Bits of information...

Fabio Gadducci gadducci at DI.UniPi.IT
Sat Jun 3 13:13:32 CEST 1995


Hallo, my friends.

I'm back, as Gianfranco and Jorgen were wondering. Even if not for so much.
I'll leave for France in a few days, and then I'll spend two almost months
in USA. But, as long as I'm here, let me provide you with some useless
details about Disney's stuff :-).

Let's us start with Gianfranco: answering to Jorgen, he wrote:

>>Ah, yes. The 177 pages story. I tried to find out who did it. The closest
>>I could get was Giulio Chierchini, but I'm not sure. Information is very
>>welcome :-)
>I have in front of me Topolino n 1993: there is the first part of the
>fantasy story "Ser Topolino e la Cavalcata dei Cavalieri Inesistenti" with
>ducks and mice together.
>The text is by Caterina Mognato and the art is by Giuseppe Dalla Santa. The
>story was published in 5 parts, from Topolino (the Italian weekly magazine)
>n 1993 to Topolino n 1996.

Let me just add that it is a sequel to ''Re Paperon e il tesoro delle tre
chiavi'', same authors, appeared in Topolino n.1174 (2 episodes) and n.1175
(1 episode).

Again, about Rota. Actually, he did not choose Egmont just for money. When
Disney Italy was founded, he did not leave Mondadori for, I was told,
disagreement with Capelli, former editor of Topolino. And only after some
time he decided to work for Egmont. (A long article plus interview on him
should appear on issue n.4 of IF... in Italian, sorry!).

About books ON comics. Well, there is a long tradition, at least in France
and Italy. In France there is the huge history of Comics by Maurice Horn,
and at least the essays by Fresnault (all this stuff has been reprinted
also in Italy). In Italy, tradition dates at least to 1965, with
``Sortilegio a fumetti'' by Giammanco, more or less in the same period of
`The great comic books heroes' by Jules Feiffer and predating ``All in
Color for a dime'' by at least 4 years. Differently from the USA, the
Italian essays dealt immediately with comic books, and not only comics
strips,as in `The comics' by Waughan or `Sociology of American Comics' by
Abel abd White. On more recent times, all the books by Gino Frezza
(`L'immagine innocente', `Serialita' nel fumetto',`Il mito fra film e
fumetto') are quite worthy a look, expecially, for Disney fans,
`Serialita'...'. First of all, I must say that I hope I remembered all the
details of the quoted books in the right way, since I'm writing on the
spot: do not be too harsh with me. After that, I must add that this
digression is only to say that all this stuff is still available, usually
quite cheaply: if some of you want to learn Italian and is interested in
this topics, just tell me.
(BTW: I know it is almost impossible to believe, ROC, but I actually mailed
your stuff a week ago. I addressed it to your brother: I lost your address,
and I was able to get only your brother's on the net)

Finally, about the Barks'Index by Franco Fossati (just mentioned by
Gianfranco: gosh, it is nice to have back an Italian writing so
frequenlty... :-). Well, I'm not exactly one of Fossati's fans... :-). But
in this particular case I have all the reasons,since his index is a plain
swipe from the Barrier's book, with some information on the Italian
reprints added. Gee...

Then, Janet wrote, answering to Gianfranco

>Glad to find another Cavazzano fan on the list!  Do you know much about
>him?  Could you please share what you know?  Thanks!

Well, there was an interesting thread some time ago. People was divided in
two factions, pro and against Cavazzano. Try to look at it: it was quite
funny. Obviously, I was the biggest fan of Cavazzano... :-).
(And I must add that I made at least a new fan. Harry, to be precise. BTW,
harry, `War of the Wendigo is simply too nice'. A pity it won't be
published!)
For all those interested in his work, there is a book on him, published by
`Libreria dell'Immagine'. It contains a not-so-interesting essay, and a
quite large chronology of his work. There is also an issue of Fumo di China
devoted to the Italian Disney (but that magazine is not so easy to find,
unless you live in Milan :-).

And about your story, Janet. As Gianfranco said, the art is very good, but
the coloring is so poor. Cavazzano got really angry (as far as I'm told)
with the colorist.

About parodies. A lot of those are appeared in Italy. Mostr of them quite
funny and (strange by true) the author was sometimes a guy called Luca
Boschi...
Instead, about death and forbidden attitudes in Disney comics. Well, things
are quite changed in Italy when Disney Italy got in charge. Topics like
drinking beer and smoking were obviously allowed, and even death was
sometimes mentioned in these comics (I remeber a story where some captives
were looking after a treasure. Their boss left them aa map after is death
-explicitly written!!).
Moreover, Fredrick added:
>I distinctly remember reading an Italian story (probably published in
>Sweden during the eighties) where Scrooge is close to taking his own life
>(by jumping into a river with a stone tied to his neck) on account of
>thinking that he had lost all his money. If anyone is REALLY interested,
>I could try to find it during summer.
Well, there are MORE stories than just one. It is a quite stereotyped
situation, at least in Italy. It is not used anymore in the Nineties,
obviously, but it is still common in reprints.
And about Paperinik. Despite what the sometimes not-so-faithful bio's can
say, Elisa Penna has absoluteluy nothing to do with Paperinik. (It is
better to stop here, and not to go into details...).

Instead, about Chiaroscuro. It is quite unlikely that Anonima Fumetti will
be able to take rights of C., since it appeared under the imptinting of
Vertigo for DC Comics, and there are already plenty of Italian publisher
repriting DC stuff. Anyweay, you never knows... Some page, btw, appeared in
the Previews of two months ago.

Phew, quite a long answer. But I promise to be back before leaving for the USA.


Fabio


PS David, I just read the American script of Colossus. Good, even if I have
a couple of minor points I' like to talk with you. Not for changing them,
obviously: just for the fun of it (you know how I feel about Scarpa's
stories... :-)

================================================================
Fabio Gadducci            Dip. di Informatica
Home: +39-50-541725       Universita` di Pisa
Off.: +39-50-887268       Corso Italia 40, 56100 PISA (ITALY)
FAX:  +39-50-887226       E-mail:gadducci at di.unipi.it
================================================================





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