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That's very amazing!!!
I can say really "WELCOME" to the Maestro Don Rosa! Wonderful!
I'm too astonished to think any question... Don, I only tell you that you give me always fantastic moments with your great Ducks Stories!
Thank you

Hi Don, I have a question from my husband for you (just a little bit OT, not too much).
What about italian comics in USA? Do you know, or somebody knows the existence of characters like Tex, Dylan Dog or Ken Parker?



Mio marito vuole che chieda se in America hanno notizie di Tex e compagnia

so che in passato ci sono stati diversi tentativi di introdurre DylanDog, Martin Mystère e Nathan Never in America

alcuni esempi:




questo è l'elenco dei Bonelli all'estero

Gingerin_Rogers:
>>>>>What about italian comics in USA? Do you know, or somebody knows the existence of characters like Tex, Dylan Dog or Ken Parker?

And I see that someone has shown you that Dark Horse comics reprinted some of those.

But make no mistake -- these comics are only known by a relatively tiny number of comic shop customers. The average American is not even aware that American comics are published since they are only sold in a few comic shops. Even most American comic cultist collectors did not notice these Dark Horse issues... Dark Horse publishes superior fare, not what the American cultist superhero collector wants. So the answer to your question is that NO... the American public is totally unaware of these Italian comics, or of ANY European comics at all.

P.S.: the news tonight: Disney has offered to buy Marvel Comics for 4 billion $. Spider-Man will be a DISNEY comic character! Of course, Disney is after the characters for TV, movies, video games & toys. The low comic book sales are not of interest.

Thank you Don, but it's strange, here in Italy you can find any kind of comics almost everywhere, even in supermarkets...

P.S.: the news tonight: Disney has offered to buy Marvel Comics for 4 billion $. Spider-Man will be a DISNEY comic character!

And what do you think about this operation?

Gingerin_Rogers:
>>>>>but it's strange, here in Italy you can find any kind of comics almost everywhere, even in supermarkets...

That's just as it was here... until around 1970.

The Disney comics were not part of that change of comics becoming a comic shop item for teens & young adults rather than a mass newsstand item for kids, so they could never regain that traditional foothold.

 I fumetti Disney diventarono quindi un articolo da fumetteria per adolescenti e giovani adulti piuttosto che un articolo di massa da edicola per ragazzi, perdendo così i loro lettori tradizionali.

NdT: la parte evidenziata non mi è chiara, per cui ho tradotto un po' a senso, rispetto a quello che ho capito io...
Se avete osservazioni da fare, fatele!

Offro una tradizione che mi sembra piu' corretta.

I fumetti Disney non furono parte di quel cambiamento in cui i fumetti divennero un articolo da negozio specializzato per adolescenti e giovani adulti piuttosto che un articolo di massa per bambini, venduto in ogni "edicola" [come suppongo fossero prima, NdT]; di conseguenza non poterono mai riconquistare quella base tradizionale di lettori.

Offro una tradizione che mi sembra piu' corretta.

Quello che non mi convince è quel "were not part": dal discorso che fa, mi sembrava di capire che anche ai fumetti Disney sia successo più o meno quello che è successo agli altri, cioé di aver perso lettori a causa della scarsa distribuzione, con l'aggravante di essere un prodotto rivolto soprattutto ai bambini, che, normalmente, non frequentano fumetterie o negozi specializzati... quindi: "were part" e non "were not part"...

Comunque, ti ringrazio molto! Ora sostituisco la mia frase con la tua...

I see some apparent confusion or translation disagreement (?) over my words "were not part" and I see where I used those words. So let me clarify that section:
American comics changed from a mass medium sold at every newsstand, drug store, supermarket, department store, etc., to a cult collectible sold only in a few specialty comic shops where no one but hard-core comic "nerds" (?) go. BEFORE that happened, Disney comics were discontinued here due to the failing sales of comics in general. They did NOT EXIST during the change in how comics were marketed here. Disney comics WERE NOT PART of that change. So, when Gladstone tried to reintroduce Disney comics, comic buyers were not interested since they are Americans and Americans buy only what they think they are supposed to buy... and in comics they had been "trained" by the new cult hobby to think that only super-heroes are what comics should be. Disney comics are now shut out of the American market by the funnel-vision of the adolescent comic-shop buyers. And usually, since so few people wanted them, the stores would either NOT carry Gladstone & Gemstone Disneys, or just buy a few for their customers who wanted them and keep those copies under the counter for those customers and UNSEEN by any others. Gemstone comics were selling only to the few American middle-aged fans and collectors (like me) who knew they were being published and by European buyers who wanted to see the old reprint Disneys in their original language.

And that's why, in case you did not know, that the newest Disney comics licensee, Boom! Comics, is turning Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck into superheroes (using Italian stories) in a final effort to see if Americans can again be persuaded to buy Disney comics.

I think it had been briefly mentioned in another discussion on the forum  http://www.papersera.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?num=1199648616/45. According to it, the Italian stories to be used are:
Wizards of Mickey
Ultraheroes
Doubleduck.

WoM is considered by many (most?) people in this forum as one of the worst things ever happened to Italian Disney comics: very good drawings, but texts of extremely low quality, characters poorly used, stories tendentially very commonplace, gags which are mostly silly attempts at being fashionable and so on. By the way, the main characters are Mickey, Goofy and Donald (plus, in minor roles, many other figures from the (Italian) Disney comic tradition, plus a number of people created just for these stories) living in some kind of alternative universe of magic, with no connection with the Barks (or Gottfredson, or Scarpa ...) world of everyday Calisota.
The author of this series is probably the most unpopular comics creator on this forum.
 
Ultraheores got mixed comments. It is set in Calisota, with the usual set of characters, some of them in a quite unusual "superhero" role (while for others, such as Donald=Paperinik, this role is quite normal for us, and much appreciated). The main problem was that it was not so clear if ithe story was meant just to be funny (and many gags were really hilarious) or had also ambitions as an epic (there were some good episodes in this direction as well, but quite in contrast with many of the funny part). And (at least IMHO) the realization was a bit uneven, with some rather good episodes and other ones being decidedly bad.

Finally, Doubleduck: it's set in Duckburg (as we see it in Italy), with Donald playing (for mysteryous reasons - they have not been revealed yet) a secret service agent parallel of his daily life. Many of us (I among them) found it very good.

But I believe it would be very hard to appreciate even the best of these stories for people who love Barks, but have not been educated to the many different interpretations of the Calisota world we have seen in Italy. The passage would be too brisk.

Also, it might be confusing for many readers the fact that in all of these stories the artist at drawings changes from one episode to the following.

Riassunto italiano: a quanto accennato in un'altra discussione, le storie "superoistiche" italiane in stampa negli USA sono WoM, Ultraheroes e DD. Riassumo brevemente alcuni dei nostri pareri in materia (e credo/spero che le posizioni che ho esposto siano essenzialemente condivise dalla maggior parte di noi).

I see some apparent confusion or translation disagreement (?) over my words "were not part" and I see where I used those words. So let me clarify that section:
American comics changed from a mass medium sold at every newsstand, drug store, supermarket, department store, etc., to a cult collectible sold only in a few specialty comic shops where no one but hard-core comic "nerds" (?) go. BEFORE that happened, Disney comics were discontinued here due to the failing sales of comics in general. They did NOT EXIST during the change in how comics were marketed here. Disney comics WERE NOT PART of that change. So, when Gladstone tried to reintroduce Disney comics, comic buyers were not interested since they are Americans and Americans buy only what they think they are supposed to buy... and in comics they had been "trained" by the new cult hobby to think that only super-heroes are what comics should be. Disney comics are now shut out of the American market by the funnel-vision of the adolescent comic-shop buyers. And usually, since so few people wanted them, the stores would either NOT carry Gladstone & Gemstone Disneys, or just buy a few for their customers who wanted them and keep those copies under the counter for those customers and UNSEEN by any others. Gemstone comics were selling only to the few American middle-aged fans and collectors (like me) who knew they were being published and by European buyers who wanted to see the old reprint Disneys in their original language.

