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Post by zaku on Oct 21, 2023 17:05:15 GMT -5
Wow, I never knew that there were Italian Marvel comics, i.e., set in the Marvel Universe's Italy, kind of like what Marvel UK was doing in the '80s/'90s. Too bad that apparently didn't catch on and become more successful. Well, at least Marvel UK did something original and interesting. "Europa" was yet another clone of 90s comics. It wasn't enough that the stories were set in Milan or that the characters were Italian to make it stand out in any way. Here are some random pages: as usual, half-naked women and grinning faces
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Post by EdoBosnar on Oct 22, 2023 2:51:28 GMT -5
Well, at least Marvel UK did something original and interesting. "Europa" was yet another clone of 90s comics. It wasn't enough that the stories were set in Milan or that the characters were Italian to make it stand out in any way. Here are some random pages: as usual, half-naked women and grinning faces (...) Yeah, just based on those covers you posted, I figured the problem may have had something to do with the art. That's too bad, though, seems like a real missed opportunity.
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Post by zaku on Oct 22, 2023 4:03:51 GMT -5
Well, at least Marvel UK did something original and interesting. "Europa" was yet another clone of 90s comics. It wasn't enough that the stories were set in Milan or that the characters were Italian to make it stand out in any way. Here are some random pages: as usual, half-naked women and grinning faces (...) Yeah, just based on those covers you posted, I figured the problem may have had something to do with the art. That's too bad, though, seems like a real missed opportunity. Even the stories weren't that good. Just another knockoff of the usual Image-style stories, the only differences the settings and the fact the characters were named "Lucia" or "Marco". At the time the stories weren't nothing special, read today are just embarrassing.
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Post by zaku on Oct 22, 2023 16:54:52 GMT -5
This actually made me think about a further similarity between westerns and superheroes. When Italians started making westerns, after some mediocre clones of American films they managed to distinguish themselves with an innovative style, giving birth to the spaghetti western. They used the same semantics (cowboys, duels, sheriffs, the wild west etc) but with a different syntax (the anti-hero, western as social criticism etc etc). Eventually even the American western itself took cues from the Italian western. This has never been the case for the superhero genre. We (clumsily) copied the syntax and semantics of the genre, but unfortunately we were never able to distinguish ourselves. Simply the US/UK authors are in a different league. If we simply start mimicking them we will always lose in the comparison.
But why have we never managed to find a credible Italian path in the superhero genre? I'll talk about it in the next post!
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Post by tomalakis on Oct 26, 2023 3:50:39 GMT -5
Wow, what a wonderful art! Is that the same artist? I especially love the pointillistic one. Is the whole comic in that style?
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Post by zaku on Oct 26, 2023 5:43:20 GMT -5
Wow, what a wonderful art! Is that the same artist? I especially love the pointillistic one. Is the whole comic in that style? Yep! The same artist! He used a lot of styles in his stories. You can find all of them in this collection
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Post by zaku on Oct 26, 2023 17:44:17 GMT -5
The following are my opinions, but I hope they make enough sense! One of the questions that has been asked here is why there haven't been many stories (practically none of note honestly) about superheroes created by Italians and set in Italy. Obviously if we have to write a Western story about a marshal who chases a horse thief, befriends a Native American and ends with a duel in a dusty town in the middle of the desert, we certainly can't set it in Germany or Switzerland. But apparently the essence of the superhero myth (someone who finds himself with extraordinary abilities, decides to don a costume and fight evil) does not seem to be anchored in a particular geographical location. So what? So, I'll cite myself
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Post by codystarbuck on Oct 26, 2023 21:01:39 GMT -5
The following are my opinions, but I hope they make enough sense! One of the questions that has been asked here is why there haven't been many stories (practically none of note honestly) about superheroes created by Italians and set in Italy. Obviously if we have to write a Western story about a marshal who chases a horse thief, befriends a Native American and ends with a duel in a dusty town in the middle of the desert, we certainly can't set it in Germany or Switzerland. But apparently the essence of the superhero myth (someone who finds himself with extraordinary abilities, decides to don a costume and fight evil) does not seem to be anchored in a particular geographical location. So what? So, I'll cite myself Now, see, American thugs would just see these guys and say, "Thanks for giving me a weapon to use against you!" and just strangle them, with their own nooses (while punching them in the face, for good measure). I prefer my Italian criminals to drive E type Jaguars and have hidden underground lairs, where they make love to their girlfriends, on a pile of money....
