Steamboat Willie and Black Pete

[halvor.sandven@dnb.no]

Hello!

Most of the italian stories I have read, are thru the norwegian pocket-books
that are frequently published. Some of the stuff are just average stories,
but sometimes a story stands out. I think such is the case of a story
published in the latest pocket-book, called 'Mikke Mus og tidens flod',
meaning 'Mickey Mouse and the flood of time'. The code is I TL 2243-1 and
original title is 'Topolino e il fiume del tempo'. It's written by Francesco
Artibani and drawn by Corrado Mastantuono. The story's about Mickey and Pete
becoming partners to rescue 'Steamboat Willie'. The story is very
well-written with good and funny dialogue between Mickey and Pete, and it's
also well-drawn and shows great facial expressions on both Mickey and Pete.
What's most interesting about the story, is the fact that Pete's actually
interested in becoming friends with Mickey. This is shown several places in
the story. At one point they are discussing Goofy, and it's quite clear that
Pete envy Mickey's and Goofy's friendship. Pete also states: 'If only you
could call me sometimes, not just asking 'what did you do saturday night?'
You never asks 'Do you have any plans for tomorrow night'.' This is giving
Mickey something to think about. Of course Mickey and Pete are fighting a
lot in this story, but Pete seems sincere when he wants Mickeys friendship.
I must say that I liked this story a lot, and Pete actually seemed like a
three-dimensional character. What can be discussed, of course, is wether
some sort of friendship between him and Mickey is the right direction to
develop this character. Do we want a Pete, still with some rough edges, but
struggling to be a good guy, or do we want the bad, evil villain, maybe even
with his peg back? What do the rest of you think about this?

Also, the fact that Steamboat Willie was important early in Mickey's and
Pete's career, makes me wonder how well this story interacts with the
original movie. I have never seen this, but maybe some of you have seen both
the movie and this story, and can say something about this.

A completely different subject: Some time ago someone wanted to know foreign
names of a character called 'Naevenyttig' in Denmark. I finally looked this
up, and he was called the boring name 'Gaaserud' in Norway. The word 'gaas'
meaning 'goose'. 

--- Halvor.