This story: inducks.org/story.php?c=I+TL+1510-AP is probably my favourite Italian Disney comic, and one of my absolute favourite Disney comics in general. It's a truly well-written and funny story with great illustrations (both story and art are by Massimo De Vita). Quite surprisingly, it has never been printed in the US, though there are some fairly recent European publications.
Last Edit: Aug 9, 2017 11:50:49 GMT by Scroogerello
Post by Monkey_Feyerabend on Aug 9, 2017 15:45:53 GMT
It is complicated for me to talk of my relation with Italian Duck stories. Surely there are some that I appreciate, but I would not know where to start, I should think about it. So, let's talk about MM stories here! In this case it is simple to make a list of the ones to which I am attached. (Hoping to add a lot more to the list, as I have many stories still to explore!) I do not put down a single ranking, since it does not make much sense to compare works by different authors and from different ages. But I can easily make a ranking for every fixed writer. In parenthesis the English title in case the story officially appeared in the US. I add some comments here and there too. You will be surprised not to find here names who gave us very good MM tales, such as Pezzin, Marconi, Sisti, Ziche, Mezzavilla, Enna, Gagnor... But well, this is a very personal list, and only a few artists have a style capable of touching me.
Romano Scarpa 1. Topolino e Bib-bip alle sorgenti Mongole (The Sacred Spring of Seasons Past, 1959) 2. Topolino nel fantastico regno di Shan-Grillà (1961) 3.Topolino e la fiamma Eterna di Kalhoa (1961) I think that Romano Scarpa is a highly overrated comics creator, at least in Italy. But in the fifties he was the Mickey Mouse author, hard to deny. From my perspective, he gave his best when he sent Mickey on some crazy journey, which became the pretext for a series of short imaginative gags. A "journey in the heart of darkness of idiocy", that's the meaning of Scarpa's Mickey to me. This should explain why I put these three stories on the top. 4.Topolino e l'Unghia di Kalì (Kali's Nail, 1958) This story was extremely important for me. When I read it I was eleven, and it shocked me. I already knew Gottfredson since years at the age, but honestly only reading Kali's Nail I realized that comics could be a language as powerful as novels and movies. Probably it was just a good story coming in the right moment: I guess I would have had the same reaction reading many other things in that moment. Still, that's the one. Of course, I was a bit disappointed a few years later in discovering that the basic plot was a remake of MM outwits the Phanton Blot. But ok, whatever. 5.Topolino e il Mistero di Tapioco Sesto (The Mystery of Tapiocus VI, 1956) I love the drawing style here!
Giorgo Cavazzano Paperino e l'Insolito Remake (1989) Cavazzano rarely wrote his own stories. But when he did, he showed to handle the medium better than so many of those who wrote scripts for him! Despite being called Donald Duck and the Unusual Remake, this is a Mickey+Goofy+Donald story, with the trio regaining their vintage appearance from the 30's. From this point of view, it can be seen as the prequel of the story dedicated to Dalì and Disney recently published in WDCS (written by Gagnor). But it is above all a little funny tribute to a memorable story by Gottfredson.
