Romano Scarpa: Phantom Blot's double mystery

[Hector]

Something has been bugging me regarding that story. When chief
O Hara thought Mickey had tried to kill him, how come he never
wondered or asked 'why'? I mean, if you found out your best
friend, your colleague, someone you had gone through a lot
with, wanted to kill you, would you just take him to jail and
shrug it off without even wondering about the motivations?

[RobbK1]

I think Scarpa was trying to go beyond Gottfredson's introduction of Chief O'Hara as being not-too-bright, adding to the comedy by showing that O'Hara is a true dimwit (dunderhead, thickhead, numbskull), and so, Mickey is constantly needed to help him on cases. because he's so stupid. I thought O'Hara's being so matter-of-fact about it was an intended part of the comedy. Of course, in the real World, it makes no sense.

[sirtao]

wasn't that a change in the idw version? Or I misremember?

[Monkey_Feyerabend]

Dec 29, 2017 21:02:41 GMT RobbK1 said:

I think Scarpa was trying to go beyond Gottfredson's introduction of Chief O'Hara as being not-too-bright, adding to the comedy by showing that O'Hara is a true dimwit (dunderhead, thickhead, numbskull), and so, Mickey is constantly needed to help him on cases. because he's so stupid. I thought O'Hara's being so matter-of-fact about it was an intended part of the comedy. Of course, in the real World, it makes no sense.

 

The story was written by Martina, in a period when the writer still did not let any liberty to the young Scarpa, probably not trusting him yet (Scarpa words).

People, the difference in quality of writing between Scarpa and Martina is the same existing between Gottfredson and, say, Bill Wright...you should be able to tell who's the writer two panels into the story, for Barks's sake!    

[RobbK1]

Dec 29, 2017 22:55:15 GMT Monkey_Feyerabend said:

Dec 29, 2017 21:02:41 GMT RobbK1 said:

I think Scarpa was trying to go beyond Gottfredson's introduction of Chief O'Hara as being not-too-bright, adding to the comedy by showing that O'Hara is a true dimwit (dunderhead, thickhead, numbskull), and so, Mickey is constantly needed to help him on cases. because he's so stupid. I thought O'Hara's being so matter-of-fact about it was an intended part of the comedy. Of course, in the real World, it makes no sense.

 

The story was written by Martina, in a period when the writer still did not let any liberty to the young Scarpa, probably not trusting him yet (Scarpa words).

People, the difference in quality of writing between Scarpa and Martina is the same existing between Gottfredson and, say, Bill Wright...you should be able to tell who's the writer two panels into the story, for Barks's sake!    

This shows how little I know about Italian production.  I had thought that Scarpa wrote most of the stories during his classical '50s and early '60s (other than the first few he drew), and then stopped writing stories during the latter 2/3 of his career.  Was it the opposite?

[RobbK1]

Dec 29, 2017 22:09:35 GMT sirtao said:

wasn't that a change in the idw version? Or I misremember?

Has it been re-printed by IDW?  It was already printed in USA (Gladstone? or was it Gemstone?).  There are still nice Scarpa stories never printed in English.  I'd rather have those unpublished printed first.

[Baar Baar Jinx]

Dec 30, 2017 1:24:32 GMT RobbK1 said:

Dec 29, 2017 22:09:35 GMT sirtao said:

wasn't that a change in the idw version? Or I misremember?

Has it been re-printed by IDW?  It was already printed in USA (Gladstone? or was it Gemstone?).  There are still nice Scarpa stories never printed in English.  I'd rather have those unpublished printed first.

No, not reprinted by IDW. Gladstone printed it in their Mickey and Donald title (Series I).

[RobbK1]

Dec 29, 2017 22:09:35 GMT sirtao said:

wasn't that a change in the idw version? Or I misremember?

You misremembered.  IDW hasn't printed it.  Did you mean that the English translation must not have had the same meaning as Martina's original, if the readers thought Martina originally had O'Hara not react to one of his best friends trying to kill him?

[Monkey_Feyerabend]

Dec 30, 2017 1:20:51 GMT RobbK1 said:

Dec 29, 2017 22:55:15 GMT Monkey_Feyerabend said:

 

The story was written by Martina, in a period when the writer still did not let any liberty to the young Scarpa, probably not trusting him yet (Scarpa words).

People, the difference in quality of writing between Scarpa and Martina is the same existing between Gottfredson and, say, Bill Wright...you should be able to tell who's the writer two panels into the story, for Barks's sake!    

This shows how little I know about Italian production.  I had thought that Scarpa wrote most of the stories during his classical '50s and early '60s (other than the first few he drew), and then stopped writing stories during the latter 2/3 of his career.  Was it the opposite?

From 1953 to 1955 he was only an artist for Martina's scripts.
His first solo stories are Shellfish Motives on the ducks and Tapioco Sesto with Mickey, both published in 1956.
From 1956 to 1964 he mainly drew his own material, sporadically serving as an artist to Martina's material.
From the middle of the sixties till his death he inverted that approach, mainly drawing for (any) other writers, and sporadically going back to write. In this long (and less inspired) period he often experimented on his art style, and tried new path also on the writing. Even if sometimes his experiments where attempts to coldly recreate the atmosphere of US strips, like when he did a lot of Ellsworth gag stories in Gonzales-Walsh style in the middle of the 60's, or when he convinced Topolino to publish his Mickey stories in strip format at the beginning of the 90's. 
As concerns his relation to Martina, Scarpa kept drawing his material, and Martina left him always more and more room for his staging of the pages. But in the 80's Scarpa became more and more intolerant to the violence in his Scrooge scripts, till the day he formally refused to draw a Martina's script in which Scrooge and Rockerduck apparently behaved even worst than usual. (That script was never drawn, if I remember correctly, becoming some kind of myth among some Italian fans...or something like that, I am not much into Italian Disney comics either, which I mostly dislike.)  In any case we are talking of a period where Martina was in his last years of life and his scripts where heavily edited by the editor Marconi to make some sense.


 

[Spectrus]

In the German version Mickey says (under the influence of The Blot) "You know, I hate you" to O'Hara. I think that's enough explanation, isn't it?

[Spectrus]

Actually I think some of the story is Scarpa's - the Goofy gags in the first half were added by him to lighten the mood up, I think.

[Hector]

Dec 30, 2017 10:13:45 GMT Spectrus said:

In the German version Mickey says (under the influence of The Blot) "You know, I hate you" to O'Hara. I think that's enough explanation, isn't it?

No, this doesn't explain anything.

[Spectrus]

You're right in the sense that there is no motive given. But sadly that also isn't always the case in real life. If Martina tried to intimate that O'Hara would view Mickey as a psychopath, then I have to say it's a surprisingly well-executed tackling of such a problematic topic. If not, then, well...

[Spectrus]

In fact, I just compared the original German version in LTB 62 with the reprint in LTB Maus-Edition 3. The translation is mostly unchanged, but other than that there are huge differences. The reprint seems is nicely re-colored, but otherwise very faithful to the original Italian version. Compare that to the older version, where certain panels are stretched out and enlarged, sometimes even with additional or cloned art (at one point Goofy is holding his hand in front of his face, which comes from a different scene), and the end and starting points of the parts are not recognizable anymore.

Given that the re-coloured version is easily available, I hope the US reprint will not only fix the translation, but also revert to the original format and undiluted Scarpa art... (thadwell / Ramapith Any comments?)