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Post by berkley on Oct 27, 2023 4:03:57 GMT -5
I've been looking at the thread and not commenting, only because I'm so ignorant of Italian comics and had nothing substantial to contribute. But I'll be looking for de Luca's Commissario. Thanks so much for opening this window into a world of comics I wouldn't have been aware of without this thread.
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Post by zaku on Oct 27, 2023 4:43:22 GMT -5
The following are my opinions, but I hope they make enough sense! One of the questions that has been asked here is why there haven't been many stories (practically none of note honestly) about superheroes created by Italians and set in Italy. Obviously if we have to write a Western story about a marshal who chases a horse thief, befriends a Native American and ends with a duel in a dusty town in the middle of the desert, we certainly can't set it in Germany or Switzerland. But apparently the essence of the superhero myth (someone who finds himself with extraordinary abilities, decides to don a costume and fight evil) does not seem to be anchored in a particular geographical location. So what? So, I'll cite myself Now, see, American thugs would just see these guys and say, "Thanks for giving me a weapon to use against you!" and just strangle them, with their own nooses (while punching them in the face, for good measure). I prefer my Italian criminals to drive E type Jaguars and have hidden underground lairs, where they make love to their girlfriends, on a pile of money.... Have you by any chance seen the new movie adaptation?
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Post by zaku on Oct 27, 2023 4:52:52 GMT -5
I've been looking at the thread and not commenting, only because I'm so ignorant of Italian comics and had nothing substantial to contribute. But I'll be looking for de Luca's Commissario. Thanks so much for opening this window into a world of comics I wouldn't have been aware of without this thread. I don't know if I can put Amazon link there (in this case please delete/modify this post) but they have the collection with all the stories (in Italian) www.amazon.com/COMMISSARIO-SPADA-GLI-ANNI/dp/8804680954(there is the Kindle edition too). You can even find the scans of some stories on the net and translate them with Google lens, it does a good job at it!
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Post by EdoBosnar on Oct 27, 2023 7:14:41 GMT -5
There's something to what you posited about the possibility of superheroes set outside of the US implying some kind of politically charged message. Here in Croatia, even though, say, the American superheroes do have their fans among the comics-reading public, there are hardly any "home-grown" superheroes. One of the more notable attempts happened in the very politically-charged wartime year of 1992, called "Super Hrvoje".
His body turned to stone by the use of some kind of magic talisman or something similar, and like Captain America back in the 1940s, fought on the frontlines of the war. It didn't gain much traction so only a single issue was ever published (now kind of a valuable rarity). I think part of the problem was that the local audience was not very receptive to the concept. The only other locally produced superhero-type comics that have some limited popularity here are satirical, like, for example, probably the best known, Lavanderman: He derives his power from lavender plants and fights against mosquitoes and moths, as well as insomnia, headaches and dizziness, and during the summer beds, er, rescues tourist women from Germany, Italy, Slovenia, Hungary, etc. Some time in 2010, a mockumentary was even made about him:
(That trailer is pretty funny, because among other things they got several foreign tourists, including some Italians and even a Russian woman, to say what they think about Lavanderman.)
However, this is very much a niche thing even among comics readers over here; most of the dialog is written in the dialect they speak on the coast, and the humor is very much 'local' as well - i.e., often you really have to understand a lot about the local people and culture to get it (in other words, it would be very hard to translate this into another language and manage to properly convey the humor). Also, it's not a regular publication: since 2008, only ten issues have been published, ranging from about 30 to 80 pages, basically sort of occasional special editions.
Anyway, apologies for the digression/threadjack.
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