a (linguistically impaired) review: Topolino #2975 (Dec. 4th, 2012) -- Part One

What better way to relax the pressure on myself in writing my first post in months by reviewing a comic book that I can't even read?

As we all know, Topolino's a really big thing in Italy. Big enough that not only does a new issue comes out every week, but each one is comprised of approximately 150 pages of original Duck and Mouse comic book content.

Here's the cover of the most recent issue in my possession, #2975, released 10 days ago (according to Inducks):

The cover art represents this issue's lead story, which I guess is called "Brutfagor". Not the sepia motif -- it's used in every panel of the respective story, which is set in Paris in the 1920's (at least, I think that "anni 20" means the 1920's...), deliberate establishing an "antique"/"retro" context. Now, while the protagonist is recognizable to unprivileged Americans such as ourselves as Donald Duck, and if we've read the Ultra-Heroes issue of the BOOM! run of Walt Disney's Comics and Stories, we'd be confident in identifying said protagonist as being, more specifically, Donald in his Duck Avenger guise ... and given that this is obviously a period piece, we'd think it a safe bet that this is a time travel story. How naive we are! The protagonist is actually someone known as "Fantomius" ... whom ... er, I guess ... is an antecedent of Donald/Duck Avenger ... or something. (And I'm actually pretty iffy as to if the heroine is supposed to be the equivalent of Daisy or not ... and I'm just gonna leave the matter alone ...)

Anyway, the story's hook involves an ominous, black-clad figure that appears every night (or at least with some regularity...) in a Parisian museum every night, freaking out the security guards. So, Donald and Daisy Fantomius and whoever-this-chick-is become proactive and hide out in the museum at night, exposing the ominous black-clad figure as having all along been the dorky antiques dealer across the street who had access to the underground tunnels between his shop and the museum. Er, it seems like, if you weren't trying to decode what's going on, this would be a really spooky, suspenseful, fast-paced, action-packed story.

Next up is an Uncle Scrooge story, "E L'Avventura Nella Giungala Oscura". Scrooge drags Donald and the nephews (I never say "Huey, Dewey, and Louie" ... if you don't know who I mean when I say "the nephews", you're reading the wrong blog...) into the wetlands of Ecuador, in pursuit of some sort of ancient/historical relic/treasure ... hey, I like this premise! And this cast! For some inexplicable reason, I'm really down with both! Now, despite the standardized Duck adventure trappings, writer Carlo Panaro has devised a succession of original conflicts and plot twists. Coupled with Ottavio Panor's (brothers?) exaggerated, squash-and-stretchy, in-your-face art, the story is dynamic, spirited, and fun ... and just original enough for the seasoned Duck adventure reader. (...now, if only I actually knew exactly what it was about, what's going on, and what the characters are saying!)

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There's a few more stories in this issue yet ... to be continued!