R: John D. Rockerduck

Luca Boschi cnotw at zen.it
Sat Mar 10 00:34:43 CET 2001


Hi, all!
> The first non-Barks Rockerduck appeared in "Almanacco Topolino" #75, March
> 1963: the story is "Zio Paperone e il kiwi volante", scripted by the Barosso
> brothers and drawn by Giorgio Bordini.
>
>> Was Rockerduck invented to be used in Italy or did Italy decide for
>> themselves to use Rockerduck again?
> IMHO, the latter seems more likely...

Surely. Barosso Bros. were used to revive characters used only one time
before, or very seldom. For instance, I can quote the names of Yellow Beak,
Uncle Gudger (and his crew) among the others, and the first Magica DeSpell
non-barksian story (if I well remember).
>
>> Why was Rockerduck continued by Italian artists, instead of (for example)
>> the more developed Flintheart Glomgold?
>> I don't know the details about this, but it made
>> me wonder if it's possible that Rockerduck could have been created on
>> request of the Italian editor. (But then again, why didn't they use
>> Flintheart Glomgold instead? Was Flintheart still unknown/unpublished in
>> Italy at that time?)
> "The Second-richest Duck" was published in Italy in TL 152 (December 1956),
> "The Money Champ" in TL 234 (May 1960).
> My guess is that the Barosso brothers needed a rival millionaire for the
> "kiwi volante" story, and they used Rockerduck because he appeared in
> "Almanacco Topolino" while they were writing the story. After all,
> Flintheart had made only two appearances, and the most recent had taken
> place a couple of years before already...

One more problem is that when Flintheart made his first appearance, his
story he was translated by a different guy than the second did. So, his name
was translated in two different way (Cuordipietra Famedoro and Polidoro
Orifiamma). The same happened for its third (Rupedor was his third italian
name). Maybe the readership, and also Barosso didn't discover the real
personality of this old Scrooge's rival.

Another, more consistent possibility is Mario Gentilini's influence. He
received and amplified USA suggestuions and requests. Knowing (in advance)
that Rockerduck was goin to be used by the Disney Studio Program (not so
Flithearth), he can have driven the italian story men to do the same. The
storuy of the italian comics is full of this suggestions: how to draw
characters (whic model to follow), or the same "suggested" use of LVD in all
the possible ways.

Bye,

L.




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