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Topolino Special Edition #1
Topolino Black Edition: Le più belle storie noir scritte da Tito Faraci
Topolino si tinge di nero, per gli amanti del genere poliziesco e delle investigazioni… ma anche delle risate, per un volume imperdibile che raccoglie le migliori storie dello sceneggiatore Tito Faraci, disegnate da grandi artisti quali Giorgio Cavazzano, Silvia Ziche, Corrado Mastantuono, Fabio Celoni e Massimo De Vita. Il volume contiene le seguenti storie: Dalla parte sbagliata - Topolino e il genio nell’ombra - Gambadilegno e la banda delle pupe - Agente Gambadilegno il caso è tuo - Topolino e il fiume del tempo - Topolino e l’incredibile Vladimir - La lunga notte del commissario Manetta - Manetta e l’indagine natalizia - Sfida a Topolinia – L’ispettore Manetta sul filo del rasoio e, per la prima volta inserita in un volume, Topolino, Manetta e Rock Sassi in: infiltrato speciale.
- GenresComicsGraphic Novels
368 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published May 8, 2014
18 people want to read
About the author
Tito Faraci
605 books30 followersTito Faraci (born Luca Faraci, on 23 May 1965) is an Italian comics writer and editor, as well as novelist. Faraci is most notably known for his work on Mickey Mouse, as published on 'Topolino', the Italian weekly digest devoted to Disney comics.
Faraci debuted in comics in the middle of the nineties. Although his very first script was for a Donald Duck story, he quickly gained fame as an inventive and innovative Mickey Mouse writer. His Disney stories mix absurd humour and a deep human touch, while borrowing atmospheres from pulp movies and noir literature. Many of his stories have been drawn by famous artist Giorgio Cavazzano. The two have also collaborated outside of Disney, for instance on a Marvel's Spider-Man one-shot.
Faraci is nowadays a veteran comic book writer, having wrote for years for a number of mainstream Italian series, most notably Tex and Diabolik.
His first novel, titled La vita in generale, appeared in 2015.
Italian bio:
Tito Faraci è nato a Gallarate nel 1965. È uno dei più importanti sceneggiatori italiani di fumetti. Ha creato storie per “Topolino” (Giorgio Cavazzano è stato – come usa dire lui stesso – il suo mentore), “Dylan Dog”, “Tex”, “Diabolik”, “Magico Vento”, tra gli altri, ed è stato uno dei primi scrittori italiani a lavorare anche per personaggi di fumetti americani come Spider-Man, Devil e Capitan America. Per la Disney ha sceneggiato Novecento di Alessandro Baricco, dando al protagonista la fisionomia di Pippo. Per Feltrinelli ha pubblicato il romanzo La vita in generale (2015), la sceneggiatura dell’albo a fumetti Le entusiasmanti avventure di Max Middlestone e del suo cane alto trecento metri (con Sio; 2016; nuova edizione: 2018), Il pesce di lana e altre storie abbastanza belle (alcune anche molto belle, non tante, solo alcune) di Maryjane J. Jayne (con Sio; 2018) e, nella collana Feltrinelli Comics, la graphic novel di Alessandro Baricco, Senza sangue (2019; con Francesco Ripoli).
Faraci debuted in comics in the middle of the nineties. Although his very first script was for a Donald Duck story, he quickly gained fame as an inventive and innovative Mickey Mouse writer. His Disney stories mix absurd humour and a deep human touch, while borrowing atmospheres from pulp movies and noir literature. Many of his stories have been drawn by famous artist Giorgio Cavazzano. The two have also collaborated outside of Disney, for instance on a Marvel's Spider-Man one-shot.
Faraci is nowadays a veteran comic book writer, having wrote for years for a number of mainstream Italian series, most notably Tex and Diabolik.
His first novel, titled La vita in generale, appeared in 2015.
