Romano Scarpa was an Italian artist, who was one of the most famous creators of Disney comics.
Besides his comic book work, Scarpa also worked as an animator. For Disney, he notably did an animation test for the 1987-1990 hit series DuckTales,[1] and animated Uncle Scrooge, Donald Duck, and numerous other Disney comic characters for the intro to the Topolino Show, an Italian children's game show from the early 1980s.[2]
Biography[]
Growing up in Venice, he developed a particular love for American cartoons and Disney comics, that, at the time, were published in the big format of the Topolino Giornale which was then printing now-classic Floyd Gottfredson's stories. In the Forties, he opened an Animation Studio in Venice in which he produced his first works: some commercials, a short titled E poi venne il diluvio and another one titled La piccola fiammiferaia (1953, based on Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Match Girl), distributed in Italy together with Robert Aldrich's Attack! (1956).
Right after that he stopped working in animation for a while and dedicated wholly to creating Disney comics. When in 1956 Italian editors had no more new Floyd Gottfredson's stories to reprint, he was given the responsibility to continue Gottfredson's stories about Mickey Mouse. Also influenced by Carl Barks in the late Fifties and up to about 1963 he wrote and penciled stories, like Topolino e la collana Chirikawa (1960) or The Flying Scot (1957) that have, later, been translated in many different languages throughout the world. Many of these stories have their backgrounds in movies, for example Topolino nel favoloso regno di Shan Grillà (1961) is based upon Frank Capra's Lost Horizon (1937); not to talk about all the stories starring Snow White or the Seven Dwarfs, obviously based on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Sometimes the exact opposite happened; the Italian movie Riusciranno i nostri eroi a ritrovare l'amico misteriosamente scomparso in Africa? (1968) is based on Scarpa's story Topolino e il Pippotarzan (1957).
Around 1963, Scarpa stopped writing for 6 or 7 years. In the seventies, he moved to Spain and started working for a different publisher. Among the last things he made, while he was still in Italy, at the end of the Eighties and at beginning of the Nineties, there are the so-called Paperolimpiadi (a long story about the 1988 Seoul Olympic games) and some strip stories, the same kind of stories that he loved when he was a child. One of these, Topolino e l'enigma di Brigaboom (1989) was partially based on Brigadoon (1954).
In the meanwhile he has had time enough for some more animation, so we have Aihnoo degli Icebergs (1972), The Fourth King (1977), and a new TV series The Adventures of Marco and Gina (Sopra i tetti di Venezia) (2001).
Mainly Scarpa worked on Disney comics, but many years ago he used to do something non-Disney once in a while, so he did one (Rolf Kauka's) Lupo story and one (Hannah and Barbera's) Yogi Bear story. In the 1950s he also drew some Angelino story and Italian character.
Since 1988 some of his comic stories have been published in the USA by Gladstone Publishing; it was the first time that this happened to an Italian Disney author. Later, when Disney Comics took Gladstone's place, they published some more of his stories, and in 2003, the same happened with Gemstone Publishing, which is publishing his stories in the US at the moment.
He has influenced many younger creators (Giorgio Cavazzano was his inker during the Sixties) and many have attempted to imitate his style.
Disney characters created by Romano Scarpa[]
In his career, Scarpa created many Disney characters that have since become iconic and regular characters in the Disney comics. Those included, but are not limited to:
- Brigitta MacBridge, Scrooge McDuck's self-appointed girlfriend with whom she shares a love/hate relationship;
- Ellroy (Italian: Bruto), Ellsworth's adopted son;
- Dickie Duck (Italian: Paperetta Yeye), a dynamic female teenage-duck which was introduced as the granddaughter of "Glittering" Goldie O'Gilt;
- Gideon McDuck (Italian: Gedeone de' Paperoni), a newspaper editor and Scrooge's brother;
- Jubal Pomp (Italian: Filo Sganga), an unlucky wanna-be businessman always trying to imitate Scrooge and failing miserably;
- Kildare Coot (Italian: Sgrizzo Papero), a crazy cousin of Donald Duck's;
- Portis (Italian: Plottigat), Black Pete's cousin, a genius of crime;
- Trudy Van Tubb, Black Pete's mate and accomplice in crime.
Index of comics books published in the USA[]
This is an incomplete index of Romano Scarpa comics published in USA. Only Duck universe and Mouse universe are listed. Chip and Dale comics are not listed.