Ho visto un po' di confusione o traduzioni discordanti sulle mie parole "non furono parte" e ho visto dove ho usato tali parole. Permettetemi di chiarire il concetto:
i fumetti americani si trasformarono da mass medium venduto in tutte le edicole, negozi, supermercati, grandi magazzini, ecc., in un "cult" da collezione venduto solo in poche fumetterie e negozi specializzati dove vanno solamente irriducibili fumettari "nerd". PRIMA che questo avvenisse, i fumetti Disney scomparvero a causa del crollo generale di vendita dei fumetti. Essi NON ESISTEVANO durante quella trasformazione della distribuzione. I fumetti Disney NON FURONO PARTE di qualla trasformazione. Così, quando la Gladstone provò a reintrodurre i fumetti Disney, i compratori di fumetti non erano interessati in quanto americani, e gli americani comprano solamente ciò che pensano di dover comprare... e solo fumetti a cui sono stati "educati" dalla nuova tendenza (Ndt: "cult hobby") a pensare che i fumetti dovrebbero essere solo di supereroi. I fumetti Disney sono oggi esclusi dal mercato americano per la visione ristretta dei compratori adolescenti da fumetteria. E di solito, siccome così poca gente li voleva, i negozi NON si procuravano neanche le pubblicazioni Disney Gladstone & Gemstone, o ne compravano solo qualche copia per i clienti che le volevano e tenevano queste copie contate per quei clienti e INVISIBILI a chiunque altro. I fumetti Gemstone erano venduti solo a pochi fan e collezionisti americani di mezzà età (come me) che sapevano della loro pubblicazione e da compratori europei che volevano vedere vecchie ristampe Disney nella lingua originale.

Ok, now I understand (al least, I hope so! : ).
However, I think that, even if Disney comics didn't extinguish before that "change days", they would also disappear: a kind of comic expecially directed to children, can't be distributed in shops where only a few "nerd" people go...

Ok, ora ho capito (almeno spero! : ).
Comunque, penso che, anche se i fumetti Disney non si fossero estinti in quel periodo, sarebbero comunque spariti: essendo un tipo di fumetto diretto soprattutto ai bambini, la sua distribuzione non può essere limitata a negozi frequentati solo da pochi appassionati...

I think it had been briefly mentioned in another discussion on the forum  http://www.papersera.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?num=1199648616/45. According to it, the Italian stories to be used are:
Wizards of Mickey
Ultraheroes
Doubleduck.

oh yes, it's so fu**ed genial!
Whatever americans should thinks about Paperinik and Paperinika (Donald and Daisy's superheroic identity) if they didn't know the origins and the evolutions of those charachters???

And what about Paperbat (Fethry's alter ego)? Until 2003 they didn't know Fethry too!

Dippy Dawg:
>>>>> shops where only a few "nerd" people go...

Well, no, a LOT of "nerd" people. Remember, these shops are the only places to buy comics, so even though there are few comic readers per capita in the USA, when they converge on one or two shops in a city, those few shops can sometimes be busy.
To be more precise, these would be "nerds" and just all adolescent comic fans. These are young people who have never known comics to have anything in them but violent super-heroes. And all they know of Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse is that they are T-shirt symbols in DisneyWorld. They would NEVER look at a DD or MM comic book because they assume they are for 2 year olds, and besides, they can't be caught being so UNcool as to read something that has not been declared "HOT" by WIZARD magazine or something. And as you have guessed, no parents go in these shops with children! Some of the shops in big cities are QUITE nice, but many or most are a bit seedy looking and the windows and shelves filled with posters and figurines of the most grotesque and *disturbing* nature. Obviously not the sort of place where the parents would think any child less than a teenager should go. And even THEN he'd probably be better off someplace else. (I'm not saying there's nothing of value in these shops, I'm just describing why parents would never take kids in, and why most of America doesn't even know comic books exist, except that they see the Spider-Man and Batman movies at the theater.)

Okay -- back to questions/answers...

 Private correspondence should be treated with more respect,.

Hello, Don, I'm very happy to meet you!
But, your "private correspondence" is sometings really private or is... history? Do you know waht I mean?

Giuseppe