Romano Scarpa

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Romano Scarpa (* 27. September 1927 in Venice ; † 23. April 2005 in Málaga ) was one of the most famous Italian artist of Disney - Comics .

Life

In his youth in Venice he developed a particular love for American cartoons and Disney comics, which at the time appeared in the large-format Topolino Giornale , which at the time printed the classic stories of Floyd Gottfredson . In the 1940s, Scarpa opened an animation studio in Venice, where he did some of his best work: some commercials, a short film called "E poi venne il diluvio". Another high-quality short film called "La piccola fiammiferaia" (1953, based on Hans Christian Andersen's Das Mädchen mit der Schwefelhölzchen ) was shown in Italy with Robert Aldrich's Attack (1956).

Shortly thereafter, he stopped making cartoons for a while and was solely engaged in drawing Disney comics. When the Italian editors ran out of Gottfredson stories to reprint in 1956, Scarpa was commissioned to continue his Mickey Mouse stories. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he was also influenced by Carl Barks and wrote some of the most famous comic masterpieces of all time: stories like Mickey Mouse and the Mohawk Chain (Topolino e la collana Chirikawa, 1960) or The Flying Scotsman (Paperino e la leggenda dello "scozzese volante", 1957), which were later translated into many different languages ​​and published all over the world. Many of these stories were inspired by movies.

For example, a cry for help from Shangrila (Topolino nel favoloso regno di Shan-Grillà, 1961) is based on Frank Capra's In the Fetters of Shangri-La (OT: Lost Horizon (1937)); Not to mention the stories with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which are of course based on the 1937 Disney film of the same name . Sometimes the exact opposite happened: The Italian film "Riusciranno i nostri eroi a ritrovare l'amico misteriosamente scomparso in Africa?" (1968) is based on Scarpa's story A Distant Relative (Topolino e il Pippotarzan (1957)).

Around 1963 , Scarpa took time out and practically stopped writing stories for six to seven years. However, he continued to draw stories written by other authors, but most of them did not achieve the same quality as his own. An exception to this is the long saga Glanz und Gloria der von Duck (Storia e Gloria della Dinastia dei Paperi), which was written by Guido Martina and drawn by Scarpa and Giovan Battista Carpi . He returned to writing in the 1970s, which he did until his death. However, at the end of his life he moved to Spain and worked there for another publishing house. His recent work in Italy (late 1980s, early 1990s) was one of the so-called Paperolimpiadi (a long story about the Olympic Games in Seoul ) and some excellent short stories; the same kind of stories he'd loved so much as a kid. One of these stories, Topolino e l'enigma di Brigaboom (1989) was based in part on the musical adaptation of Brigadoon (1954).

On the side, Scarpa had also done a few cartoon projects. These include Aihnoo degli Icebergs (1972), The Fourth King (1977) and the television series The Hunt for Kju Wang ( Sopra i tetti di Venezia , 2001).

Mostly, Scarpa has worked on Disney comics, but in the early days he also did some non-Disney projects. He made a Lupo and a Yogi Bear story. He also drew a few stories about Angelino , an Italian cartoon character.

Beginning in 1988, some of his stories were published by Gladstone Publishing in the USA ; he was the first Italian Disney writer ever to make his way back to America. When Disney Comics took the place of Gladstone, Scarpa stories were published here too, and the same happened in 2003 with Gemstone Publishing , which published its stories in America through 2006. The BOOM! Studios included stories by Scarpa in its program from 2009 to 2011.

Scarpa has helped many young artists on their way ( Giorgio Cavazzano was his ink draftsman in the 1960s) and many have tried to imitate his style.

During his career, Scarpa has created many Disney characters who are now widely accepted as part of the Disney universe. The best known of these creations are probably Gitta Gans , Kater Karlos girlfriend Trudi and Atömchen . He was also the author and illustrator of the cover story of the first funny paperback The Columbus Butterfly and has contributed many stories over the years.

German publication

  • The super parrot. In: Lustiges Taschenbuch No. 500: anniversary edition. Egmont Ehapa Media, Berlin 2017, pp. 4–32. (Created in 1962 by Abramo and Giampaolo Barosso (story) and Romano Scarpa (drawings))

literature

  • Romano Scarpa by Kurt Appel, in Der Donaldist No. 100, 1997.
  • Romano Scarpa - Un cartoonist italiano tra animazione e fumetti , by Luca Boschi, Leonardo Gori and Andrea Sani. Alessandro distribuzioni, 1988; 163 pages. Contains an interview and the first Scarpa index by Alberto Becattini (Italian);
  • Romano Scarpa - Sognando la Calidornia by Luca Boschi, Leonardo Gori, Andrea Sani and Alberto Becattini. Vittorio Pavesio productions, 2001 (Italian);
  • I Disney Italiani by Luca Boschi, Leonardo Gori and Andrea Sani. Granata Press, 1990. A book about Italian Disney writers; Chapter 6 is entirely devoted to Scarpa (Italian).
  • Hall of Fame: Volume 3 - Romano Scarpa , published in 2004 in the Ehapa Comic Collection, ISBN 3-7704-0682-6
  • NN: Portrait of a draftsman, part 7: Romano Scarpa (1927-2005) , in: The greatest stories by Donald Duck , issue 218. Egmont Ehapa, Berlin 2005, p. 52

Web links