La Pietra Zodiacale & the Italian Disney school

[Dr. Archontis Pantsios]

SPREA to KRITON:

re: "La Pietra Zodiacale"
> > Judging from the first installment, I was not particularly impressed.
>
> Uh? I thought Archontis meant "next week" since there's no trace of it in
> the summary he provided for MM 1822.

No, I didn't mean "next week"; you see, as strange as it may sound, "MIKY
MAOUS" hits the stands in Athens one week before it does so in Thessaloniki!


KRITON:

> > On the other hand, I was not particularly impressed with "The Ice Sword"
> > or "Once Upon A Time in America" (or whatever that series about Mickey's
> > ancestors taking part in key moments of early American history was
> > called) either, so what do I know?

Like I wrote to Kriton, "Des Gustibus Non Disputandum Est". The "Ice-Sword"
Trilogy is among my favorites in the Italian canon. I also enjoyed "Once
Upon A Time In America". On the other hand, "La Pietra Zodiacale" tired me
at many points.

SPREA to KRITON:

> > Judging from my previous postings, and from a discussion I had with
> > Archontis on the subject of new Italian Artists, I'm beginning to
suspect
> > that I'm turning into a grouchy old man who's stuck in the past,
refusing
> > to see any value in change. :(
>
> Massimo De Vita is no *new* Italian artist :-)

Massimo De Vita along with Giorgio Cavazzano are the only ones "left" from
the old august group of Italian Maestros. Carpi is gone, Scarpa left Disney
Italia to concentrate on cartooning and is producing only a handful of
stories per year for Egmont, and Bottaro is semi-retired.

MDV and Cavazzano begun drawing for Mondadori in the mid-sixties and did not
develop their own individual styles until well into the '70s. So in some
ways they are "new" compared to the other Italian Maestros. I hear that MDV
does not consider worthwhile any of his work prior to the '80s, for example.

In a way, I can sympathize with Kriton's reluctance in accepting those
artists: Up to a couple years ago, I used to be a Barks and Rosa "purist",
and it took me awhile to appreciate the works of Cavazzano and MDV. Now I'm
thankful for giving all these people a chance; otherwise I would have missed
out on a ton of truly wonderful stories!

Cheers,

Archontis