Don on Italian news

Marco Barlotti marcobar at facec.cce.unifi.it
Fri Oct 27 13:35:05 CET 1995


Yes, on Wens. October 25th all main Italian radio and TV news have given a
lot of emphasis to Don Rosa's Lo$. The thing deserves being retold because
it can give us some insight on the way the "media" look upon the ducks.
The news to be given should, of course, have been Don Rosa's visit to Italy
(at the Comics Expo in Lucca) tomorrow Saturday 27th. But the emphasis was
on Quackmore and Hortensia falling in love! Maybe this is partly Don's fault
(I understand that he is bringing some of his work to Lucca, as an exhibit,
perhaps exactly the panel with Quackmore and Hortensia). However, I find a
couple of things to be remakable:
(1) Lo$ has already appeared in Europe (by Egmont, as I understand); nobody
in Italy (not even the Disney journals) could care less. NOW that Lo$ is
being published in the USA, NOW it looks "official" to the Italian market
and they talk about it. The idea is still that Disney comics should come
from the US to be REAL (so what about our great Scarpa, Chierchini, Gatto,
Rota and many more?).
(2) A big fuss has been made on radio and TV on the fact that the FATHER and
MOTHER of Donald Duck have come to light. In the mind of Italians that
Uncle-Nephew link always sounded sort of a censorship on sex; the way they
spoke about it this time you would have thought that Don Rosa actually
showed Quackmore and Hortesia in the act of making love! On the other hand,
I find much more sensational Don Rosa's showing the death of $crooge's
father; but nobody even mentioned this neither on radio nor on TV nor on the
newspapers (maybe nobody knows? maybe sex is more appealing than death!).
So that was the story. The news was Don Rosa's coming to Italy, the emphasis
was on Donald's parents. A "serious" (although far-rightist, and
Berlusconian) newspaper ("La Nazione") last week opened the first page of
the "culture" instalment with an interview to Don Rosa by Leonardo Gori
(granted via e-mail!); but the TITLE and the accompanying three LARGE COLOR
PICTURES were on Donald's parents...


  Marco Barlotti, Dept. of Math., University of Florence
MARCOBAR at FACEC.CCE.UNIFI.IT

"Here's the first billion I've ever made - Down at the bottom of the pile,
where it's been for seventy years!" (Walt Disney's Comics and Stories 130,
7/1951)




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