Ole: "Topolino Noir"

[M.J. Prior]

Ole R. Nielsen:

> [Tito Faraci] as a writer has a more adult-oriented 
> approach. Having read several of the stories in the
> book, I would say that his scripts are not meant for 
> children. Even his dialogue is too hard for me to read in > the original Italian with my limited skills [...]

When I bought "Topolino Noir" in the dusty town of Napoli, 
the book was wrapped in plastic and I couldn't take a look 
inside before buying it, otherwise I'd have to damage the 
silly plastic wrapping. What I expected, judging from the 
book's appearance, was serious and indeed 'more 
adult-oriented' Mickey stories and I couldn't be more 
pleased with what I got (after angrily tearing up the 
plastic :).

The stories have indeed more complicated storylines, but 
not to the same degree in every story. Silvia Ziche's 
"Topolino e il genio nell'ombra" should be easy to grasp 
for children: it's a very funny and rather silly story, 
due to the fact that most of the humour depends on the 
villains and the heroes both acting very stupid. Goofy and 
Manetta don't have the slightest notion of the 'danger' 
they're in. Ziche's artwork is at least easily accessible 
and probably improves when coloured. (Hey, I could colour 
it myself! :)

> On a last note I must express my disappointment with you > for forgetting to mention Paolo Mottura, considering that > it is his story which leads the book. 

Let's give credit where credit's due: Mottura is very good 
at detailed interior-scenes and he has a good 
'cinematographic' storytelling-approach. His last panel 
(an airplane-view of a city) is beautiful(!) and there's 
also a brilliant pastiche on Salvador Dali in this story 
(you can see the artist on the next page!). I just don't 
happen to like his 'people'.

Did you notice that the dialogue of "Sfida a Topolinia" 
(by Cavazzano) is entirely written without using the 
letter 'e'?

And I also forgot to mention "Topolino e l'incredibile 
Vladimir", with artwork by Massimo de Vita. This story is 
imo also easily accessible for children. De Vita's artwork 
is good and I like the way he draws Minnie (and his other 
characters in general, with the exception of l'ispettore 
Manetta).

Cavazzano's Manetta looks more intelligent and more kind, 
which is how I like him better. I think this has something 
to do with the way Cavazzano draws him: with a shorter 
'snout' and larger eyes than the other artists' 
representation of Manetta (detective Casey).

Michiel Prior.