Sometimes I forget that Disney comics are not just an American thing, but have been thriving in Italy since 1932, specifically via Topolino magazine and associated publications. Interestingly, the output has not been solely Italian nor American, but evidently a mix of original content from both nation’s creators.
Here’s the published cover above, with thanks to t/dirtyriver for the find:
In recent years France’s Glénat publishing house has joined the fun, but has been tending to go in more gonzo directions, not unlike various creators doing guest shots on Lucky Luke.
They have been a huge thing in Germany too for decades now, called Lustige Taschenbücher aka LTB. I had a nice collection as a kid but it somehow got lost when I moved from Austria to Germany once more, just as my Asterix and Lucky Luke collections T_T
Oh, shizzle-snap! oO
Tragically, the same thing happened to my BD and Love & Rockets collections when I was unable to work and had to leave a group house I was living in at the time (mid 90’s). Naturally I meant to go back and get those, but life was too topsy-turvy for me, so it never happened. Part of why 99% of my comics collections are now digital, which does have the handy side-effect of making it easy to post high-quality excerpts here.
It’s crazy how much personal stuff people loose during their lives, when moving or just borrowing them away and not getting them back. I like to imagine that there is a hidden subspace bubble somewhere in the time space continuum (like that weird floating house in the third season of Twin Peaks, just less scary), where all these lost things end up, neatly organized on shelves, sorted by former owner, year of production, cause of loss and so on, in an eternally existing kind of museum, ran by a species whose culture revolves around lost stuff that had significant personal value to it’s former owner, because they are fascinated by emotional bonds and especially love for inanimate objects, which they perceive and (thanks to their unique cerebral structure) also receive, as the purest form of psycho-emotional energy in the universe.
Damn, I wish Jean Giraud was still alive and could make a comic based on this idea :)
Haha, that’s great.
Or at least a living creator who could do a nice job with the idea, eh? Actually in one of the “Hilda” books (which I briefly reviewed a year+ ago), there’s kind of a parallel concept, in which a gremlin inhabits the main character’s house, living in a subspace filled with stolen items. The subspace also connects with other houses and places around the village, but individually the gremlins are harshly territorial and protective so that the others don’t intrude on their home turf. It’s very clever and funny, so I’m thinking maybe you might like it. Let me know if you want me to track down the specific book.