Versione italiana
To give you the best representation of the metamorphosis of our hero, either from the hystorical and the
	the contents point of view, running over again "the life" through the fundamental steps and the most important authors that mould him, we asked Marco Barlotti ("Marcobar" his nickname), responsible for the italian producted storyes in the Inducks project and contributor for the periodical "Fumo di China",
to write an article for us. Here to you the results...

All begins in 1969, when Italy had already seen the big students protest in '68 and was going to face the "hot autumn" of trade-union metalmechanical insurrection. Elisa Penna (at that time editor in chief of the weekly "Topolino") has an idea destined to sign a deep track in the Disney universe; give Donald Duck a secret identity, part-time converting him in a fearless avenger of outrages and wrongs. On this cue the script writer Guido Martina works on the story "Paperinik il diabolico vendicatore" (aka "Paperinik the diabolical avenger, I TL 706-A, drawn by the great Giovan Battista Carpi) that appears on numbers 706 and 707 of "Topolino" on 8 and 15 June 1969. The story tells how Donald found in a dismantled villa the gentleman-thief Fantomius' secret diary and takes it as a starting point to take a secret identity (Paperinik identity, exactly) with the help of Archimede Pitagorico (Gyro Gearloose), this one suppling him with the most advanced scientific tools. His mission will be taking revenge (as Paperinik) upon Zio Paperone (Uncle Scrooge), Gastone (Gladstone Gander) and anybody else tyrannize him daily as Donald. This story it's only the first of a great success long course that soon will see Paperinik turn himself before in a defender of all the oppressed and then in a famous city hero having night shift patrol against crime.

In the Paperinik chacter converge many and different quotations: from Zorro to Superman and perhaps much more about Batman, due to his coward and lazy normal character that unknow to all transforms himself in a persecute's paladin hero; from Fantômas to Arsenio Lupin due to his "thief-hero" look alike (Famtomius remembers in the name Fantômas, the uncatched outlaw protagonist of a novels series written by P. Souvestre and P. Allain, precursors of the modern thrillers; Lupin, character created by the french M. Leblanc, it's the most popular of the "gentleman-thief" cathegory): take note that Paperinik in the earlier adventures (that surely now Disney would reject due to non politically correctness) doesn't hesitate in doing petty thefts and little illegal actions. But especially the "ik" termination of our hero's secret identity suggests to the reader a renference with Diabolik. The dark comic "anti-hero" created by Giussani sisters was in the news-stands since from November 1962, and was a particularly italian clamorous habit case, yet amply satire subject (the Sixties' television audience well knew Dorellik, for example, ideated and played by the show-man Johnny Dorelli).

The new character, with its implication of life on the legality edge, initially doesn't like too much abroad: the publishing-house Egmont (that owns the rights to use the italian Disney stories in various european countries) eliminates it from his first story, from which obtains for its publications only a few pages episode in which Paperino kicks a dog while Gastone (Gladstone Gander) draws from it a little fortune. This diffidence abroad against the new character (which however gradually will be adopted also in France, Germany, etc.) doesn't make anyway an isolate episode.

In the first five years, Paperinik appears only on "Paperino", in fourteen extended and complex adventures all written by Guido Martina and drawn (after the first) by Romano Scarpa, Massimo De Vita and Giorgio Cavazzano: as you may see, an editorial choice of great respect for the character. Its characterization is refined with coherence: in the second story Archimede (Gyro Gearloose) trasforms the mythical "313" in a vehicle full of secret tools and quite able to fly; we come even to the creation of "Paperinika", secret identity of Paperina (Daisy Duck) that brings a femminist touch ("Martina-like", however) in the adventures. Please note that "Paperinik e il dramma ciclico" (aka "Paperinik and the ciclic drama" - I AT 214-A) was published inside "Almanacco Topolino" issue #214 on October 1974; but it was a story thought and created for "Topolino", as you can spot from the format (three stripes with two vignettes each): for four years more along, in fact, won't be in "Almanacco Topolino" any other Paperinik stories.

Paperinik somehow "comes of age" with the story "Uncle Scrooge and the demon of the game" (Zio Paperone e il demone del gioco) (I TL 984-B, on Topolino number 984, 6th of October, 1974). There's a new scriptwriter (lasting on high levels, mind you: Massimo Marconi) and the pencil drawing is by Guido Scala. From now on, Paperinik (which is clearly considered a "run" character) is committed to many scriptwriters: Dalmasso, Pezzin, Còncina, Damianovich, Pavesio, Bellomi, Amato, Cornacchione, Ferrari... Since then till 1978 the mighty duo Guido Martina-Massimo De Vita continued to write and draw many tales. From January 1978 Paperinik begins to appear regulary also on "Almanacco Topolino", often drawn by Recreo Studio of the Catalan Francisco Bargadà.

