Επιτέλους η περίφημη, ξεκαρδιστική, απολαυστική, σουρεαλιστική τετραλογία του Luciano Bottaro με ανεπανάληπτο, πρωτόγνωρο σχέδιο και χρώματα για την εποχή της και με πρωταγωνιστές τα παπιά και τον 'αυτοκράτορα του Κρόνου' Rebo (δική του δημιουργία) σε έναν πολυτελή τόμο, φυσικά στην Ιταλία(http://www.lucianobottaro.it/news/archivio2010/1210.htm)! Δείτε φωτογραφίες!
(μόνο τα δύο από τα τέσσερα μέρη δημοσιεύτηκαν έως τώρα στην Ελλάδα!)
The beginning of the sixties will be remembered as the moment of the first human space flight. Not surprising therefore that in 1960, at the turn of the Sputnik, Laika and the legendary adventures of Yuri Gagarin, an author sensitive to human affairs, both past and current closely, to propose a story that has its own starry immensity in his theater.
Luciano Bottaro fetches from its cultural baggage a serial that has made the history of Italian comic and looking through the lens of a good-natured humor, but scratchy, putting in work, an authentic jewel of the Disney saga. We are of course talking about "SATURNO CONTRO LA TERRA" (1936-1946,first published by Nerbini on "Adventure" and then on "Mickey Mouse Newspaper"), a Mondadori counterpart to "Flash Gordon" by the great Alex Raymond.
Born from the vision of Cesare Zavattini, screenwriter at the time stated, the story thanks to the texts of Federico Pedrocchi and the pencils of Giovanni Scolari and despite the second world war, will secure the publication until 1946. The main protagonist in an era in which science and technology reign supreme, it's the terrible Rebo: ruthless dictator of Saturn, made a representation graphically disturbing (almost a physiognomy incarnation of evil) decides to wage war on our planet, aided by renegade Professor Leducqland, but for his bad luck two heroic scientists will be on his way , Professor Marcus and his assistant Ciro, frustrating its expansion plans for interplanetary conquer.
The memory and the charm of this series must have been really powerful, because fourteen years later Bottaro, in the meantime already established professional, decides to retrieve the despotic alien to reinterpret and refashion him according to his personal vision, dropping him in the universe of Disney stories!
A choice that is rooted in other reasons. We must consider it on that age and place when the mastermind (we are in the years preceding the Second World War) is living in newlly rebuilt Rapallo: is an age, that among other dangerous contradictions and ideological pressures, is also characterized by a increasingly rapid technological progress and aggravation, large popularity, therefore, appear movies and books about the future, to worlds far away, time machines, spaceships and aliens, hundreds and hundreds of fantastic universes which allow, among ' other things, provide for and exorcise the political and social transformations that can trigger a rapid scientific development in any society.
Besides the great fathers of modern fiction, such as Lewis Carroll, Jules Verne and HG Wells, to name some meaningful names, Bottaro, who has always loved film and was a voracious reader, does his acquaintance with films, novels, comics and stories science-fiction.
The Rebo of "Donald and the Interplanetary Rocket" (TOPOLINO 230-232, 1960) is obviously 'light-years' away from the inspiring model, both in character and on that chart. He, too, is dictator of the 'planet with rings', but he has decidedly less sinister nature of approval, resulting from a tyrant operetta with only two 'subjects' unlikely elevated to the rank of General!
The story begins on Earth, where Scrooge McDuck, in order to escape the Beagle bros, decides to bring his entire fortune to the moon aboard a futuristic rocket designed by Gyro Gearloose, the inventor, with fellow travelers, Huey, Dewey and Louie and Donald (unaware that, having to reduce the missile's weight, food was omitted), whose route was diverted to Jupiter because of an unexpected malfunction and it is downloaded on an asteroid. While the old plutocrat, now in its new location, has the unpleasant surprise to realize the funny 'eating gold' natives and like his grandsons, after several mishaps, find also themselves to Jupiter, where they will be locked in a cage at the local zoo.
But the adventures of our heroes pass quickly into the background, since it is a great threat to materialize against the friendly jovial by the terrible Rebo, an absolute master of Saturn whose people, after millions of years of grueling war, are reduced to only three individuals: Rebo himself and his two generals. However, in order to ensure the best minds in the galaxy will invent an invincible robot that will serve and finally beat the hated enemy and invade their planet Jupiter, the dictator kidnaps Donald, mistaking him for Gyro. On Saturn, the unfortunate duck, not realizing the situation, develops a robot in his image and likeness, apparently meeting all the requirements of the cruel despot, but, in fact, ineffective and dysfunctional. This brings us to the final battle, in which the army of Saturn, trusting the statue of the young war duck to be reproduced in millions, as a result will face inevitable defeat. Jupiter is safe and Donald Duck is proclaimed universal hero!
The relationship between Rebo and the duck with the sailor suit, mistakenly believed to be a genius, is sometimes reverential, and constantly adjusted by an almost childlike need to see confirmed in his own opinion on the prisoner alleged mastery of the latter. Just as a child, the despot misunderstands the errors of Donald Duck, justify them and interprets them, stubbornly refusing to open his eyes to reality. Perhaps there is a dictator in every vein of childishness, but in the Saturnian Bottaro of this aspect prevails over the other less pleasant (formerly Rebo had 'executed' a robot pacifist, and when he finally realizes his error of assessment, it produces terrible pressure and threats in the direction of Donald Duck), giving the villain illogical sympathy. The hilarious sequence of the test automaton built by the duck is the highlight of this state of affairs: the reader can not help but sympathize Rebo in the terrible trials which he is subjected, almost like a predecessor of today's humorous Terminator. The story is entirely crossed by an extraordinary polemic, and ironic indictment of the violent anti-democratic abuses of power and against the stupidity of the military rhetoric. Rebo, a very effective allegorical figure reveals, with its behavior, the inevitable stupidity of any dictatorship.
From the design point of view, although not yet reached full artistic maturity, Luciano Bottaro, however, proves to be very inspired. Master alternation stylistic elements from the work of Carl Barks and, above all, Floyd Gottfredson, but very personal solution: to begin we describe the acceleration which Donald suffers after the departure of the rocket, he surely enjoys greatly distorted structure, almost an anticipation of his famous transformations in graphics that appear more frequently in later stories and will provide a kind of trademark. Then vents his fantasy drawing improbable creatures, like monsters Proboscidea (the Bonodonte) and psychedelic settings, such as the forest of giant mushrooms the magnetic storm by the animating spirit, the latter not present on screenwriting, but realized in the grip of a real and its artistic rapture.
The next few years, Bottaro writes some scenarios with the star Rebo but for a variety of reasons, will never be carried out as stories. A long time will still elapse before the Master decides to resubmit to the public the infamous Disney dictator of Saturn so we waited till the nineties to read the sequels "Donald and the return of Rebo" (TOPOLINO 2049, 1995), "The search of the virtual Duck "(TOPOLINO 2085, 1995) and" Donald Duck and the invasion of Jupiter"(TOPOLINO 2175, 1997). These Stories follow from the first episode the taste for comedy and surreal, especially the fantastic graphic virtuosity, enabling a new generation of readers to enjoy the pleasant atmosphere of the "Interplanetary Rocket."
The ability to interpret all the bottarian environment with a special meter, by means of splendid proportions and perspective distortions, marries happily with the opportunities of the reality offered by the brand-new computer, the virtual one: the results are for all to be enjoyed.
finally check also another post of mine for something really interesting:
http://camera-photographer.blogspot.com/2007/10/tribute-to-luciano.html
