Got Ice Sword Saga volume 2 today, looking forward to digging into it.
I loved it of course. De Vita was such a great discovery for me; I had at least some familiarity with most of the other Disney Masters featured, but I don't believe I'd ever encountered his work before. Gorgeous and imaginative, just terrific stuff.
Oh yes, there are so many cool things to come. But first things fiorst :-) We really need all the "old" missing books from #13 in box sets. They should be released asap, please. #13 to #20 in 2022!
Oh yes, there are so many cool things to come. But first things fiorst :-) We really need all the "old" missing books from #13 in box sets. They should be released asap, please. #13 to #20 in 2022!
Yes definitely. Please be more respectful to your loyal customers Fantagraphics.
Why is "The Money Ocean" held in such high regard compared to other Rota stories? I remember enjoying it, but I can't say I ever thought of it as one of Rota's best stories. For one thing, I much prefer his art style as it evolved a few years later.
I've always considered "The Money Ocean" one of Rota's best, in part due simply to the incredible, epic scale of the wild events that happen in it. But that's why I already reprinted it in a collectors' volume here.
Admittedly, that volume is now out of print—but what I'm saying is that the US has already seen both the initial comic book printing of the story, and a later collectors' anthology printing fairly recently (just over ten years ago). Thus, I don't think I'll be including "The Money Ocean" in our eventual Rota Masters volume, unless the demand for it is really strong.
I do recall the artwork and action scenes in "The Money Ocean" as pretty amazingly epic. The story itself never really stuck with me though.
But then, I can't say I'm the biggest Marco Rota fan in the world either. The story of his that made the deepest impression on me is without a doubt "Buon compleanno, Paperino!" from 1984, which tells the story of Donald's life from egg to adult duck. I first read that one at the impressionable age of 10 and was fascinated with it. Please tell me that WILL at least be included in the Disney Masters volume, as I see on Inducks it shockingly hasn't even been published in the U.S.!
Mesterius While "Buon compleanno, Paperino!" is beautifully drawn, I can't say I would enjoy seeing it in a Marco Rota Disney Masters book because it's so incompatible with the Barks/Rosa canon. And seeing baby Donald emerging from an egg is just wrong.
Ramapith "Thus, I don't think I'll be including "The Money Ocean" in our eventual Rota Masters volume, unless the demand for it is really strong."
Where does demand for artists and specific stories come from? Here? E-mails sent to Fantagraphics? I am really curious where people are demanding stuff, especially since Fantagraphics has been claiming that people are demanding more Murry which I really doubt as there can't be more than a dozen Murry fans around the globe.
Mesterius While "Buon compleanno, Paperino!" is beautifully drawn, I can't say I would enjoy seeing it in a Marco Rota Disney Masters book because it's so incompatible with the Barks/Rosa canon. And seeing baby Donald emerging from an egg is just wrong.
I expected someone to say this. But honestly, why are people so strung up on the Rosa "canon" for how these things may have happened? It's not like Disney comics by different creators need to be canon to each other in the first place. Seeing different interpretations and perspectives is fun.
And as for Barks' perspective, I wouldn't necessarily lump him in with Rosa. When visiting Denmark on his Europe tour in 1994, he said about Donald's origins: "'I think he came from an egg that was bought in a grocery store."
Especially in light of how many people view Rosa's stories about the duck family history as The Canon, I think it would be refreshing to see Rota's "Buon compleanno, Paperino!" published in English.
I don't like "Buon compleanno, Paperino", but I do think it has a natural place in a Rota book, together with "The Money Ocean", "Paperino pendolare", my favourite "Night of the Saracen" and "Il piccole Krack" (altough I'll happily save that one for a Wild Duck collection instead ).
The exact portrayal of Varigotti in "Night of the Saracen" alone is remarkable.
Together with the charming story, it is a real masterpiece. I would be very disappointed if this story was not included.