Tito Faraci & Francesco Artibani Topolino e il fiume del tempo (the River of Time, 1998) What to say? One of the best MM story ever. 100% Faraci-style, but surely Artibani contributed a lot too, because the story has something really magic. The complex relation between Mickey and Pete, the theme of friendship, the hardness of dealing with the past, the myth. So much in this story. With the greatest teaching you can get from comics (spoiler): never trust a Persic Fish*! (*called European Fish in the US, and for good reasons: according to wikipedia it mainly lives in European rivers, not in the US... )
Tito Faraci 1.La Lunga Notte del Commissario Manetta (1996) The story where Faraci injects his peculiar humor into Mouseton, revealing the comic potential of Casey. A completely new kind of humor for Disney comics: absurdity + ironically pulp dialogues. This story is a bomb ticking, and Cavazzano himself considers it as the most surprising and exciting script ever assigned to him. It also introduces my favorite Italian-born regular cast member, together with Casty's Eurasia (and yes, more than anyone conceived by Scarpa): the Texan detective Rock Sassi, designed by Cavazzano upon the icy stare of the Inspector Callahan. 2.Dalla Parte Sbagliata (1998) [<--- this was not yet seen in the US?!?] Mickey and Pete team up together once again, this time to save their asses in the hot Puerto Salado. The comic duo works very well, integrating their comic sides in a surprising way, somehow even more than on the River of Time. 3.Anderville (episode 0 of MMMM) (1999) This is pure pulp comics. The density of gags and puns is amazing. Of course, the rest of the series - whose episodes were mainly written alternatively by Faraci and Artibani - could not stand such a level of quality. 4.Pippo e Gambadilegno... e il Colpo da 3000 (2013) One of the commemorative stories from the issue 3000 of Topolino. Colored and published directly on Cavazzano's pencils, without inking. Brief beautiful tribute to what it means to be a comics nerd. 5.Topolino in: L'Ultimo Caso (2008) Sequel of Gottfredson's Crazy Crime Wave. 6.Manetta e l'Indagine Natalizia (1997) My favorite Disney non-Barks Christmas story. By far. Really far. 7. L'ispettore Manetta in: 2 Piedipiatti in Fuga (2004) 8.L'Ombra del Drago (1998) Set in Feudal China, with Pete basically being the good guy. Here Faraci goes a bit too far, but well the Medieval setting allows him to go a bit out of character. And the story works, even because Mottura is, you know...Mottura.
Francesco Artibani (& Lello Arena) Mickey's Movie Parade: Oro (1996) There are others good MM stories by Artibani. (Actually, I wish he would work a bit more with the mouse and a bit less with the ducks.) But I am very attached to this little story, usually considered as a minor tale. Well, this "minor" tale is a lively story full of humour, developed as a cartoon. Not just because in the plot it is really a Mickey Mouse cartoon watched by Morty and Ferdie, but because the staging is actually...I do not know how to say..."animation-oriented". In my view, this should be the blueprint for all modern brief funny stories featuring Mickey and Goofy. (The ones that Petrucha, Markestein and others desperately tried to create for decades, with results that I will not comment for the sake of peaceful coexistence in this forum.)
Casty 1.Topolino e il segreto della Balena Nera (2004) 2.Topolino e la Spedizione Perduta (The Lost Explorers' Trail, 2003) 3.Topolino e il Colosso di Rodi (The Shadow of the Colossus, 2005) 4.Topolino e il Dominatore delle Nuvole (2006) I prefer the first Casty, when the man was not yet allowed to draw his own stories, nor to exceed with the number of pages. His style was more synthetic and energetic. Of course, he has conceived amazing stuff in the last decade. But there is always something that bores me in his way to stage the stories recently. Maybe it's just a matter of taste.
To celebrate the German pocket book "Lustiges Taschenbuch"'s 50th anniversary we just had a fan vote this year for a 5-volume edition of the best stories from the 495 issues released so far. It's a pretty great list with only a few choices I'd consider strange (and way too little Mickey for my taste), and many of them are among my favorites as well (my top three from this selection would be Il mistero dei candelabri; Topolino e la spada di ghiaccio and Qui, Quo, Qua e le gioie del BMX).
Are "Italian stories" I-coded stories? Or stories written/drawn by Italians? Going on the second theory, I'm including my favorite Rota story. Two of these I just listed on my post about Magica stories I'd like to see in English.
Nightmare Ship--Rota Paperino e il premio di bontà (Being Good for Goodness' Sake)--Chendi/Scarpa Paperino e la perfetta letizia (Perfect Calm)--Cimino/Scarpa Paperino e il mistero delle 2 civiltà--Cimino/Lavoradori Zio Paperone e il vascello fantasma--Martina/Cavazzano Zio Paperone e la meravigliosa vecchia ciabatta--Gentina/Ziche Amelia e le due numero 1--Pandini/Martusciello
There are a bunch more Rota stories that I like a lot, largely due to his art. I love the look of the Money Ocean, and the Molepeople's underground city, and the gradually shrinking Donald in "The Incredible Shrinking Duck" (on those last two Rota is not the sole writer). Sticking to I-coded stories, though, I'd have to say Cimino is my favorite Italian author, for Duck stories. For Mouse stories, Casty, of course. I listed all Duck stories here because that's mostly what I care about.
