When I was young and even more foolish than I am now, one of my Italian lecturers at university suggested that, as an occasional change from Dante and co., we read the weekly Topolino [Mickey Mouse] comics that are so popular in Italy. They were, and are, enormous fun and I've always thought one of the best parts is the retention of onomatopoeic words such as "bang, crash, thud, gulp" in English. The comics are still selling like hot cakes here and long may they continue to do so.
Every now and then there is an edition based on a parody and this week sees the arrival of Topalbano, a parody, of course, of Andrea Camilleri's famous Sicilian detective, Inspector Montalbano, in a deluxe edition. [Topo = mouse.] Unlike most parodied characters, Salvo Montalbano is not drawn as Topolino, but has his own mouse likeness, because the editors wanted to keep the well-known identities of both characters in the two stories in the edition.
What does Andrea Camilleri think? He is delighted and said that seeing a preview of the comic in Catania was "better than getting the Nobel Prize" [for which he has been nominated].
Copies don't seem to have reached newsstands in Modica yet but you can see a picture here.
This is the cover of one of the first Topolino comics I read, dated 17th August 1969. [Yes, I still have them all!]
2 comments:
Not quite as sexy as Salvo though!
Hi, Liz. No, I don't think Luca Zingaretti's got anything to worry about just yet!
Post a Comment