vaillant

The italian one is published within the italian Kamandi, so – yes – with a cover it does not exist.

Nice – is that a French-Belgian character, or maybe Canadian? Never heard of this series.

I am in love. Those are not easy to come by, but when they pop up they don’t cost so much – if you are interested I can place a search on eBay.it In fact I was almost thinking to sell mine, as I already have the original Mr. A fanzine.

Kelly, correct me if I am wrong, translated into Disney's world Roald Dahl’s Gremlins, right? That is a SUPER SWEET contribution to the Disney epos.

Pogo is not Disney, plainly. To compare Barks and Kelly‘s production like they gave the same contribution to Disney’s vision – as I said – it’s wrong. But if you have had (and you haven’t) over thirty years of Disney stories produced abroad, some of those are easily up to Barks and Gottfredson's standards, the same qualitative judgement could be made with Disney stories. But as far as it comes to a comparision about Barks and Kelly, you are absolutely right: it doesn’t make sense. It can make sense only in Disney terms, but Kelly "loses" just because he did a lot less. But that less is delicious. Italian authors like Scarpa created post-Barks characters which represented social changes et al, like Paperetta Yé Yé (which represented the beat and youth movements) or Filo Sganga (which parodied italian's entrepreneurial itch, destined to failure, much like the movie characters by Alberto Sordi):

I know what you talk about. Comics which in their native country or area are huge are often neglected, or aimed at the wrong market. Not to mention our italian Disney stories, which have been published worldwide (and started as early as the 1930s) but it took over thirty years to have a selection published in USA, thanks to Gladstone (and later some from Disney, Gemstone, Boom).

This is the Mr. A story published within, should be the debut story from Witzend #3. I believe it’s the first appearance of Mr. A as it’s chronologically presented first in the early collected magazine edition (on the right).

I think the cover is from some Witzend, as the material inside is probably all from the same source. The Mr. A sory is the one from Witzend #4 (or both from #3 and #4, I should check as I don’t have the Witzends but just the first Ditko magazine/fanzine which reprinted them in full). and indeed it is very unusual for an italian edition to be so close to the original date. This actually predates almost ALL italian Marvels, except for Sgt. Fury and the very early editions of FF #1 and #5, which were published in 1966-67.

Since rpjb posted that foreign Johnny Dinamite (very interesting) – I’ll post my Spyder #3, which contains the (only) italian edition of Steve Ditko's Mr. A (#1). From 1969.

It's a good thought. The "discovery" of Carl Barks by fandom in the 1960s added to his appeal. The idea of his laboring in anonymity for years turning out these great stories probably did play a role in boosting interest in his books. This would go for the US alone, mostly (and the english language Disney fandom in general, maybe). But if I tell you the most important italian Disney writers and artists grew up literally absorbing Barks' and Gottfredson's (and his writers) contribution to the Disney world, we are talking of people which grew up between 1930s and 1950s, and ended up collecting the heritage of these masters. It’s clear that Kelly’s contribution to Disney is very important, but it did not represent the core of his work, while for Barks it did.

I don’t know – I never realized Kelly had been a Disney artist until recently. Of course, I knew Kelly by fame, but never made the association, and now that I look at his Disney work, it’s graphically delicious, but Barks refined and defined the whole Duck part of the Disney band, a thing that Kelly can’t compare to.

Not only that. Pogo and his "universe" represent a single-handed creation. Walt Disney’s vision informed generation of readers, and authors. The majority of our first generation Disney writers and artists (born in the 1910s and 1920s) were influenced by Barks and Gottfredson’s foundational work on the Disney comics, as well as the feature films, and all that made up Walt’s vision, up to the point the italian Disney production de facto took up where Barks left. We have had an inimaginable amount of classic stories since the 1950s which have been published in almost every country, but in the USA the Disney company realized too late that he neglected Disney comics for too long. The leading Disney title here, Topolino, just reached #3000, and it’s still the best selling comic for kids (and almost the only one).

Please don’t use that horrible word "franchise", it’s a recent concept, at least in this acception, and has nothing to do with Walt Disney’s vision. Commercial, OK, because of course he wished to sell what he did, but it’s not like it’s conceived now.

I would love to add a Star Spangled #7! I've always thought Guardian was one of the more underrated characters of the GA, and I've always been intrigued by the Newsboy Legion & Suicide Slums as a reflection of Kirby's own adolescence. They were, and he always confirmed that in the interviews. Love this thread – my entry point to the GA has been because I started a research/collection on italian comics of the same period that are very meaningful and important, and then I happened to stumble in an early Daredevil Comics issue on eBay. I was always intrigued by Biro’s Daredevil, but knowing the cost of GA books never thought seriously to go after anything, until I saw how many in recent years popped up on eBay, even at nice prices. The only problem, after two years since I started picking GA books, is that this rekindled the interest in my research on the Marvel age, and you can’t spend simultaneously on both, as I am learning at my expenses… For the very same reasons, I haven’t picked anything Timely yet…

What’s this Richie Rich thing? Must be something Canadian…

Because Walt Kelly’s primary work was not Disney’s, I guess. Barks' stories are inserted in the larger scope of Disney’s vision, and thus have become known and loved on a popular level worldwide, while Kelly’s art and storytelling is appreciated more by those who have a little more specific knowledge of the comics' history.

…and most importantly: First Umar.

Do you have a focus on specific titles? It’s even harder when you aren’t interested in specific titles, but more in Marvel as a whole…

Pictures are great, but I love reading your critical commentary – please nurture it.

I just received my first purchase from Bob: some Avengers, Tales to Astonish and Tales of Suspense from his last sales thread. Tight grading, great prices, and the package was superlative. Not to mention his communication, which was great! Thank you very much, sir! Looking forward to buy more! (thumbs u

That looks like the cover to MOKF #59. Thanks! (thumbs u Agree on the speculators analisis. That is offputting…

Do you know which issue of Shang-Chi corresponds to that? I’m not an expert of Shang-Chi, I have just a bunch of italians and never read them. (I know I must pick up, but eventually I’ll buy some original books – the B/W is nice anyway).

Just noticed that: love it! – Odysseia 2001 – no title is better suited for Greek transliteration! "Airon Man" is also a nice bonus… "Avengers" and "Hulk" are probably translated, as the sound does not make sense in english… Hey, I need a greek FF #1…

that was the most vile piece of trash to ever grace a Marvel comic - i pretty much gave up on the entire line after that travesty (thumbs u And to kimik I’d say it has nothing to do with "fanboys" – I am not a "fanboy", let alone of Spidey, but such things just don’t make sense. And Ennis' disputable taste satire (not only in Preacher) can be appreciated just if you know american recent history and "culture", and has nothing substantially enjoyable, let alone uplifting. Even one appreciating satire just laughs here and there. Not "artistic" by any means.

I wanted a laugh, so I just looked at the census. Not exactly rare in higher grades. Neither is Hulk #181. What's your point? Wolverine is a slightly more popular character than Iron Fist, but who knows, maybe he will launch into stardom and kids will dress up like him for Halloween next year. It is surely less known internationally. Wolverine became popular in Italy just in the 1990s, as most of the previous material was left unpublished (we did not have a publisher from 1984 to 1987), and Iron Fist was just partially published in the Shang Chi magazine here, so a lot less popular than Wolverine mostly for that reason. For example, the first apperance of Sabretooth in Italy is published within the pages of this book (in black and white, as all the Shang Chi series was B/W):