Post by Monkey_Feyerabend on Aug 10, 2017 10:05:16 GMT
I think that in general one should not consider non-I-coded stories as "Italian", no matter who the author is. When a writer and/or artist joins a certain publisher, she/he must adapt to the range of narrative styles, artistic features and character personalities that such school accepts. And in my view that is what defines the "nationality" of the story. Marco Rota left the Italian school and joined Egmont in the late seventies! Not only I would not call him "an Italian Disney comics artist", but actually, he should be considered as one of the pioneers of the "Danish school". As a matter of facts, despite being highly esteemed in Italy, Rota undergoes the same treatment that all Egmont authors undergo: in plain words, they are not translated and published anymore in Italy since more than ten years! (Except when the story is a Danish story in the Italian/Pocket style...those stories are clearly created by Egmont to be also published in Topolino. But Rota always works on the 4-strip lay-out.) It could surprise you that in a country with some fifteen regular Disney magazines and frequent copious one-shots, they cannot find any room for the contemporary Danish production. But that's the case at the moment. The two styles are too different. Two different forms of comics, in a way. The average Italian reader of Disney comics (who - I remind you - is not just a comics fan/nerd...the audience is much wider!) does not get Danish stories. She/he finds them as little stupid stories with few or no narrative content. With this in mind, I guess that the editor Panini finds no interest in spending money to translate and publish those stories. At the moment at least, that could change in the future! (Panini became the licensed Disney editor a few years ago, and it is slowing implementing its schedule of exploitation of the license.) The situation is even worst for H-coded stories. They have almost never appeared in Italy, except for a few selected ones in Zio Paperone. Carlo Gentina is an example of Italian artist who became a "Dutch" Disney author. He has worked for Italy for twenty years. But at the beginning of the 90's he stopped from drawing stories. I suspect because his visual style was "too Barksian", hence not anymore coherent with the taste of Italian readers. He continued only as a writer, and went back to make art only when he passed to the Dutch publisher!
To give another example, I would call (Danish) Freddy Milton a "Dutch" Disney author. One of the founders of the Dutch school, actually.
I think that in general one should not consider non-I-coded stories as "Italian", no matter who the author is. When a writer and/or artist joins a certain publisher, she/he must adapt to the range of narrative styles, artistic features and character personalities that such school accepts. And in my view that is what defines the "nationality" of the story. Marco Rota left the Italian school and joined Egmont in the late seventies! Not only I would not call him "an Italian Disney comics artist", but actually, he should be considered as one of the pioneers of the "Danish school". As a matter of facts, despite being highly esteemed in Italy, Rota undergoes the same treatment that all Egmont authors undergo: in plain words, they are not translated and published anymore in Italy since more than ten years! (Except when the story is a Danish story in the Italian/Pocket style...those stories are clearly created by Egmont to be also published in Topolino. But Rota always works on the 4-strip lay-out.) It could surprise you that in a country with some fifteen regular Disney magazines and frequent copious one-shots, they cannot find any room for the contemporary Danish production. But that's the case at the moment. The two styles are too different. Two different forms of comics, in a way. The average Italian reader of Disney comics (who - I remind you - is not just a comics fan/nerd...the audience is much wider!) does not get Danish stories. She/he finds them as little stupid stories with few or no narrative content. With this in mind, I guess that the editor Panini finds no interest in spending money to translate and publish those stories. At the moment at least, that could change in the future! (Panini became the licensed Disney editor a few years ago, and it is slowing implementing its schedule of exploitation of the license.) The situation is even worst for H-coded stories. They have almost never appeared in Italy, except for a few selected ones in Zio Paperone. Carlo Gentina is an example of Italian artist who became a "Dutch" Disney author. He has worked for Italy for twenty years. But at the beginning of the 90's he stopped from drawing stories. I suspect because his visual style was "too Barksian", hence not anymore coherent with the taste of Italian readers. He continued only as a writer, and went back to make art only when he passed to the Dutch publisher!
