Good Monday morning my friends. I hope all is well on your side of town. To my friends on the East Coast, take care and I hope the hurricane loses steam quickly. Last week I was talking about how fans in the US were finding it harder to relate to the Disney mascot characters. Certainly the fans knew who they were and were familiar with their body of work, however they were also aware that they had not appeared in a new comic or cartoon in quite a long time. The most recognizable characters; Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goofy and Pluto appeared regularly on a show targeted for toddlers in the US. The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse held little interest to the older fans. Worse yet, the programming on the Disney and Disney XD channels did not feature any of the mascot cartoons either. When the Topolino comics overseas wanted to broaden their appeal they would introduce a new arc that made use of a bold storyline and was complimented with some fantastic art. One of the more recent entries fits in perfectly on Halloween week.
Dracula di Bram Topker was a retelling of the Dracula story by Bram Stoker. In this version the main players were all replaced by Disney characters. Mickey is playing Jonathan Ratker instead of Jonathan Harker. Instead of Professor Abraham Helsing the vampire hunter was played by Pippo Van Helsing (Pippo is the name of Goofy in Italy). Dracula was played by the Phantom Blot.
The writer, color artist team of Bruno Enna and Fabio Celoni did a fantastic version of the horror classic. The veteran artists did an amazing job at creating a gothic comic book style out of cartoon characters that would have made Mike Mignola (of Hellboy fame) proud.
The art was dazzling. The Italian cartoonists had been mentored by the Disney Academy. It is an art school set up by their publishing parents.
Those familiar with the story would find it kind of macabre yet interesting that Minnie Mouse and Clarabell Cow take on the roles of Mina and Lucy.
The violence was more implied than shown, same with the scares, even with that said it is doubtful that the story may ever be localized in the US given the subject matter.
It is truly a shame that more people in the US never get to see these comics. They have no idea how great the Disney comics and characters could be.
The friends and rivals to Mickey truly shine when creators are allowed to place them in wonderful stories. Month to month the readers of Topolino are reminded why Mickey is not only a friendly face but also synonymous with courage, loyalty and bravery. In the US that realization is slowly happening. Warren Spector and the group at Junction Point are steadily making Disney take notice of who Mickey is and what Mickey could be when faced with adversity. We'll look a little closer at the roots of Epic Mickey in the next blog. Until then see if you can track down a comic book shop that carries the recent comics by Boom Studios as well as the hardcover reprints of classic Disney stories by Fantagraphics. If you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!
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