| Hero | Title | Publications (United States) | Year | Pages | Trivia |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mickey Mouse | "The Blot's Double Mystery" | Mickey and Donald #6 | 1988 | 76 | Serialized in volumes 7 and 8 |
| Donald Duck | "Amundsen's Talisman" | Donald Duck #279 | 1990 | 33 | |
| Uncle Scrooge | "The McDuck Foundation" | Uncle Scrooge #241 | 1990 | 25 | |
| Uncle Scrooge | "The last Balaboo" | Uncle Scrooge #242 | 1990 | 35 | Brigitta MacBridge's first appearance |
| Mickey Mouse | "Kali's Nail" | Mickey Mouse #254 | 1990 | 50 | serialized in volume 255 |
| Mickey Mouse | "The Mystery of Tapiocus VI" | Mickey Mouse #256 | 1990 | 53 | |
| Mickey and Goofy | "TV Troubles" | Mickey Mouse Adventures #16 | 1991 | 9 | Reprinted in Disney's Colossal Comics Collection 7 |
| Huey, Dewey, and Louie | "Delay of the Land" | Donald Duck Adventures #22 | 1992 | 10 | Published as Donald story |
| Uncle Scrooge | "The Euro Disneyland Adventure" | Disney's Colossal Comics Collection 9 | 1993 | 44 | Done for France |
| Uncle Scrooge | "The Man from Oola-Oola" | Uncle Scrooge Adventures #28–29 | 1994 | 37 | |
| Uncle Scrooge | "The Lentils from Babylon" | Uncle Scrooge Adventures #30 | 1995 | 71 | Serialized in volumes 31 and 32 |
| Uncle Scrooge | "Colossus of the Nile" | Uncle Scrooge Adventures #37–38 | 1996 | 45 | |
| Uncle Scrooge | "The Flying Scot" | Uncle Scrooge #315–316 | 1998 | 49 | |
| Uncle Scrooge | "The Big Break-in" | Uncle Scrooge #320 | 2003 | 15 | |
| Uncle Scrooge | "One Million Chase" | Uncle Scrooge #322 | 2003 | 13 | |
| Mickey Mouse | "It's a Wonderful Christmas Story" | Christmas Parade #3 | 2005 | 14 | |
| Uncle Scrooge | "Around the World in Eighty Daze" | Uncle Scrooge #341 | 2005 | 17 | |
| Uncle Scrooge | "The Secret of Success" | Uncle Scrooge #338 | 2005 | 33 | |
| Uncle Scrooge | "Antidollarosis" | Uncle Scrooge #351 | 2006 | 25 | |
| Pluto and Ellsworth | "Foxy Hunters" | Mickey Mouse Adventures #10 | 2006 | 5 | |
| Uncle Scrooge | "Being Good For Goodness Sake" | Uncle Scrooge #360 | 2006 | 30 | |
| Mickey Mouse | "The Delta Dimension" | Mickey Mouse Adventures #11 | 2006 | 72 | |
| Mickey Mouse | "The Incredible Black Comet" | Mickey Mouse #292 | 2006 | 29 | |
| Uncle Scrooge | "The Dollar Stalactite" | Uncle Scrooge #362 | 2007 | 14 | |
| Goofy | "The Great Gawrsh-Durn Champion" | WDC&S #681 | 2007 | 32 | |
| Mickey Mouse | "Memoirs Of An Invisible Santa" | Christmas Parade #5 | 2008 | 29 | |
| Mickey Mouse | "The Sacred Spring of Seasons Past" | WDC&S #697-8 | 2008 | 59 | |
| Uncle Scrooge | "Last Hero of Banania" | Uncle Scrooge #373 | 2008 | 20 | |
| Uncle Scrooge | "The Easter Eggs-Port" | Uncle Scrooge #376 | 2008 | 21 | |
| Uncle Scrooge | "Taking the Plunge" | Uncle Scrooge #378 | 2008 | 29 | |
| Daisy Duck | "Witness Persecution" | Walt Disney Treasures #2 | 2008 | 18 | |
| Uncle Scrooge | "Lights Fantastic" | Valentine Classics #1 | 2010 | 32 | |
| Mickey Mouse | "Lost In the Microcosmos" | Mickey Mouse Classics #1 | 2010 | 33 | |
| Mickey Mouse | "The Treasure of Marco Topo" | Mickey Mouse and Friends #309 (Part 1); Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #720 (Part 2) | 2011 | 44 | |
| The following stories were originally produced for Egmont. | |||||
| Uncle Scrooge | "One With the Wind" | Uncle Scrooge #333 | 2004 | 13 | |
| Uncle Scrooge | "Security" | Uncle Scrooge #343 | 2005 | 12 | |
| Uncle Scrooge | "All You Need is Love" | Uncle Scrooge #344 | 2005 | 13 | |
| Uncle Scrooge | "The Funny Carrots" | Uncle Scrooge #346 | 2005 | 16 | |
| Mickey Mouse | "History Re-Petes Itself" | Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #654 | 2005 | 12 | |
| Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck | "The Keeper of Babylon Gardens" | Uncle Scrooge #359 | 2006 | 12 | |
| Mickey Mouse | "The Transmutant Gifts" | Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #685 | 2007 | 16 | |
| Mickey Mouse | "A Quiet Day at the Beach" | Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #691 | 2008 | 10 | |
| Goofy | "Don't Worry About It" | Mickey Mouse #304 | 2011 | 10 | |
References[]
- Romano Scarpa – Un cartoonist italiano tra animazione e fumetti, by Luca Boschi, Leonardo Gori, and Andrea Sani. Alessandro distribuzioni, 1988.
- Romano Scarpa – Sognando la Calidornia by Luca Boschi, Leonardo Gori, Andrea Sani, and Alberto Becattini. Vittorio Pavesio productions, 2001 (in Italian);
- I Disney Italiani by Luca Boschi, Leonardo Gori, and Andrea Sani. Granata Press, 1990.
External links[]
- Romano Scarpa at the INDUCKS
- The Last Balaboo, site completely about Scarpa, with drawings, covers, sketches, indexes, biography, and much more (currently temporarily closed, but there's a message board available for anyone willing to share their feelings about the loss, the messages will be collected and sent to Scarpa's family);
- Frank Stajano's page on Scarpa, with a detailed analysis of the different Scarpa's art's periods.
 |
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia page Romano Scarpa. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. Text from Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. |