Paperinik and Paperinika like also to Brazilian scriptwriters working for the publisher "Abril Jovem". Moreover Brazil had already adopted the italian character Paperetta Yè-Yè, moving her to Rio De Janeiro and become friend of new characters till the forming of the group "Os Adolescentes". So the brazilian scriptwriters have fun writing new adventures with Paperinik and Paperinika. Very soon they placed side by side the alter egos of other characters: Super Pippo ("Super Goofy"), La Vespa Rossa ("The Red Wasp"), Paper Bat ("Batduck"), Farfalla Purpurea, Bat-Josè... but, like, this is another tale!

Let's jump to April 1993. In that month the "Walt Disney Company Italia" (who succeeded Mondadori as publisher of Disney tales in Italy) published a comic book dedicated to our hero: "Paperinik e altri supereroi" (Paperinik and other superheros) bears like a bimonthly comic dedicated to the reprints of Paperinik's tales, Super Pippo's, and of the brazilian cycle of the Disney Super Heros. This operation can be placed inside the intense action of the Disney characters' superutilization by the new publisher: just remind that during that period were set names like "Topolino Adventure", "Paper Fantasy" and "Topo Mistery", made up almost exclusively of reprints. But soon our hero manages once again to become the favourite of the audience, so "Paperinik" outlives all the other comic series ("Topolino Adventure" dies after twenty issues, "Paper Fantasy" goes down after thirtyfive rounds and "Topo Mistery" is knocked out after seventythree...) and gets to come out monthly, leaving the "other superheros" behind in the dust and conquering at first only one, then methodically two or three new stories (produced in Italy) in every number from 18 of March, 1995. We must say that in these years the adventures of Paperinik got quite trivial. Because of they had to be "politically correct", they lost not only the merry sadism of Guido Martina (I love it very much but I understand not everybody may share the same feeling) but also the wideness of the very first years. Gag gets over the adventure, the humour gets over the irony.

Netherless the character of Paperinik proves incredibly vital, and a group of young sub editors, scriptwriters and cartoonists gets ready, in 1996, to make him try a new quality jump. In fact it's in this year that (with not too much advertising) appears in the newsstands the number "Zero" of "Pk - Paperinik News Adventures". Standing an unusual format for the Italian Disney, with a graphic style similar to the American superheroes comics ("Marvel" and "Image"), the new comic series takes off with a "responsible director" as the routine (Paolo Cavaglione) and with a long list of "project collaborators" (9 names) extracted from the most recent generation of Italian Disney authors. Followed by other "tryout numbers", that already mythical number "Zero" is the beginning of a new editorial adventure that gradually extended herself, with alternate luck, in many countries with a remarkable particularity: in the other countries of Europe the number "Zero" has never seen the sun! In the nations controlled by the publisher Egmont (for the Disney comics) the series has begun with a number 1 with a story that was before the Italian number "Zero/2" or following numbers. It has been told that foreign Disney supervisors criticized a lot both the content and the graphic of the number "Zero". And there were troubles for sure with the following episodes: the issue "Zero/3" has been drawn by a ghost cartoonist: Paul Ackerman. Rumors (but very, very authoritatives...) say that Claudio Sciarrone and Stefano Intini, who are the authors of the drawings of Zero/2 and Zero/3, were requested to modify the "beaks" of Donald Duck because they were not considered in accordance with the "Disney's rules": Sciarrone agreed, but Intini refused and rejected the results of ohter's modifies, thus forcing the invention of Paul Ackerman. It's clear indeed that when looking at the drawings in the reprints published on the book "PK-ONE", you can see many "patches" to the beaks as well...

