Romano Scarpa (27 September 1927 – 23 April 2005) was one of the most famous Italian creators of Disney comics.

Romano Scarpa
Romano Scarpa at an Exposition in Rome in 2000.
Born(1927-09-27)27 September 1927
Venice, Italy
Died23 April 2005(2005-04-23) (aged 77)
Málaga, Spain
NationalityItalian
Area(s)Artist, Writer

Biography

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Growing up in Venice he developed a particular love for American cartoons and Disney comics, that, at the time, were published in the big format of the Topolino giornale which was then printing now classic Floyd Gottfredson's stories. In the 1940s he opened an Animation Studio in Venice in which he produced his first works: some commercials, a short titled E poi venne il diluvio and another one titled La piccola fiammiferaia (1953, based on Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Match Girl), distributed in Italy together with Robert Aldrich's Attack! (1956).

Right after that he stopped working in animation for a while and dedicated wholly to creating Disney comics. When in 1956 Italian editors had no more new Floyd Gottfredson's stories to reprint, he was given the responsibility to continue Gottfredson's stories about Mickey Mouse. Also influenced by Carl Barks in the late 1950s and up to about 1963 he wrote and penciled stories like Topolino e la collana Chirikawa (1960) or The Flying Scot (1957) that have, later, been translated in many different languages throughout the world. Many of these stories have their backgrounds in movies, for example Topolino nel favoloso regno di Shan Grillà (1961) is based upon Frank Capra's Lost Horizon (1937); not to talk about all the stories starring Snow White or the Seven Dwarfs, obviously based on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Sometimes the exact opposite happened; the Italian movie Riusciranno i nostri eroi a ritrovare l'amico misteriosamente scomparso in Africa? (1968) is based on Scarpa's story Topolino e il Pippotarzan (1957).

Around 1963, Scarpa stopped writing for 6 or 7 years. In the 1970s, he moved to Spain and started working for a different publisher. Among the last things he made while he was still in Italy, at the end of the 1980s and at beginning of the 1990s, there are the so-called Paperolimpiadi (a long story about the 1988 Seoul Olympic games) and some strip stories, the same kind of stories that he loved when he was a child. One of these, Topolino e l'enigma di Brigaboom (1989) was partially based on Brigadoon (1954).

In the meanwhile he has had time enough for some more animation, so we have Aihnoo degli Icebergs (1972), The Fourth King (1977) and a new TV series, The Adventures of Marco and Gina (Sopra i tetti di Venezia) (2001).

Scarpa mainly worked on Disney comics, but he was also able to work on non-Disney material once in a while, so he did one (Rolf Kauka's) Lupo story and one (Hannah and Barbera's) Yogi Bear story. In the 1950s he also drew some Angelino stories, and Italian character.

Since 1988 some of his comic stories have been published in the US by Gladstone Publishing; it was the first time that this happened to an Italian Disney author. Later, when Disney Comics took Gladstone's place; they published some more of his stories, and in 2003, the same happened with Gemstone Publishing, that is publishing his stories in the US at the moment.

He has influenced many younger creators (Giorgio Cavazzano was his inker during the Sixties) and many have attempted to imitate his style.

Disney characters created by Romano Scarpa

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In his career Scarpa created many Disney characters that are now accepted by some as part of the Disney Universe. Those include, but are not limited to:

Reprints

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In 2017 Fantagraphics Books published a collection containing four stories of Scarpa's Snow White comics, titled The Return of Snow-White and the Seven Dwarfs, ISBN 978-1-68396-075-1.

In 2018 Fantagraphics Books began publishing a hardcover series titled Disney Masters, in which Romano Scarpa has to date (October 2019) had three volumes dedicated to his Disney works.[1][2]

Index of comics books published in the United States

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This is an index of all Romano Scarpa comics published in the US. Only Duck universe and Mouse universe are listed. Chip and Dale comics are not listed.