Italian bio:
Tito Faraci è nato a Gallarate nel 1965. È uno dei più importanti sceneggiatori italiani di fumetti. Ha creato storie per “Topolino” (Giorgio Cavazzano è stato – come usa dire lui stesso – il suo mentore), “Dylan Dog”, “Tex”, “Diabolik”, “Magico Vento”, tra gli altri, ed è stato uno dei primi scrittori italiani a lavorare anche per personaggi di fumetti americani come Spider-Man, Devil e Capitan America. Per la Disney ha sceneggiato Novecento di Alessandro Baricco, dando al protagonista la fisionomia di Pippo. Per Feltrinelli ha pubblicato il romanzo La vita in generale (2015), la sceneggiatura dell’albo a fumetti Le entusiasmanti avventure di Max Middlestone e del suo cane alto trecento metri (con Sio; 2016; nuova edizione: 2018), Il pesce di lana e altre storie abbastanza belle (alcune anche molto belle, non tante, solo alcune) di Maryjane J. Jayne (con Sio; 2018) e, nella collana Feltrinelli Comics, la graphic novel di Alessandro Baricco, Senza sangue (2019; con Francesco Ripoli).
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 21, 2021
8/10
This thick pocketbook is an anthology of Mickey Mouse stories written by Tito Faraci and drawn by various famous Italian comic artists. Almost all these comics come from the second half of the 90's. Basically unknown outside of Europe, Faraci is arguably the most innovative and important Italian Disney comics writer ever. And if not the most important, definitely the most original one.
The general context. Italian cartoonists have been producing weekly Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck comics since the early 50's, back when the Disney comics production imported from the US started to be insufficient for the high local demand. Indeed, Disney comics were and still are to this day the most read mainstream comics in Italy- or at very least one of the most read.
Compared to the Disney comics produced in other countries (US, Denmark, the Netherlands, Brazil), somehow the Italian school has always been the less conservative, namely the more open to diversification of writing and contamination of art styles. But it is also the most 'self-referential', something that makes it hard to digest for Disney fans from other countries. It should also be mentioned that while Disney cartoonists from other parts of the world tend to focus on duck stories - under the strong influence of the one and only Carl Barks, obviously! - Italians have also made a big deal of continuing the Mickey Mouse lineage started by the American strip master Floyd Gottfredson.
A peculiar version of the mouse. The 90's were a period of ferment for Italian Disney comics. A new generation of artists and writers were allowed to experiment with genres and drawing styles. Tito Faraci - who specialises in Mickey Mouse crime stories - is somehow the most celebrated of those creators. From 1996 to 2001 the man wrote a fantastic sequence of innovative Mickey Mouse tales. Most of these stories have not been translated in English, though. Maybe because they have a crime/noir tone that hardly fits within the strict limits of the US comic code for children comic books, but that is just my humble guess, do not quote me on that.
To give an idea to the international audience, I would dare to say that Faraci did to Mickey something similar to what Frank Miller had done fifteen years before to Daredevil.
Faraci's stories rely on a strange mix of the following ingredients: a general pulp attitude; an obsessive use of brilliant one-liners in the dialogues (many inevitably lost in translation); an emphasised emotional impact; last but not least, a certain taste for absurd comedy. The mix is not always perfectly balanced, but in the early works contained in this anthology it stands the ground.
Faraci's absurd side is prominent in the stories with protagonist Inspector Casey, a clumsy policeman introduced in the world of Mickey by Gottfredson himself back in 1938. It is important to remark that the Casey stories collected in this volume are drawn by Giorgio Cavazzano, arguably the most influential Disney comics artist of the last fifty years. Another story in this book that pushes heavily on the comedic tone features Goofy as a protagonist and is drawn by Silvia Ziche, the most peculiarly 'cartoonish' of all Disney comic creators.
The pulp attitude and the emotional emphasis become strong in the stories where Faraci actually uses Mickey and his nemesis Pegleg Pete. The author seems to have a soft spot for the latter, whom he turns into some kind of anti-hero and Mickey's 'frienemy', rather than the conspiring crook that he was originally intended to be. From this perspective, the best story is Il Fiume del Tempo from 1998 (published in the US as The river of Time). This one is drawn by the edgy artist Corrado Mastantuono and co-written by Francesco Artibani, another famous Italian comic writer, mostly known around the world for his duck stories. Along the same narrative line, another favourite of mine in this book is the Mexican road crime adventure titled Dalla Parte Sbagliata (literally On the wrong side, never released in English), still from 1998, drawn by the 'baroque' Disney master Paolo Mottura.
