Keskustelujen arkisto

I know this forum is primarily populated by people who don't read of Italian comics, but I thought I'd give it a try.

In the Italian comics there's a character who is practically part of the Duck family, often going along with them on adventures etc., but who doesn't appear in other countries at all. This is 'Battista', Scrooge's butler. (I'd love to translate his name into English, but I can't because there's no English equivalent of it.) This is what I find so striking about him: he's completely accepted in Italian comics, having appeared in adventures in some form or another for almost 50 years, but in English he's so obscure that there's not even a name for him.
Inducks shows that he's the seventh most frequently-appearing character in Scrooge stories, only below Donald, the nephews, the Beagle Boys, Gyro, Daisy and Fethry. He appears more often with Scrooge than Gladstone, Rockerduck, Magica DeSpell, Miss Quackfaster, Gus Goose, and the Junior Woodchucks.

Also interesting is his evolution: it's hard to say what his first real appearance is. From what I can gather from Inducks, Scrooge got a butler named Battista in 1967, with appearance and character changing between artists. He later got assigned his 'current' role and character, and by the mid-70s they (sort-of) standardized his appearance. The first Inducks showing his contemporary appearance and hair colour date only to the 1990s. Even then, there still seem to be two hairstyles for him.

Battista's character is an interesting one. In most stories he doesn't do much of his own per se, but it's always established that he's there. While Scrooge breaks out in tears, Battista is there (with an umbrella) to console him. When the nephews are visiting Scrooge who's in a bad mood, Battista warns them beforehand. He's Scrooge's second man when he turns up at Donald's house with some giant tank-like contraption to go on an adventure, he's there during Scrooge's nightly patrols on the roof of the money bin (dressed in suitably silly army attire with a cannon, no doubt), suffering at his master's eccentricities.
Yet he's also the most sane one of the family. When Scrooge lashes out at someone, it's Donald. When somebody comes up with some hare-brained scheme, it's either Scrooge or Donald. He's not that much of a crazy character, but it strikes me that he's there regardless.

If anyone knows more about the background and character of Battista, I would like to know.

Didn't knew that Rockerduck's secretary is called Jeeves ! Yet unlike Bertie's butler, he's less than perfect :)

Quote from user: ArnaudDidn't knew that Rockerduck's secretary is called Jeeves ! Yet unlike Bertie's butler, he's less than perfect :)
Rockerduck has a butler/secretary named Jeeves in S 64007, one of the very first Rockerduck stories.
At Gemstone we simply used this name for Rockerduck's more modern butler as well??in part because as you note, he's ironically quite the opposite of Bertie's butler.

When Boom took over from Gemstone, they originally used the Italian name "Lusky" in English too, but corrected it to Jeeves later on. And then Disney has carried on Jeeves in their Digicomics (probably thanks to Inducks...)

Quote from user: ArtemiDo you have a lot of [Indian comics]? It is so exotic.
I've only got about a dozen. Half of them are late 1990s pocketbooks, featuring Italian stories translated to English from German??and a few oddities resulting.

John D. Rockerduck in German = Klaas Klever
Horace Horsecollar in Danish = Klavs Krikke

Somehow the translators at Egmont India confused these two localizations, so Rockerduck is actually called Horace Horsecollar (yes... in English!) in some of their earlier issues.

Interesting. Thanks.