Mickey's pet raven

Botto Armando Armando.Botto at elsag.it
Thu Aug 10 14:59:33 CEST 2000


Alex asked:
<< I got a question on Mickey's pet raven. He's mostly called "Maxi Smart",
sometimes also "Bruno". He appears only in Scarpa-drawn and Scarpa-written,
Italian stories.
> There's also another raven who also can speak, the list with international
> Disney characters names says for Goofy's pet raven:
> en:Ellsworth
> [Goofy's pet raven (who can also talk)]
...
> it:Gancio
> la:Brutus
Does anybody know something about this couriosity? I'd say that Goofy's pet
raven is another "person" than Mickey's raven. >>
Indeed. Ellsworth was created by Bill Walsh, and drawn by Manuel Gonzales,
for Mickey Mouse's syndicated Sunday Pages. His first appearance is dated
October 30th, 1949. He's a very smart "guy", and he probably wouldn't like
being referred to as "Goofy's pet raven", even though he lives in Goofy's
house ;-)
Later, Ellsworth (whose Italian name is indeed Gancio) was re-introduced as
a character in Italian stories (in "Pippo e il ritorno di Gancio",
Barosso/Chierchini, TL 367 from 1962). From 1964 to 1966, Romano Scarpa used
Ellsworth as a supporting character to Mickey in quite a few stories; then,
for almost 10 years, Ellsworth disappeared again (being featured in no more
than 3 or 4 stories). 
In 1975, Scarpa introduced Ellsworth's adoptive son, Bruto (in the story
"Topolino e il rampollo di Gancio", TL 1048). From then on, and until 1985,
Bruto became Mickey's partner in a number of Scarpa stories (while Ellsworth
appeared very rarely). The Inducks legend files describes Bruto as follows:
"Italian a.k.a. Gancetto, ELL's adoptive son, looks like ELL with
Baseballcap and shirt".
In the 90es, Ellsworth has come back to the pages of "Topolino". Some of his
most recent stories have been scripted by fellow DCML member Luca Boschi.

However, the above is just a short summary... you'll find much, much more
about Ellsworth and Bruto in Rich Bellacera's wonderful HooZoo pages, at
http://www.jps.net/xephyr/rich/dzone/hoozoo/ellsworth.html

Hope it helps,
Armando




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