The new comic-book (hereby, the cover of a foreign edition) proposes as an attempt of radical renewal of Paperinik's character: our Hero practically deserts his old and glorious family of Ducks (Uncle Scrooge and the three nephews only perform a few appearances in the early issues, while Gladstone Gander, Daisy Duck and the others are almost completely ignored); he is no more supplied with gadgets by Gyro Gearloose, but by Uno ("One"), an Artificial Intelligence that loves sci-fi movies and spicy remarks; he makes new acquaintances (with droids and aliens) and lives big adventures (60-70 pages in large format) coping with both a dangerous extra-terrestrial race (the "Evronians") and our dull-minded military establishment. Duckburg itself is no more the quiet little town sketched out by Barks and resumed by the "classic" italian scriptwriters, but it developed into a restless metropolis with degraded suburbs, haunted by night hooligans. The new format allows impressive cartoons, with powerful fights between braves and villains, which sometimes even give the "death" shiver (soon to find out that Evronians do not die, but just regress to "spore" state). Pure action stories alternate with episodes pretending to be of meditated introspection. The "technical files", published at the end of the stories, please readers with fanciful details about the "Ducklair Tower" and evronian weapons. Plots interlace in giddy knottings of the space-time continuum, with increasingly complex paradoxes, whose consistency probably escapes even the scriptwriters themselves. And the teen readers, who would probably be ashamed to read the old "Topolino" still, do celebrate a new comic-book "fit for grown-ups", at last...

But is the new Paperinik by PKNA actually "more adult" than the one devoted to success by Guido Martina, G. B. Carpi and Massimo De Vita? Are the heroic fights against the Evronians to be considered as a step further, if compared with the mean personal revenges against overbearing Uncle Scrooge and the exceedingly lucky cousin? I meditated on the misteries of life and death by reading Barks' masterpieces like "Ancient Persia" ("La sposa persiana": W OS 275-02, in "Topolino" 18 and 19, "Albi della Rosa" 73, "Noi Qui Quo Qua" volume and "Zio Paperone" 25, most recently) and "King Scrooge the First" ("Re Paperone I": W US 71-01, drawn by Tony Strobl, "Topolino" 644 and "Zio Paperone" 35, most recently). Compared with those charming situations, what "transgression" can be found in the shootings between Evronians and Xerbians, pure routine for who follows with some constancy detective movies and serials...? Maybe, that doubt arose to the PKNA's scriptwriters themselves (who had been abandoned by the way by the most innovating of them, the great Tito Faraci); or maybe the time paradoxes were no longer manageable, or even maybe the scriptwriters feared not to be able to build sufficiently new situations upon the usual fights with the Evronians. As a matter of fact, in the second half of the 2000 the various threads leading the plots began to be closed. And with the beginning of the third millennium a new course has bloomed for the masked hero, and it has even been pointed out by a changing in the heading (PK² instead of PKNA), with the numbering starting again from 1 in January 2001. The editorial strategy seems to recall softly japanese Manga, with a narration proceeding linearly and with no hurry from number to number. Besides, nearly at the same time, the italian Disney plays the card of "Western Manga" for the female public, too, by launching the monthly "Witch" in April 2001.

Anyway, after more than thirty years since its creation, Paperinik, as a character, remains extremely vital, with two monthly reviews devoted to him in Italy and with a good presence in several european countries. Our hero has even made a shy appearance in the States: in fact, some episodes appeared in 1999 in the pocket-review "Disney Adventures", featuring Donald Duck as "The Duck Avenger", due to save the World from the evil space invaders, with the appropriate direction of Ludwig Von Drake by means of a nice little bee... A mild PK, as you can see, that was soon swept away by the general crisis causing the end of publication for all Disney comics in the USA.

Back to Italy, we must acknowledge, anyway, that three Paperinik do exist, at least: the original one by Guido Martina, diabolic and revengeful on his behalf, totally incorrect according to Disney Italia's pedagogical rules; the later one by Concina, Pezzin and some others that (however good) have changed him (don't know how nor when) into a masked avenger in Duckburg's service; the innovating one (as long as it seems) of the post-modern Duckburg described in PKNA-PK². Each of you choose its favourite; as far as I'm concerned, on PK's stories lay, stone heavy, all the perplexities rising from any superhero: Extransformer, Pi-kar, morpho-symbiotic radio-controls... Who knows! I would never personally barter a fine pair of spring-boots with that equipment!

Back to Top

Author - Reference:	For images:
Marco Barlotti http://marcobar.cce.unifi.it/Fumetti	Marco Barlotti & Silverware
Editing:	Translation:
Silverware	Alberto "Kap" Capelli, Morpheu5, Tiziana "Tyz :D"

Find out more about PK's origins:

Paperinik il Diabolico Vendicatore http://digilander.iol.it/Freckles/paperinik/paperinik.htm

(This page last updated on June 10th 2001)