My Introduc(k)tion

[Francesco Spreafico]

After more than three years in the list I've finally decided to make an
introduc(k)tion of myself... better late than ever! So if you're not
interested in me don't read on :-)

I've also made a page, with some pictures, some scans of fan drawings I have
and many hyperlinks, maybe too many ;-)

Just check it out at http://digilander.iol.it/sgrizzo/dcml/introduc.htm

I'll copy the text down here, but my suggestion is rather to go see the
page, here you'd miss the pics and the links. (And if there's something
particularly silly in my English, please do tell me, so that I can correct
the page!)

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Who am I anyway?

I was born way back in 1975, on July 29th in a dark and stormy night... ok
no, it was 10:20 am actually. They tell me that one of the very first toys I
was given was a Mickey Mouse puppet, I wonder if that influenced me
somehow...

The first issue of Topolino I was bought was issue #1057 (02-29-1976), even
though I guess I didn't quite... read it right away. I mainly tore it apart,
but not much, since I still have it and haven't replaced it yet! Anyway I
couldn't read that issue (and the following ones) until I was three; at that
age I learned to read with a series of Disney books titled "Learn to read
with Mickey", quite appropriately. But I switched to comics as soon as I
could. I couldn't buy Topolino every week, my mother didn't like comics
(sigh), so I had to earn it, or to buy it secretly... somehow I got thru
this and starting with issue #1588 I've never missed one anymore. Later I've
bought older issues too, now my collection starts around #700.

(In my mind) I used to sort artists in two groups: those who drew big bodies
and those who drew little bodies. In the first group I had Romano Scarpa
(old and new "versions", I didn't know he was only one artist then!),
Massimo De Vita , Giorgio Cavazzano and Luciano Gatto; in the second Carl
Barks, Giovan Battista Carpi, Guido Scala and Sergio Asteriti. I didn't care
much about the other artist (no decent editions of Gottfredson stories when
I was very young, unfortunately!), nor could I tell the writers yet!

After a while I started keeping a count of how many issues I have, I
remember that the first time I counted them they were 144 (I still have the
piece of paper where I wrote it down somewhere!)... impressive! (now they're
thousands of course, see a sample here at the right)

Then I started keeping files. Paper files since it was the '80's, I barely
had a Commodore 64 and I never even thought of using that for this. I wrote
all the data on notebooks... issue, data, price, title, code... it reminds
me of something! Later, when at last I could associate names to art, I also
started writing down long lists of stories for each artist... what can I
tell you, I've been a mad indexer right from the start! I kept doing this
for years, I remember discussing with my school fellows in 1988 about how
good the "Paperolimpiadi" were (while a friend of mine preferred Massimo De
Vita's stories), but then, in about 1992, my interest dropped.

Topolino was going through a very low quality period (but some gems here and
there of course), and it couldn't interest me as it had alwas done. So, even
though I never stopped buying it, I mostly stopped reading it and didn't
care much about it... until...

In 1996 I saw a new magazine at the newsagent's, it was called "I Maestri
Disney" and I HAD to buy it. It was so great I couldn't believe it was
true... had there been such publication when I was a kid I guess it'd have
been heaven for me! But even in 1996 it was great! I couldn't wait for the
next one, so I took a better look at the stands, and saw "Zio Paperone" #94
(That I had stopped buying around issue #20, oh what a mistake!), so I
bought that too and "met" Don Rosa (I'd already seen him on TV program a
couple of months before, though, but not from the start, so when I'd
realized he was a disney artist the program was over) and all those great
experts like Luca Boschi, Leonardo Gori, Alberto Becattini... that sure got
me hooked again!

At the same time I'd started going to Milan every day (I live 30 miles away
from Milan, but I had to go to University. Now, at last, I'm about to
graduate in Computer Science Engeneering) and there I found comic shops! And
in a comic shop I found the books written by these guys! Yellow book, blue
book, red book... all of them. After a while I also found a book about
Cavazzano edited by Luca Boschi that featured Frank Stajano's Cavazzano
article and many internet addresses. I wasn't connected yet to the internet,
but when I did, in 1998, the first places I went check were these...

Finally, on "Fumo di China" #29 (07/1998) there was an article by Luca
Boschi in which he wrote about Per Starbäck and the Disney Comic mailing
list. I didn't now yet what a mailing list actually was but I suddenly
remembered that Don Rosa in that TV program had said something about it! So
I just got home, looked for it, found it and subscribed!

I didn't take me long to contact Marco, Paolo and all the other indexin'
guys (we weren't named inducks yet), after all, I had a lot of data to
share!

Now I keep buying Topolino (which quality has improved a bit lately), Zio
Paperone, i Maestri Disney, PK2, Witch and everything reprinting stories by
Scarpa, I've also made a site about him, my little tribute to my favourite
Master.

Lately I've started reading other comics too, Marvel stuff mainly (my
favourite writer's Chris Claremont, favourite great artist, Jack Kirby (of
course!), favourite young artist Salvador Larroca); but this is only a
problem for my wallet, not for disney, because I'll always be reading disney
comics now!

To finish this page, I'll add that I read a lot of science fiction too (I
guess I started by reading some SF disney comic story when I was very young)
and my favourite writer is Robert A. Heinlein. I'm also a fan of Buffy the
Vampire Slayer, Star Wars, Star Trek, and Jim Steinman (a rock music
composer). I guess that's all!

--
Sprea
http://digilander.iol.it/sgrizzo