There is no doubt that the most anticipated story of Mickey Mouse 3504 – and also the best of the number – is the first part of the The Adventures of Captain Nemo: The Crystal Kingdom Of Francesco Artibani And Lorenzo Pastrovicchio which take up the protagonists of the “saga” of Pippo in the epic role of Captain Nemo, freeing themselves for this new episode from Verne’s stories, while maintaining the atmosphere of the late nineteenth century.
In fact, from the tables of the story we perceive both the optimism deriving from the industrial revolution in continental Europe, and the attitude of the adventurous and enthusiastic characters of having “futuristic” machinery at their disposal to undertake wonderful enterprises, such as Goofy-Nemo with his radio control , or their mysterious enemy with flying machines and robot octopuses (probably graphically inspired by the sentinels of the film Matrix), or even Donald Duck grappling with the mini submarine.
The plot proceeds expeditiously and is full of events, the story also takes a dramatic turn in closing which excellently builds anticipation for the next episode. Very interesting is the use of the figure of Pippo, who manages to range – while remaining absolutely credible – from the usual carefree and over the top attitude, to the decisive and rational one that the role of captain of the Nautilus requires.
Nice quote from Doctor Oss/Osso who takes up the character of Verne de “Une fantaisie du docteur Ox”, but winks to our local Doctor Oss Of Mino Milani And Grace Nidasio.
The cover of the adventures of Doctor Oss, clearly inspired by those of Jules Verne’s books
The reading of the two briefs turned out to be unexpectedly pleasant Thunderbolt (and more) And Who is this handsome sailor? inspired by the daily strips of Al Taliaferro. An experiment that – thanks also to the quality of the designers involved, Stefano Intini And Silvia Ziche – satisfied me and which compares two different storytelling methodologies: the daily strip (short and fulminating) and the pages of the comic books more dilated and verbose.
To be evaluated if this week’s surprise effect will be equally pleasant in the next stories of the series Donald Duck & Daisy Duck in: Love Quackbut still I judge it positively, also for the fact of spreading Taliaferro’s name and work to younger readers with six pages of editorial insights introduced by the author of the series George Fontana.
The nice series of the just mentioned Giorgio Fontana Newton and Pico traveling in knowledge continues with an episode dedicated to the force of gravity, this time with drawings by Simon Capovilla. Maybe it’s not among the best of the series, but it still achieves the goal of intriguing readers about interesting topics by presenting them in an easily understandable form (of course, while I was reading I was curious to see how they would have simplified Einstein’s theory of gravity understood as the curvature of space-time… too bad!).
The two stories Doctor Kranz and the mission… unfinished (screenplay by David Aicardi and drawings of Julia La Torre) And Qui, Quo, Qua and the squeaky secret (screenplay by Augusto Macchetto and drawings of Ottavio Panaro) bored me: the elevation of secondary characters such as Doctor Kranz and Ciccio to protagonists fails for the umpteenth time. Stories with a slender plot and developed only around gags are perhaps today outside the perimeter that the weekly is giving itself, referring to a now closed era: they seem like stories from twenty years ago…
Are we at Macchetto’s incomplete self-citation?
The register closes with an enjoyable story of Roberto Moscato which entertains for the use of the characters and reaffirms the skill of the underestimated Lucius Leoniwhich gives its best in Goofy’s expressions and in the creation of rich cartoons (of characters or details it is the same) that are never heavy or too crowded.
Trying to summarize a number like this in a simple vote is not easy (if it makes sense). The roller coaster effect in the quality of the stories would make me lean towards a “2 star”, but the opening story cannot fail to have more weight in the overall assessment.
If you haven’t been bored reading up to here, I will dwell on a general consideration, outside the register: in a historical period where the fruition and consumption of entertainment products are done quickly, superficially and with limited attention, already oriented towards thewhat’s next” (as evidenced by the high number of visits to threads Of preview or previews in our forum) it would not be preferable to close the file with the main story, so as to say goodbye to the reader with the best of the weekly proposal? Especially if it is a “first episode”, so as to leave the story suspended and create narrative continuity with the following week’s issue?
In summary, I have the impression that once you get to the end of the issue, the story read at the beginning is already “water under the bridge”, and that the overall evaluation of the register is conditioned by the last thing read.
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22 JAN
2023
Article author: Paolo Castagno
I’ve been an avid reader and collector of Disney comics ever since I learned to… look at the figures. Papersera – both the site and the association – are a source of pride for me!