretty impressive results.
I know what editorial decisions are... in fact, I wrote it like that myself ("a questionable editorial decision"). Currently, Gagnor is the face of this series, so he has to endure the criticism, even if it’s not all his responsibility, and I expect that his word has more weight at Panini than that of some fan. After all, as the writer, I'd assume he'd want his story to be presented in the best light possible? If I were him, I'd be pissed off at the coloring, because it makes his story look inferior compared to the previous efforts of Artibani & Sisti. I also remember Casty explaining the three different levels of coloring in Italy – the “regular” one for normal stories, the “medium” one with some shadows and the “top” one reserved for “top stories such as Pk, DoubleDuck etc.”…and now we have the bizarre situation that Panini want to sell a rather expensive new series with much too basic coloring!
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2: When I said "team" I actually did mean different writers (Catenacci's few writing credits don't count IMO, since his stories left little impression with me - and every writer has his/her editor, so that doesn't count either!) who can improve on and add to each other’s ideas, which is clearly what made not just PKNA so great, but also MMMM (Mickey Mouse Mystery Magazine) and X-Mickey.
By comparison, if one person devises an entire series, you get things like WOM (Wizards of Mickey), which is good, but nowhere near the quality of the three series I mentioned, and exactly for that reason: Things that made perfect sense to Ambrosio and whoever was his editor don't come across too well – whereas other additional writers could've helped to find alternate narrative solutions, which would've livened up the series. Eventually it happened when Matteo Venerus took over, but it was a rather drastic change in the writing style. I welcomed it, but instead of going from almost complete darkness to lots of light, the whole series could've benefited from "shades of grey" (no pun intended ;-)) from the beginning.
I love reading how Artibani, Pastrovicchio and Monteduro colluded to build up the rebirth of Duck Avenger’s New Adventures, "Potere e potenza", or how MMMM was put together from various ideas. There's something more organic in that, compared to one writer saying "This is MY plan, it's all mine, and if you don't like it... you're WAKed!" It also means that the artists get involved by telling the writers what they would like to draw, etc. – often enough leading to a more multifaceted and successful result.
Especially after Artibani's attempts to get other people on board the PkShip, which has now been abandoned :-(
1: At the time I wrote this, it still sounded as if all issues would be done by the same team. Not wanting to totally tear down Lavoradori’s reputation, he should get credit for designing many of the recurring PKNA characters, including the Evronians, Everett Ducklair, Xadhoom and Camera 9. But even from those early character studies to the first PKNA issue, I think you can see an artistic decline, and a pretty inconsistent style.
I read the news about Vian being the next artist literally a few hours after asking my question! I think this is good news, Vian is an interesting artist, and somebody who has not been involved with PK at all – although he’s drawn the classic Paperinik a few times, with pretty impressive results.
I know what editorial decisions are... in fact, I wrote it like that myself ("a questionable editorial decision"). Currently, Gagnor is the face of this series, so he has to endure the criticism, even if it’s not all his responsibility, and I expect that his word has more weight at Panini than that of some fan. After all, as the writer, I'd assume he'd want his story to be presented in the best light possible? If I were him, I'd be pissed off at the coloring, because it makes his story look inferior compared to the previous efforts of Artibani & Sisti. I also remember Casty explaining the three different levels of coloring in Italy – the “regular” one for normal stories, the “medium” one with some shadows and the “top” one reserved for “top stories such as Pk, DoubleDuck etc.”…and now we have the bizarre situation that Panini want to sell a rather expensive new series with much too basic coloring!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2: When I said "team" I actually did mean different writers (Catenacci's few writing credits don't count IMO, since his stories left little impression with me - and every writer has his/her editor, so that doesn't count either!) who can improve on and add to each other’s ideas, which is clearly what made not just PKNA so great, but also MMMM (Mickey Mouse Mystery Magazine) and X-Mickey.
By comparison, if one person devises an entire series, you get things like WOM (Wizards of Mickey), which is good, but nowhere near the quality of the three series I mentioned, and exactly for that reason: Things that made perfect sense to Ambrosio and whoever was his editor don't come across too well – whereas other additional writers could've helped to find alternate narrative solutions, which would've livened up the series. Eventually it happened when Matteo Venerus took over, but it was a rather drastic change in the writing style. I welcomed it, but instead of going from almost complete darkness to lots of light, the whole series could've benefited from "shades of grey" (no pun intended ;-)) from the beginning.
I love reading how Artibani, Pastrovicchio and Monteduro colluded to build up the rebirth of Duck Avenger’s New Adventures, "Potere e potenza", or how MMMM was put together from various ideas. There's something more organic in that, compared to one writer saying "This is MY plan, it's all mine, and if you don't like it... you're WAKed!" It also means that the artists get involved by telling the writers what they would like to draw, etc. – often enough leading to a more multifaceted and successful result.
Especially after Artibani's attempts to get other people on board the PkShip, which has now been abandoned :-(