Italian stories keeping close to American 'originals'

[M.J. Prior]

Sigvald:

> No, what I was actually trying to say is that the Italian > artists seems to have so strong feelings for their own 
> Disney universe that they seem to
> forget that the American Disney universe is the original.

Well, hm, then maybe this is what you should have said 
directly, instead of trying to give an example and 
proceeding to generalize from it. And I also get a strong 
impression that "Many people think Rota failed" is only 
your way of *politely* trying to state your own dislike of 
*one particular story* by Rota. 

Considering your statement above, I think the Italian 
stories keep in fact very close to the American originals. 
Did you know that Italian Duck-and-Mouse stories, contrary 
to the way the stories are represented in other European 
countries, are set in an American context? Did you know 
the currency used in Italian stories and translations is 
the dollar? The police station in the Italian Mouse 
stories I've read is an American police station. Most 
irregular supporting characters have English names like 
Bob, Arthur, Arnold, Billy and 'Scottish' surnames like 
McSop, McPerson, McTedious. Topolinia, as Mouseton is 
called in those stories, has an American outlook, with 
skyscrapers and watertanks on roofs. (And Duckburg is 
called Paperopoli. Does Norway have separate names for 
Duckburg and Mouseton?)
Gilles' site shows a map from an Italian story in which 
Topolinia and Paperopoli are situated in America.

Furthermore, I try to see the efforts of all those 
different artists in different countries as pertaining to 
the same 'universe', rather than dividing this 'universe' 
in different universes for different countries, although I 
admit that different artists give a different 'feel'. 

Maybe I could illustrate this with an issue of "Zio 
Paperone" which I bought in Italy last June [#165] which 
has stories from very different countries, instead of 
being an all-Italian-issue. All in the same issue are 
stories by Cavazzano, Barks, Taliaferro, Milton, Branca, 
Scarpa, Strobl and Vicar, all beautifully coloured, with 
nice lettering and printed on nice non-glossy paper, and 
what's more, this way they're represented as forming an 
*unity*, the use of dollars giving an *American* feeling, 
even to the stories of Milton and Vicar, which always look 
'Dutch' to me.

Maybe you should try and look for similarity, instead of 
differences.

Michiel Prior.

P.S.: Did you know that in Italy Pete's still called 
Pegleg Pete, even though he has two normal legs? His 
Italian name is Pietro Gambadilegno, which means Pete 
Wooden-Leg. Don't you think that's just LOVELY? I do!