The origin of Paperinik

Frank Stajano fms27 at cam.ac.uk
Sat Apr 8 19:37:53 CEST 2006


Ole Damgaard wrote:
> Any background info about the origin of Paperinik will be appreciated, as I 

You should read the "Disney comics from Italy" essay I wrote in 1997 for
the Swedish fanzine NAFSk (though it only appeared in print much later).
There is a whole chapter about Paperinik, several pages worth.

http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~fms27/disney/writings/disney-comics-from-italy.pdf
(In English)

> am working on an article about Egmonts new Paperinik stories, in which I 
> plan to mention a few facts about the history of the character. I already 
> know this page: http://www.salimbeti.com/paperinik/en/origins.htm . Can 
> anyone confirm that E. Penna was inspired by the Dorellik character, as it 
> says on the webpage?

This is the first time I hear this claim. If you find the original
source for that statement, I'd be interested too.
Here is the beginning of the chapter referred to above (note that
apostrophes and hyphens have been lost to cut and paste).

Paperinik, the diabolic avenger

Now let’s come back for a moment to Guido Martina to
discuss one of his most important creations, Paperinik. It
was Elisa Penna, a Mondadori staffer, who in 1969
suggested that Donald’s character might become more
interesting if he had a double life like the established
super-heroes, from Clark Kent to Peter Parker. Actually,
the inspiration for Paperinik, as the name itself suggests,
came more from the Italian comic Diabolik than from the
American super-heroes. Diabolik, created in 1962 by
Angela and Luciana Giussani, was a devilish, very clever
and unstoppable techno-thief dressed in a black ninjastyle
outfit; he killed anybody who got in his way and
could impersonate anyone thanks to special face masks of
his own invention. His pocket-sized comic, a bit smaller
than Topolino, had been a huge success and had sparked
several imitators. Donald, derided and humiliated by
everybody from his cousin Gladstone to his uncle
Scrooge, could get his own back by secretly becoming an
all-powerful avenger! He too, like Diabolik, could have
lots of techno-gadgets, impersonate anyone with face
masks and wear a name ending in -k. Based on these
hints, Martina came up with the script for Paperinik il
diabolico vendicatore (Paperinik the diabolic avenger, ITL
706-A .. 707-A, 1969) which Giovan Battista Carpi,
then in his best period, beautifully illustrated. Donald
receives by mistake the key and deed to Villa Rosa, an old
country house won by Gladstone; but when he notices the
mistake, he decides to keep quiet about it. The house is
[...lots more where this came from...]

-- 

   Frank Stajano     http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/fms27/




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