Story code Hero Title Publications Year Pages Trivia
I TL 116-A Mickey Mouse "The Blot's Double Mystery" Mickey and Donald #6 1988 76 Serialized in volumes 7 and 8
I TL 135-A Donald Duck "Amundsen's Talisman" Donald Duck #279 1990 33
I AT 21-A Uncle Scrooge "The McDuck Foundation" Uncle Scrooge #241 1990 25
I TL 243-A Uncle Scrooge "The last Balaboo" Uncle Scrooge #242 1990 35 Brigitta MacBridge's first appearance
I TL 183-A Mickey Mouse "Kali's Nail" Mickey Mouse #254 1990 50 serialized in volume 255
I TL 142-A Mickey Mouse "The Mystery of Tapiocus VI" Mickey Mouse #256 1990 53
S 88227 Mickey and Goofy "TV Troubles" Mickey Mouse Adventures #16 1991 9 Reprinted in Disney's Colossal Comics Collection 7
S 86081 Huey Dewey and Louie "Delay of the Land" Donald Duck Adventures #22 1992 10 Published as Donald story
E GN 92-03 Uncle Scrooge "The Euro Disneyland Adventure" Disney's Colossal Comics Collection 9 1993 44 Done for France
I TL 216-B Uncle Scrooge "The Man from Oola-Oola" Uncle Scrooge Adventures #28–29 1994 37
I TL 250-A Uncle Scrooge "The Lentils from Babylon" Uncle Scrooge Adventures #30 1995 71 Serialized in volumes 31 and 32
I TL 292-A Uncle Scrooge "Colossus of the Nile" Uncle Scrooge Adventures #37–38 1996 45
I TL 174-A Uncle Scrooge "The Flying Scot" Uncle Scrooge #315–316 1998 49
S 77048 Uncle Scrooge "The Big Break-in" Uncle Scrooge #320 2003 15
S 80107 Uncle Scrooge "One Million Chase" Uncle Scrooge #322 2003 13
F 98235 C Mickey Mouse "It's a Wonderful Christmas Story" Christmas Parade #3 2005 14
S 64007 Uncle Scrooge "Around the World in Eighty Daze" Uncle Scrooge #341 2005 17
I TL 272-A Uncle Scrooge "The Secret of Success" Uncle Scrooge #338 2005 33
I AT 7-A Uncle Scrooge "Anti-Dollarosis" Uncle Scrooge #351 2006 25
I TL 430-B Pluto and Ellsworth "Foxy Hunters" Mickey Mouse Adventures #10 2006 5
I TL 369-A Uncle Scrooge "Being Good For Goodness Sake" Uncle Scrooge #360 2006 30
I TL 206-A Mickey Mouse "The Delta Dimension" Mickey Mouse Adventures #11 2006 72
I TL 339-A Mickey Mouse "The Incredible Black Comet" Mickey Mouse #292 2006 29
S 86139 Uncle Scrooge "The Dollar Stalactite" Uncle Scrooge #362 2007 14
I TL 154-A Goofy "The Great Gawrsh-Durn Champion" WDC&S #681 2007 32
I AO 54051-A Mickey Mouse "Memoirs Of An Invisible Santa" Christmas Parade #5 2008 29
I TL 222-A Mickey Mouse "The Sacred Spring of Seasons Past" WDC&S #697-8 2008 59
I AT 120-A Uncle Scrooge "Last Hero of Banania" Uncle Scrooge #373 2008 20
I AT 106-A Uncle Scrooge "The Easter Eggs-Port" Uncle Scrooge #376 2008 21
I TL 348-A Uncle Scrooge "Taking the Plunge" Uncle Scrooge #378 2008 29
I TL 552-B Daisy Duck "Witness Persecution" Walt Disney Treasures #2 2008 18
I TL 386-A Uncle Scrooge "Lights Fantastic" Valentine Classics #1 2010 32
I TL 167-A Mickey Mouse "Lost In the Microcosmos Mickey Mouse Classics #1 2010 33
S 77053 Uncle Scrooge "One With the Wind" Uncle Scrooge #333 2004 13
The following stories were originally produced for Egmont.
D/D 2000-021 Uncle Scrooge "Security" Uncle Scrooge #343 2005 12
D/D 2000-022 Uncle Scrooge "All You Need is Love" Uncle Scrooge #344 2005 13
D 2000-188 Uncle Scrooge "The Funny Carrots" Uncle Scrooge #346 2005 16
D 99156 Mickey Mouse "History Re-Petes Itself" Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #654 2005 12
D/D 2002-002 Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck "The Keeper of Babylon Gardens" Uncle Scrooge #359 2006 12
D/D 2001-017 Mickey Mouse "The Transmutant Gifts" Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #685 2007 16
D/E 2000-003 Mickey Mouse "A Quiet Day at the Beach" Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #691 2008 10
D 2004-236 Goofy "Don't Worry About It" Mickey Mouse #304 2011 10

References

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Citations

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  1. ^ Parkin, J. K. (1 March 2018). "Fantagraphics' 'Disney Masters' line begins in May". SMASH PAGES. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
  2. ^ McNeil, Jamie (31 July 2019). "Disney Masters: Donald Duck - Duck Avenger Strikes Again by Romano Scarpa and Carl Barks". Slings & Arrows. Retrieved 14 April 2020.

Sources

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  • Romano Scarpa – Un cartoonist italiano tra animazione e fumetti, by Luca Boschi, Leonardo Gori and Andrea Sani. Alessandro distribuzioni, 1988.
  • Romano Scarpa – Sognando la Calidornia by Luca Boschi, Leonardo Gori, Andrea Sani and Alberto Becattini. Vittorio Pavesio productions, 2001 (in Italian);
  • I Disney Italiani by Luca Boschi, Leonardo Gori and Andrea Sani. Granata Press, 1990.
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