Italy

Gli Anni d’Oro di Topolino (Golden Age of Mickey Mouse) is a new series of gorgeous books that collect 45 years of work by one of the greatest cartoonists of all time, Floyd Gottfredson. Gottfredson is best known for his work on the Mickey Mouse comic strips. Starting in 1930, he created thousands of daily strips and Sunday pages with the mouse, which have been recolored for this new library.

A total of 38 books of 160 pages each will be released weekly from March through November. They sell for €9.99 (approximately US$ 13) each and are available online from this website (it looks like international orders are possible).

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CastyOn February 10th, Walt Disney’s Comics & Stories issue 703 (published by Boom! Studios in the United States) will start a new multi-part story arc titled “Mickey Mouse and the World to Come,” which was written and drawn by talented Italian artist Andrea Castellan, who goes by the name of Casty.

I had a chance to ask Casty some questions about his career as a writer/artist and his work for Disney. Casty shared with me his early start in writing comics, where he finds his inspiration, and details about an upcoming story that may be of interest to duck fans!

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This week, Boom! Kids in the United States is launching the new incarnation of one of the longest-running and most famous comic books of all time, Walt Disney’s Comics & Stories. Boom’s first issue, number #699 (available here), kicks off with the first chapter of a multi-part series titled Ultraheroes, which was produced by The Walt Disney Company Italy for the Italian weekly Topolino.

One of the writers of Ultraheroes is Giorgio Salati. I had a chance to ask Giorgio some questions about his work for Disney and writing Ultraheroes.

Disney Comics Worldwide: How did you get started writing Disney comic stories for Disney Italia?

(above portrait of Giorgio
by Marco Ghiglione)Giorgio Salati: After some novel and film script writing courses that I attended after high school, I realized that comics were the kind of media I really wanted to write for, having been a passionate comic book reader throughout my youth. That’s why I followed comic book writing courses at Scuola del Fumetto in Milan.

Teacher Riccardo Secchi — now a colleague and a friend — taught me this beautiful profession with a mix of passion and discipline. One day he told me: “You’re good at writing funny dialogues; you’ll sure fit Disney’s style”.

That was good news to me. I’ve been a Disney fan since I was born (my father is a Barks fan!). I got the e-mail address of a Disney Italia editor and sent him about ten plots and a pair of scripts. He called me and said something like: “Ok, you can write Disney comics. Now send me something that fits.” Gulp! Ten plots rejected! I pulled myself together and wrote new stories which fit (the main characters were Donald & Daisy Duck and Goofy), so… I signed a contract! It was the summer of 2003 and it was like a dream come true.

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Paperinik New Adventures (or PKNA) was published by The Walt Disney Company Italy from 1996 to 2001. The futuristic series followed the adventures of Paperinik, a superhero alter ego of Donald Duck.

The character of Paperinik was originally created by Guido Martina and Giovan Battista Carpi in 1969, but was revamped for this series and new friends and foes were created to form the basis of a new adventure series. The first issue of PKNA introduced a new enemy in the form of an alien race called the Evronians and two new allies for Paperinik: a very advanced artificial intelligence computer called Uno, and a journalist named Lyla Lay.

The Italian press praised Disney’s capacity to renew and develop this new style while respecting the integrity of its characters. PK was first launched in an experimental phase with three test issues. Following positive results (the second test issue sold 130,000 copies), the series was officially launched in November 1996 and became very successful. PKNA was reprinted in many other countries and fans of the series called themselves PKers.

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Disney comics are going mobile! Two Italians of the New Media division at Disney Publishing Worldwide in Milan are working on getting Disney comics pubished on digital devices. They’re planning to launch Disney DigiComics in Italy and the United States some time between September and the end of this year and globally after that.

Gianfranco Cordara (writer of 100+ stories) and his colleague Dario Di Zanni started their idea last year when they developed a working demo of a Disney comic on their iPhone. They showed it to their boss in Milan, then went to Disney offices in London, New York and eventually to Disney HQ in California. After convincing the Americans of their idea the two have been working hard to get Disney DigiComics off the ground. The plan is to release traditional Disney comic stories in animated format to iPhones, iPods, other mobile phones, Nintendo DSi, Playstation Portable and regular computers. Consumers will be able to purchase stories as they do music on their iPod through a digital comic store (similar to the Apple Store) and play them in a special Disney DigiComics player on their device.

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Italian weekly magazine Topolino (Mickey Mouse) is celebrating its 60th birthday this week. A ‘Topolino’ title has actually been around since 1932 (Topolino Giornale), but the book format as we know it today was started in April 1949. The magazine, still loved by children and adults and found anywhere in Italy where magazines are sold, maintains its market leadership with original comic stories and themed editorials. In recent years summer specials have sometimes driven up sales of the weekly comic to over one million copies. More »

This 5-minute animation from 1982 was made by Italian Disney comics artist Romano Scarpa as an introduction to a Disney TV special in Italy. The video shows a parade of Disney comic characters, including Detective Casey (by Floyd Gottfredson), Donald Duck’s superhero alter ego Paperinik (known in the US as Duck Avenger) and Brigitta McBridge (created by Romano Scarpa) following Scrooge McDuck. It’s a unique piece of animation with these characters that can normally only be found in the comic books, and some of them only in Italian comics. (via Cartoon Brew)

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The Walt Disney Company Italy are experts in making nice websites to promote their comic books. Topolino.it is (in my opinion) by far the nicest official website for Disney comics in the world. It’s a beautiful Flash website with lots of interactive games, stories and information about their titles.

I just came across a fun soccer game with Donald Duck: Paper Gol. Check it out and see if you can beat Donald.

Disney Italy continues to make impressive new and original stories. Last year saw the release of Wizards of Mickey, a new world of wizards, castles and bewitched lands created by Claretta Muci and Stefano Ambrosio starring Mickey, Goofy and Donald. That 10-part series has since been reprinted across Europe. In February 2008, weekly Topolino started another multi-part series in issue 2726: Ultraheroes. More »