To give another example, I would call (Danish) Freddy Milton a "Dutch" Disney author. One of the founders of the Dutch school, actually.
That's very interesting, thanks, Monkey_F! So interesting to learn more about the divide between the Italian and the other European Disney comics. I myself, having been raised on American Disney comics, have found the Egmont and Dutch stories generally more to my liking, for the reasons you would predict. The artistic style of many current Italian stories is more florid than I like, while the story-telling is more meandering, particularly in the longer stories. For art, I do love Cavazzano--and Ziche, though too many of her stories include characters who are not real to me (Brigitta, the Italian version of Scrooge's secretary and butler, etc.), so while they may be great stories they will not become my personal favorites. Loved Freccero's art on Panaro's "Helmet of the Gods," too.
OK, I will relabel Rota in my mind as an Egmont writer, and take him off the Italian list! Too bad for the Italians who don't see his stories, though, he is a fantastic artist.
Post by Monkey_Feyerabend on Aug 10, 2017 14:56:42 GMT
By chance, I just discovered something to prove my point! There is a bimonthly magazine created last year, called Tesori International, publishing the best of non-Italian Disney comics by monographic volumes. So far the issues were devoted to Rosa, Gottfredson, Barks, Murry, Kinney/Hubbard, Jippes. (There is a parallel version called Tesori Made in Italy for the Italian authors, and besides that also many hardcover and softcover monographic one-shots dedicated to some Italian writer or artist.) Now they just announced that the next issue of Tesori International will be devoted to Marco Rota. It will be a volume containing all the Andold Wild Duck stories. This should give you an idea of how much foreign Rota's production is perceived in Italy!
OK, I will relabel Rota in my mind as an Egmont writer, and take him off the Italian list! Too bad for the Italians who don't see his stories, though, he is a fantastic artist.
Indeed many complain. But too few to move the editorial policy. As a matter of facts, it took the impressive success of an Italian Facebook page dedicated to Don Rosa - with thousands of likes! - to expose the great fandom that Rosa has in Italy. Probably this convinced Panini to republish his stories since 2016. Before that, Rosa's stories appeared (almost all only once) in Zio Paperone (a series that run from 1987 to 2008). Even the Life and Time was unavailable for twelve years from 2004 to 2016! A first Italian Don Rosa library has been announced a couple of days ago. If even a genius of comics - with so many fans in Italy - has been ignored for so long by Disney Italia, you can imagine how hard can be for some little fishes like Rota or Korhonen (relatively to Rosa) to find their way into Italian magazines.
By chance, I just discovered something to prove my point! There is a bimonthly magazine created last year, called Tesori International, publishing the best of non-Italian Disney comics by monographic 244-pages volumes. So far the issues were devoted to Rosa, Gottfredson, Barks, Murry, Kinney/Hubbard, Jippes. (There is a parallel version called Tesori Made in Italy for the Italian authors, and besides that also many hardcover and softcover monographic one-shots dedicated to some Italian writer or artist.) Now they just announced that the next issue of Tesori International will be devoted to Marco Rota. It will be a volume containing all the Andold Wild Duck stories. This should give you an idea of how much foreign Rota's production is perceived in Italy!
OK, I will relabel Rota in my mind as an Egmont writer, and take him off the Italian list! Too bad for the Italians who don't see his stories, though, he is a fantastic artist.
