The stormtroopers
The stormtroopers - So was Papis Wehrmacht / Grandpa's Wehrmacht (original title: Storm Troopers ) is a satirical Italian anti-war - comic strip series. It was drawn by Bonvi ( Franco Bonvicini ).
content
The subject of the strips are fictional units of the German Wehrmacht who fight against a very seldom appeared enemy on the scenes of the Second World War . The stories are given anachronisms. So the emperor is occasionally mentioned - an indication that the series illustrates the futility of both world wars. Above all, everyday worries such as sexual abstinence, relationships of authority, food supply, the daily struggle for survival as well as the meaning and purpose of war are discussed. The series caricatures the absurdity of bureaucracy similar to Joseph Heller's Catch-22 or Robert Altman's M * A * S * H . Bonvi lets the soldiers speak a Germanized Italian by adding the ending "en" to every second word and adding many hard consonants to the soft Italian (e.g. "Q" s with "K" s and "V" s with "F" s).
The comic series was also available in German for a long time.
Recurring characters
- "Schussolini" (originally Il fiero alleaten Galeazzo Musolesi ) is an Italian ally who is often associated with the Mafia and does anything for money, be it selling heroin to the captain or playing poker with death. He is insidious, vengeful, and money minded.
- "The Bold Ally" is a Japanese kamikaze pilot who only appears in later comics. He is known for his outbursts of anger.
- The sergeant "Hans" is a sergeant who is sadistic, vicious, but also very stupid. He therefore loves to torment soldiers, for example with the order to stand at attention in the middle of a firefight. In return, he is all too easily fooled, especially by Schussolini. In the comic, he is shown with the badge of a corporal.
- The "cook" is equally hated by everyone for the bad food he prepares. He himself is very calm and calmly accepts the insults that come his way.
- The "veterans". Two veterans appear less often in the comics, who are the only ones able to get back at the sergeant for what he does to normal soldiers.
- The "captain" is fearful, sly and, like the sergeant, easily fooled. He tries everything to appear brave. He tries to do this primarily by sending men into hopeless fights.
- The "first lieutenant" is portrayed as a very young man who has no experience of war and shows strong infantile features; For example, he asks the sergeant to hold his hand in the dark, otherwise he will get scared.
Release history
The first comics were published in 1968 in four-picture format. They appeared mainly in colored scrapbooks and in black and white paperbacks.
A German version was published by ConPart Verlag . The earlier German comic editions had the subtitle So was Papis Wehrmacht , the newer ones read Grandpa's Wehrmacht . The production of the comics was stopped at the end of 2006 with the second special volume The Storm Troopers Say: Bye Bye .
There are two film adaptations, Sturmtruppen from 1976 and Sturmtruppen II from 1982, which were made under the direction of Salvatore Samperi . In 1992 a computer game adaptation for the Amiga 500 appeared .
literature
- Alfredo Castelli: Storm Troopers. Il fumetto contro la guerra. In: Enciclopedia dei ragazzi , Rome 2006 ( digitized at treccani.it )