Keskustelujen arkisto

Quote from user: GeoXThis whole line of thinking, as some may know, strikes me as decidedly...ominous. And when we're talking about pulling in writers/artists with no prior interest in or experience with the characters...*shudder.* I can't really be the only one who remembers those risible Ducktales serials from the early nineties, can I?

Still: can someone provide some concrete examples of what "modernization" would entail? Because the problem may be that I seriously have no idea what people are talking about/thinking of here.
Modernization, as I'd call it for Mickey, would actually be a way of pulling back to Gottfredson-era thinking. Longer adventure and mystery stories with more serial elements, and some greater complexity to the plots as a whole.

There's also various elements I'd suggest like allowing for splash pages, forgetting the 1, 4 or 6 issue limit on every story, allowing for a more dynamic layout style (only as appropriate), more wholly realizing some of the cast, and being more comfortable with recurring characters.

I don't want a soap opera, I don't want Mickey with stubble and a machine gun, that's all just Not Mickey. But I think of things like, oh, that fight on the pirate ship in the Gottfredson strips, or Runaway Brain, and I can hardly imagine why you'd want your hero denied that kind of action. You can have all that in a bright, funny, optimistic world, and it would be an all-ages comic the way all-ages is meant to be. You just need the right people for it.

Quote from user: Review Or DieModernization, as I'd call it for Mickey, would actually be a way of pulling back to Gottfredson-era thinking. Longer adventure and mystery stories with more serial elements, and some greater complexity to the plots as a whole.

There's also various elements I'd suggest like allowing for splash pages, forgetting the 1, 4 or 6 issue limit on every story, allowing for a more dynamic layout style (only as appropriate), more wholly realizing some of the cast, and being more comfortable with recurring characters.

I don't want a soap opera, I don't want Mickey with stubble and a machine gun, that's all just Not Mickey. But I think of things like, oh, that fight on the pirate ship in the Gottfredson strips, or Runaway Brain, and I can hardly imagine why you'd want your hero denied that kind of action. You can have all that in a bright, funny, optimistic world, and it would be an all-ages comic the way all-ages is meant to be. You just need the right people for it.
Okay, now we're on the same wavelength. I don't disagree with any of this. I definitely by and large enjoyed the Egmont stuff that Gladstone/Gemstone/Disney printed a lot more than I think you did, but in general it felt sort of small-scale and not very Gottfredson-esque--even the long-form digest material.

But I feel like it may not be totally fair to judge current Disney output as a whole based primarily on that stuff. Here's my question, which I may have asked you before: have you or have you not read Casty's "World to Come" and "Quandomai Island," as localized by Boom? If not, it's time to get ON that shit. Because these stories are simply marvelous, and VERY strongly capture the Gottfredson spirit. If they're not exactly the sort of thing you're looking for, I will eat my jivaro-juice-infused hat. Of course, I could not speak to the overall state of contemporary Italian Disney comics; my import reading is mainly limited to vintage stuff. I don't doubt that there's a LOT of less-interesting material. Still...there clearly ARE people who get it. No need to demolish the ENTIRE edifice.

I would also say this: if you're looking for fresh blood to infuse the form with new energy, it seems to me you are FAR more likely to find it in Europe than the US. Sure, Barks, Gottfredson, and Rosa were/are Americans, but at this point, there's no denying that Europeans are much more likely to have grown up with their work, and to me, that's really THE key factor. When you drag people in with little or no prior exposure to/interest in the form, the results have not tended to be pretty.

Geo, I haven't read those two stories (nor have I had a chance to get a hold of the Mickey Mouse Adventures you recommended), and I will add them to my list when I next get a chance to stop at a used comic book store.
Having not read nearly so much of that output, it's not fair for me to speak on the entirety of Egmont's output, nor the Italian Disney comics, so I won't. My experience with later period BOOM and Gemstone was that the stuff I saw was limited by a lack of risk-taking (translation debates aside), which is ultimately what I'd like to see done differently: Risk by people who love the characters enough who work for Disney peanuts, and that can come from anywhere at all.
For example, the absolute best characterization of Donald and Goofy I've seen outside of the Barks/Rosa/Gottfredson collective output? The first Kingdom Hearts game. And I'd put the best for Mickey off in the second. The comics don't need to go that far, but talent is talent, no matter where you get it from. Just as long as they're willing to be judged against the material of the greats who came before them, and work to both match and surpass them.

Shame to see that your numbers 2, 3, and 4 have not yet been published in French either D:

In Greece, we were following the Italian publications very close, so we were fortunate enough to "discover" Casty almost from the beginning of his career. However, the closing of the Greek Disney publisher left us with more to desire. Especially since one month before the announcement of closing, we had announcements for stories such "Doctor Tik Tok", "Surreal journey into destiny", "The secret of Mousestone" and Moby Dick.
The first one is by Casty, so I was eagerly waiting to read it. The "surreal journey" takes place on the '30s and features DD, GO & MM, escorting their friend Walt Disney, into a meeting with Salvador Dali, in order to create a new story. The three heroes fall into the story, and it's up to Dali & Disney to help them out of it. And the third one is about Mouseton on the 19th century.
As far as French editions are concerned, I guess there is no need to worry. Some time those will be published, you just have to be patient. However, I have decided to learn Italian on the next few years. It's the main publisher right now, and we are neighbor countries, so why not ? :P

The Italian Disney Comics have never been so good as in these days (thanks to Valentina de Poli who is the editor of Topolino). There are really marvellous authors like Casty, Francesco Artibani, Bruno Enna, Corrado Mastantuono, Enrico Faccini, Teresa Radice, Silvia Ziche and so on who create stories at the level of Barks and Gottfredson. It´s a shame that there is no publisher who offers this stuff for an American audience. I think there could be one solution: We need an European editor who translates Italian (and some of the Danish Egmont Comics although their quality is weaker) Disney comics in English and offers them for an American and European audience. Most of the Europeans can read English and some of them would rather prefer English-speaking Ducks to German, French, Polish etc. speaking ones.

Quote from user: Kurt AppelWe need an European editor who translates Italian (and some of the Danish Egmont Comics although their quality is weaker) Disney comics in English and offers them for an American and European audience. Most of the Europeans can read English and some of them would rather prefer English-speaking Ducks to German, French, Polish etc. speaking ones.
YOUR MOUTH TO GOD'S EAR, as long as the localizations are good-quality.