Indeed many complain. But too few to move the editorial policy. As a matter of facts, it took the impressive success of an Italian Facebook page dedicated to Don Rosa - with thousands of likes! - to expose the great fandom that Rosa has in Italy. Probably this convinced Panini to republish his stories since 2016. Before that, Rosa's stories appeared only once in Zio Paperone (a series that run from 1989 to 2008). Even the Life and Time was unavailable for twelve years from 2004 to 2016! A first Italian Don Rosa library has been announced a couple of days ago. If even a genius of comics - with so many fans in Italy - has been ignored for so long by Disney Italia, you can imagine how hard can be for some little fishes like Rota or Korhonen (relatively to Rosa) to find their way into Italian magazines.
Mondadori had The Mega 2000 series for Northern European 4-tier stories to be printed in the early 2000s. I've had about 12-14 printings in those. I thought there would still be an Italian outlet for 4-tier stories now, and am glad to hear about Tesori International. But, if they will only publish stories by the most popular artists, I hope they will consider Jan Gulbransson one of them, so some of my more recent stories will be printed in Italy.
Post by Monkey_Feyerabend on Aug 10, 2017 16:18:26 GMT
Ok, let us clarify the situation more precisely. Sorry for such a long OT!
The magazine traditionally devoted to Brazilian and Northern European stories was Mega Almanacco, then renamed Mega 2000 in the 90's and Mega 3000 (and briefly Disney Comics) in the early 2000's. In this magazine the stories often had their dialogues re-arranged, maybe even changed. Moreover, starting from the late 90's Mega even re-edited those 4-strip stories into the 3-strips format! So RobbK, you may wanna have a better look at those stories of yours published in the early 2000's in Italy, they are most probably presented on 3-strips. (And maybe even with dialogues slightly different from what you wrote!) This year, after some ten years of absence, the magazine has been rebooted with the original name of Mega Almanacco (and the original cover art by Rota from the 80's). But so far they have only republished stories that appeared in the previous version of the magazine, with the same translations and the same 3-strip re-editing. There is no sign that they will start translating all the stuff produced in the last ten years by Egmont. But that could change, of course. None is in the mind of the publisher.
Important remark: Megadid not publish the most famous creators, such as Barks, Rosa**, Rota, Jippes, Kinney, the late D-coded Scarpa. These authors - together with a few selected stories by Branca, Veraghen, Korhonen - received a better treatment. They were published in Zio Paperone or in the monographical I Maestri Disney, two magazines conceived for adult collectors, hence having the greatest respect for the original source. Nowadays, the role of Zio Paperone and I Maestri Disney is played respectively by the magazines Uack! and Tesori International. But even these two new magazines so far did not present unpublished material.
To sum up: Panini is taking back foreign Disney authors into Italian magazines (which is very good!) But for the moment relying only on old material - re-edited or not depending on the reputation of the author - already seen before 2008.
[** the user drakeborough pointed out the fact that three early stories by Rosa were published in Mega, arguably in a time when the author was not yet completely perceived as a top artist]
I have the second issue of new series of Mega Almanacco I liked it a lot even though stories are quite short, dont know why, there is one longer story per issue however. And this is my favorite story;
It is the first story I read in italian, back when I barely understood anything, I read later that it was voted for a storie piu bella or something like that. The story felt like a di caprio movie to me, like some mix of titanic and great gatsby, it is based on famous theater piece, also later this year it will be released in hardcover for the second time, with a poster in limited deluxe edition
Post by Monkey_Feyerabend on Aug 10, 2017 19:05:56 GMT
It is actually a movie: La Leggenda del Pianista sull'Oceano (The Legend of 1900) by director Giuseppe Tornatore, featuring Tim Roth. Both the movie and the Mickey story are based on a theatrical piece by Alessandro Baricco, who co-wrote the Disney story with Faraci.
I have the second issue of new series of Mega Almanacco I liked it a lot even though stories are quite short, dont know why, there is one longer story per issue however. And this is my favorite story;
It is the first story I read in italian, back when I barely understood anything, I read later that it was voted for a storie piu bella or something like that. The story felt like a di caprio movie to me, like some mix of titanic and great gatsby, it is based on famous theater piece, also later this year it will be released in hardcover for the second time, with a poster in limited deluxe edition