By the way, Vito -- your "avatar" image... is that a Steampunk $crooge???
I am a HUGE fan of steampunk, and have been ever since about 1965 when the ORIGINAL, first-ever "steampunk" entertainment was on TV. I refer to that classic TV series THE WILD WILD WEST. Is it known in Italia? There was an *exceptionally bad* movie based on it in 1999, although the steampunk designs were the only good part of the film. The TV series involved a lot of science-fictiony elements set in circa the 1880's. That's the earliest example of purposeful "steampunk" design, even though the style would not be named until decades later.
I even designed a steampunk super-hero when I was in high school. The unwritten stories would have been set in the 1890's and, among other things, he wore a cape that had a frilly fringe like on an old surrey top.
And I'm wondering -- I've heard that my friend Vittorio opened a new comics shop in Turin named "Steamboat". Is that meant to relate to steampunk? I'm not sure, because in America the term "steamboat" definitely would NOT suggest a steampunk reference. But perhaps it does in Italia?
On the other hand, if your $crooge was NOT meant to look steampunky... never mind.
In March 2012, sadly, Rodolfo Cimino, the man that many, me included, consider to be the "Italian dad" to $crooge passed away. It's not a wrong definition: he almost always dealt with $crooge in his stories, since the 60s, and his last story was published a few months ago. I let you imagine the big saga of the character that came out of his pen. You probably would not like very much his stories: very often he would send the Ducks in absurd imaginary places, and "logic" almost always was subdue to imagination and to the bizarre (while your Ducks are very realistic, as we all know). He was also a great fan of the steampunk genre (he had a HUGE passion for steam locomotives): his $crooge would go hunting for treasures traveling with the most different and strange vehicles, whether they had a steam engine or something else. And almost always, his $crooge would wear goggles on his hat just like the ones you can see on my avatar.
Another element that confirms Cimino's passion for steampunk themes was the fact that he invented a domestic robot named Camillino, which lives in the Money Bin's boilers room and takes care of maintenace. All this is to say that my avatar comes from one of his stories, as you may have guessed, as an homage to his memory.
The TV series you talk about was dubbed into Italian and aired on tv many years ago, even though we cannot say it was very popular (maybe it's a cult series in America). We know much more the horrible Will Smith movie.
I would like to see the TV series: I, too, have a passion for steampunk and I really like western atmospheres (I'm among the few who REALLY liked the last
Back to the Future movie).
-------------------------------
Nel marzo del 2012 è purtroppo venuto a mancare quello che molti, tra cui il sottoscritto, considerano il “papà italiano” di Zio Paperone, Rodolfo Cimino. Non è una definizione impropria: si è quasi sempre occupato di Paperone fin dagli anni 60 e la sua ultima storia è stata pubblicata pochi mesi fa. Ti lascio immaginare dunque la grande epopea del personaggio nata dalla sua penna. Probabilmente le sue storie non ti piacerebbero moltissimo: spesso mandava i suoi paperi in località inventate ed assurde, e la “logica” cedeva quasi sempre il posto alla fantasia e al bizzarro (i tuoi paperi sono invece molto realistici, come tutti sappiamo). Era anche un grande fan dello steampunk (aveva una ENORME passione per le locomotive a vapore): il suo Paperone andava a caccia di tesori muovendosi molto spesso a bordo dei più svariati mezzi meccanici, che avessero un motore a vapore o altro. E quasi sempre il suo Paperone indossava degli occhiali sul cilindro come quelli del mio avatar.
Un altro fattore che conferma la passione per lo steampunk di Cimino è la sua invenzione di un robot domestico di nome Camillino che vive nelle caldaie del Deposito e che si occupa della manutenzione. Tutto questo per dirti che il mio avatar proviene da una sua storia, come avrai intuito, in omaggio alla sua memoria.
La serie TV da te citata è stata doppiata e trasmessa in Italia molti anni fa, anche se non si può dire che sia famosa (magari in America è un cult). Più conosciuto è l'orrendo film con Will Smith.
Non mi dispiacerebbe recuperare la serie TV: anche io sono un appassionato dello steampunk e mi piacciono molto le atmosfere western (sono uno dei pochi che ha PARECCHIO gradito l'ultimo film della saga di
Ritorno al Futuro).
Papersera.net