Mickey's Buddies part 2: fantastic adventures - social comments from the 60's

jeanmarcbano jean-marc.bano at wanadoo.fr
Mon May 17 23:44:56 CEST 2004


Two things to add to my previous email:
1) Just a precision about the stories of Paul Murry: when i said his stories are worth reading, i wanted to say they are not junk, a story like the Marvelous Magnet is interesting, but i don't think they are as good as the best Gottfredson's and Scarpa's stories.
2) About some elements of the Scarpa's technique: Scarpa is used to inserting some humorous digressions in his stories: in 'Kali' Mickey and Goofy spend a lot of time tailing the wrong guilties; in 'Calidornia', the tailing is a pretext for humorous scenes that go on a wrong way.
The use of background: is also a technique of Scarpa for inserting some humorous moments: two examples: the angry faces of Donald's nephews in background when he accepts with enthusiasm the job of reporter of a popular tabloid, after, just a few moments before, criticizing the press (le mystère des écrevisses en civet - paperino e i gamberi in salmi 1956); the joke of the tramp at the beginning of 'Tap yocca VI' (Topolino e il mistero di tapioco sesto), scene full of black humor.

Mickey's fantastic adventures: 

There was the good story of Robin Hood in the thirties telling the adventure of Mickey inside a book, 'Island of the Sky' of course; some adventures were having a beginning seemingly supernatural but were ending with a logical explanation (the house of seven ghosts).

Goofy allergy for supernatural: in the story called 'les fusées anti-sorcières' 'Pippo e i missili antimaliardi' he doesn't believe the witch Carabosse (Nocciola) when she repetitively says she's at the origin of the crash of the rockets, because they fall on the moon in the witches' cauldron. In the frenzied (and hallucinogenic) story 'Mickey et Dingo dans la lune' aka 'Astralpipo n 9999!' (1960) he is immunized on Saturn against a sort of extraterrestrial magician who can create illusions of what people whish heartfeltly (their home, dog, family...); this story, apart from being eccentric (creation of Attilio Mazzanti!), contains, in my opinion, some social comments; Pete makes his appearance (almost an apparition), and more than in 'Delta' or 'Island in the Sky', his appearance is unexpected, almost supernatural: we didn't expect to meet him in a so unconventional place and it is a surprise like the drawing of his head on the sand in 'Tap Yocca VI'; here, during the most part of the story, he is masked; the story is interesting to analyse for his social comments, the dangerous magician at the end of the story (the only inhabitant of Saturn) can, as i have said, create illusions and all the people (including Mickey, but exept for Goofy) are trapped in a fake world (that reminds me of all the virtual reality movies of nowadays); Mickey believes he is at home with Minnie and Pluto; the theme of the power of hypnotizing people with the advertising is an undercurrent theme of the sixties and is linked with an another sixties story of Mickey 'Mickey et la ville hypnotisée - Topolino e la città cavia 1966 - where a look at the TV push the people towards the supermarkets.

Mickey et la révolte des ombres 'Topolino e la rivolta della ombre' 1960: where we meet again Pr Mirandus - E.nigme; this story is very good but, in my opinion, i think the pace of the tale is a little too rapid; the plot in itself is very imaginative with excellent drawings; one of the best moments of this tale is the chase by the shadows liberated from the humans bodies of Mickey, Goofy and E.nigme with the cars; only a miracle formula of E.nigme and an eclipse of the moon will be able to get our heroes out of a tight corner.
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