To sum up is, this anthology contains in my opinion some of the best Mickey Mouse comics ever written, although of a peculiar kind that may not be for everybody.
This thick pocketbook is an anthology of Mickey Mouse stories written by Tito Faraci and drawn by various famous Italian comic artists. Almost all these comics come from the second half of the 90's. Basically unknown outside of Europe, Faraci is arguably the most innovative and important Italian Disney comics writer ever. And if not the most important, definitely the most original one.
The general context. Italian cartoonists have been producing weekly Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck comics since the early 50's, back when the Disney comics production imported from the US started to be insufficient for the high local demand. Indeed, Disney comics were and still are to this day the most read mainstream comics in Italy- or at very least one of the most read.
Compared to the Disney comics produced in other countries (US, Denmark, the Netherlands, Brazil), somehow the Italian school has always been the less conservative, namely the more open to diversification of writing and contamination of art styles. But it is also the most 'self-referential', something that makes it hard to digest for Disney fans from other countries. It should also be mentioned that while Disney cartoonists from other parts of the world tend to focus on duck stories - under the strong influence of the one and only Carl Barks, obviously! - Italians have also made a big deal of continuing the Mickey Mouse lineage started by the American strip master Floyd Gottfredson.
A peculiar version of the mouse. The 90's were a period of ferment for Italian Disney comics. A new generation of artists and writers were allowed to experiment with genres and drawing styles. Tito Faraci - who specialises in Mickey Mouse crime stories - is somehow the most celebrated of those creators. From 1996 to 2001 the man wrote a fantastic sequence of innovative Mickey Mouse tales. Most of these stories have not been translated in English, though. Maybe because they have a crime/noir tone that hardly fits within the strict limits of the US comic code for children comic books, but that is just my humble guess, do not quote me on that.
To give an idea to the international audience, I would dare to say that Faraci did to Mickey something similar to what Frank Miller had done fifteen years before to Daredevil.
Faraci's stories rely on a strange mix of the following ingredients: a general pulp attitude; an obsessive use of brilliant one-liners in the dialogues (many inevitably lost in translation); an emphasised emotional impact; last but not least, a certain taste for absurd comedy. The mix is not always perfectly balanced, but in the early works contained in this anthology it stands the ground.
Faraci's absurd side is prominent in the stories with protagonist Inspector Casey, a clumsy policeman introduced in the world of Mickey by Gottfredson himself back in 1938. It is important to remark that the Casey stories collected in this volume are drawn by Giorgio Cavazzano, arguably the most influential Disney comics artist of the last fifty years. Another story in this book that pushes heavily on the comedic tone features Goofy as a protagonist and is drawn by Silvia Ziche, the most peculiarly 'cartoonish' of all Disney comic creators.
The pulp attitude and the emotional emphasis become strong in the stories where Faraci actually uses Mickey and his nemesis Pegleg Pete. The author seems to have a soft spot for the latter, whom he turns into some kind of anti-hero and Mickey's 'frienemy', rather than the conspiring crook that he was originally intended to be. From this perspective, the best story is Il Fiume del Tempo from 1998 (published in the US as The river of Time). This one is drawn by the edgy artist Corrado Mastantuono and co-written by Francesco Artibani, another famous Italian comic writer, mostly known around the world for his duck stories. Along the same narrative line, another favourite of mine in this book is the Mexican road crime adventure titled Dalla Parte Sbagliata (literally On the wrong side, never released in English), still from 1998, drawn by the 'baroque' Disney master Paolo Mottura.
To sum up is, this anthology contains in my opinion some of the best Mickey Mouse comics ever written, although of a peculiar kind that may not be for everybody.
November 16, 2014
Bah, pensavo fossero storie noir ma di noir c'è solo tanto inchiostro nelle pagine.
Le storie tra l'altro sono uscite recentemente su Topolino e il volume costa uno sproposito. Unica nota positiva la coppia Rock Sassi & Manetta, ma se vi aspettate il fascino di TopoMistery resterete delusi.
Le storie tra l'altro sono uscite recentemente su Topolino e il volume costa uno sproposito. Unica nota positiva la coppia Rock Sassi & Manetta, ma se vi aspettate il fascino di TopoMistery resterete delusi.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews