"The Betrothed"

In the comments to my "Mickey's Inferno" post, an anonymous commenter linked to this, which is this. It's a very early Guido-Martina-penned story; it's interesting for a number of reasons, the first of which is that, for unclear reasons, it's bilingual in Italian and a rough approximation of English. So let's take a look, shall we?

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"King of the Golden River"

Hmmm...does that title remind anyone of anything? I will note that given that this was first published in 1961, some three years after Barks' (and several years after the Barks story was first published in Italy), and given that the English title here is a literal translation of the Italian, it's at least possible that there was some influence (and I do wonder whether this was chosen for localization due to the perceived Barks assocation--this was originally going to be called "The Other Golden Helmet"--good call not sticking with that, guys). Yes, I'm perfectly aware that Barks got the idea from a story by John Ruskin, but which one seems like a more likely influence? As we'll see, this might have certain thematic similarities with its predecessor. How well are these executed? Well...note that we're talking about Guido Martina here, and place your bets accordingly.

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"Mickey's Inferno"

Everything I ever do I do for you, but sometimes, that's not as easy as one might hope. I actually had wanted to write about this story for a long time, but man alive. It's a dense text to get through, and I realize that that's kind of a weird thing to say about a Disney comic, but it's true nonetheless. Still, I finally got through it--for what really must be only the second time--and now...here it is.

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"Captain Donaldo, the Black Corsair"

HEY HAVE YOU HEARD? Italians are HELLA fans of pirates. Or at least, those of them who make Disney comics. Like, for instance, this one, by Luciano Bottaro and our ol' frenemy Guido Martina. Also, sometimes I like to translate Italian Disney comics, so what the hell, you can download my version here.

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"The Blot's Double Mystery"

JEEZ. Sorry for the lack of posts in May; I was on vacation for half the month (I saw hella wild orangutans, but unfortunately, I forgot about the "reading Disney comics while ignoring the wildlife" photo tradition--alas!), and otherwise I was preoccupied with this and that.

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"The Seven Dwarfs and the Enchanted Faerie"

"Hey!" you indignantly shout. "I come here for ducks and occasional mice; I don't want this Snow White idiocy! That's it! I'm boycotting your sponsors!"

And I hear you, I really do. But if I can convince you to put aside your righteous rage for just a minute, I think you may be entertained in spite of yourself.

Anyway, it's not like this is without precedent; you may recall that a few years back, I wrote about a Gottfredson-penned Seven Dwarfs story. At that time, I said that I was planning on looking into the world of Italian 7D stories, and if you think that was a mere idle fancy, I'm here to prove you wrong!

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"Memoirs of an Invisible Santa"

So anyone who thinks some of the choices I've made in my localizations are a bit de trop should be advised that a story entitled “Mickey and the Christmas Treats” was officially published in the US as “Memoirs of an Invisible Santa.” Just saying.

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"The Diabolical Duck Avenger"

Well, it's my birthday, so let's celebrate by not leaving this blog barren anymore, shall we? First of all, big fat credit goes to IDW for the fantastic covers they did for the two issues to feature this story. First, there's Marco Rota, from 1983:

Man, that's just THE BEST. Then there's the new art, by Dave Alvarez:

Not quite AS cool, but hey, who can match Rota at his best? It's still plenty good enough. And it's not just the art; it's also the logo and the use of those text boxes. The whole thing is a class act, I say! Let it be known far and wide!

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"Donald Fracas"

It's no joke: I am so excited about this one I can barely breathe. The story is "Donald Fracas." The translation is by me. The place to download it is right the fuck here.
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"Donald Meets Baron Münchausen"

Apparently, the historical Baron Münchausen was less than thrilled that he was known exclusively for telling crazy tall tales--but hey, there are worse things to be known for.  Anyway, it's too late now!  He's known for what he's known for, and his fame was cemented when he featured in a duck comic, and now I've made an English version, and you can download it right here.

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"Donald and the Treasure of Saturnin Farandoul"

Shortly after I finished my English version of Marco Polo, I determined that my next project would be this story.  I even went so far as to scan it and delete the French text--ie, the mindless, tedious parts.  But then for some reason I just stalled out, and the thing lay fallow for some eight months, until a couple three weeks ago, when I finally roused myself.  If there's one thing I hate, it's leaving things unfinished.  And now…well, here we are.

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"Donald Duck and the Count of Monte Cristo"

There was a little talk about this story here, so I thought I'd give it a look.  I had read it before and objected pretty strongly to it; on rereading, I still object pretty strongly to it, while also recognizing to a greater degree its merits.

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"Donald Duck and the Rheinegold"

Here's an interesting thing (actually, it may turn out to be a really banal thing; you decide): I was reading this issue of the French digest Mickey Parade, which includes back-to-back printings of duck stories based on/inspired by the Iliad and Wagner's Ring Cycle.  Both of these were written by Ol' Man Martina.  The one was first published in January of 1959, the other in May.  So pretty similar, you'd think.  And yet, I was reading the first--which was the one I was most keen on reading, onaccouna Luciano Bottaro's art--and in spite of its high inducks ranking, it wasn't doing anything whatsoever for me.  I just found it lame and tedious, and to top it all off, you have Gladstone in the Paris-ish role acting wildly out-of-character (out of character for Gladstone, I mean.  I say if you're going to do these literary adaptations, you need to find a way to integrate the characters into them while more or less maintaining their personalities.  Otherwise, there's just no point to it).
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"The Fantastic Adventures of Marco Polo"

You may have heard of this story, sort of: Scarpa mentions it in an interview that was published along with the US printing of "The Blot's Double Mystery."  Specifically, there is this exchange:

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"A Christmas Quackarol"

Well, here we are: the part of this little project that I've been laboring over for the past month.  Actually, the idea of finding multiple Disney Christmas Carol things to write about came to me late in the game; initially it was just going to be this, a 1982 story written by Guido Martina and illustrated by José Colomer Fonts, who sounds like some sort of design studio but is actually just a guy.  A few dozen Fonts-drawn efforts have been printed in the US.  If you want to read the story before checking out my commentary, you had better do it and decrease the surplus population.  I have no idea what that was supposed to mean.

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Master McDucato, Chapter VII: "Dawn of the New World"

As our final installment opens, we see that Charles VIII of France has occupied Florence.  Reading up on the man, it's kind of hilariously pathetic how useless he was as a king: his main thing was these Italian wars, which accomplished nothing and got France big into debt, and then he died at the age of twenty-seven after whacking his head on a lintel (I'll bet that's why this story's never been published in France--they don't want to be reminded of the guy).  You may note that the individual we see in this story sure doesn't look like he's in his twenties, but, well, never mind.
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Master McDucato, Chapter VI: "Lorenzo the Magnificent"

Golly gee!  After that big ol' cliffhanger, I wonder how this chapter is going to deal with that whole "Palio" business?

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Master McDucato, Chapter V: "The Cave of the Winds"

Here's where it gets weird.  Weirder?  Weirdest?  I dunno.

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Master McDucato, Chapter IV: "The Pirates of Montecristo"

So who doesn't like pirates?  Eh?  Eh?  Well, actually, I feel like they're a bit played out.  You really have to do something special with them to make 'em register.  Regardless, though, here it is: another chapter, another historically dubious moment:

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Master McDucato, Chapter III: "The Phoney Florins"

Here's where shit starts to get real, and other meaningless clichés.

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