I don't like "Buon compleanno, Paperino!" either. It's not really a story, but a series of short gags (which aren't really funny). Many scenes in the story occur in the same or similar way in other stories. And the depiction of Donald hatching from an egg is really strange. In my opinion, a rather redundant story, for such a volume.
I can never understand this practice of dedicating a volume to a certain artist, and then using a different artist for the front cover. It looks nice, I guess, but it always feels like a bit of misleading advertising.
Got Ice Sword Saga volume 2 today, looking forward to digging into it.
I loved it of course. De Vita was such a great discovery for me; I had at least some familiarity with most of the other Disney Masters featured, but I don't believe I'd ever encountered his work before. Gorgeous and imaginative, just terrific stuff.
I've been singing De Vita's praises for a long time. His artwork, while clearly not breaking too far from the mold of Scarpa and Cavazzano, is somehow "dirtier" and darker, which I see as a direct echo of Gottfredson's work. For characters like Duck Avenger and Arizona Goof, he's really been the defining artist even if he didn't draw their respective introductions. Then, he also created Professor Zapotek and did some of the best stories featuring him.
Another sci-fi story that ranks very highly on my list and absolutely deserves a US printing is this one: inducks.org/story.php?c=I+TL+1959-A Mickey gets inadvertently transported to a dystopian future Mouseton now ruled by Pete! It contains one of the most touching scenes I've ever seen in a Disney comic.
After the turn of the millennium, De Vita collaborated with Casty several times, and this one will probably always be my favourite. IDW actually printed one of their collabs, "The Magnificent Doublejoke".
Ater the turn of the millennium, De Vita collaborated with Casty several times, and this one will probably always be my favourite. IDW actually printed one of their collabs, "The Magnificent Doublejoke".
You know, I read Doublejoke and didn't make the connection that it was the same guy. I'm gonna give that one a reread, thanks!
I will weigh in on what I'd like to see in a Rota volume, because why not?
Before Ramapith said so, I figured that we would be unlikely to see The Money Ocean in the first Disney Masters Rota volume, since it was already printed here in a collector's edition. Besides, if DM did print it, many of the Europeans who are advocating for it would then complain about the coloring, because they want a golden ocean. I can see the visual appeal, but I personally would be put off by a sea of gold coins, wondering where exactly Scrooge is supposed to have amassed all that golden currency. Not in the USA!
I am a huge fan of Rota's art, and I'll be happy to see a Rota volume no matter what the contents. I agree that the art in Night of the Saracen is amazing, though I also agree with GeoX on his blog that the romance is distinctly unconvincing--one might say, vacuous--and therefore I wasn't really emotionally involved in the couple's story. The art in The Incredible Shrinking Duck is delightful in other ways, not for glorious scenery and awesome waves, but for the depiction of shrinking Donald. Like fredj and duckly, I don't like Buon compleanno--not because it doesn't accord with Rosa, but because it doesn't work as a coherent story on its own terms. I have not seen Paperino pendolare, and I would love to! The others I'm listing here I have seen, but mostly not in English. Here's my personal wish list, starting with the most-wished-for:
The Nightmare Ship
Little Helper Lost
Paperino pendolare
The Incredible Shrinking Duck
The Golden Throne Legend
The Molepeople (especially for the depiction of their underground world)
Wonderwool
two more by the McGreals: Three Minus Two Is One, and Missing the Mistletoe
The Night of the Pirates
I'd also like to see Maya Astrup's Careful What You Wish For one of these years--I haven't been able to find a copy of it to buy.
Matilda That's a great list and I would include most of your choices too, certainly the following:
Paperino pendolare Wonderwool The Nightmare Ship Little Helper Lost The Night Of The Pirates
I would also maybe include these:
The Last Stagecoach To Tucson (essentially a Lo$ bonus chapter) Paperino e la palla misteriosa The Legendary Dance Competition ...and its sequel: The Return Of Zampata Duck
And I also wouldn't shy away from including some of the "recently" reprinted Rota classics, such as:
The Money Ocean Night of the Saracen The Hada's House
And of course I would collect all of Rota's Andold Wild Duck comics in a separate volume.