An Italian fantasy culinary adventure: Squisito! [Jundo Original]

[This is a translation of the Italian article posted on December 19th 2022]

Cover of Squisito! n.1

Publishing house Jundo successfully reaches another goal, bringing as an exclusive for the Lucca Comics and Games -which took place last November- the first printed copies of its original works, together with famous imported works from the Korean market such as Of Machines and Beasts and All of You. After the end of the event, the volumes became available on the website’s online shop and through the main retailers such as Amazon, MangaYo!, starshop.it, POPstore and the circuit of comic book stores and bookshops. Among these we find the first issue of an exquisite adventure comic that brings together the passion for cooking with fantasy setting and creatures.

One of the colored pages
from the first chapter

Squisito! Fantastici Sapori Tradizionali Italiani (Delicious! Fantastic Traditional Italian Flavors), work drawn and written by Gianmarco Bonelli, holds different inspirations and references: its artstyle, with its thin and detailed lineart and very expressive characters, especially in comedic scenes, reminds of manga works such as One Piece; the size of the volume is quite similar to that of the classic tankōbon as well. However, it still has the western way of reading because despite its influences, the author considers it an Italian comic and preferred keeping this direction. An example of work published by Jundo that uses the Japanese reading way instead is Shaman by Shinichi Hotaka and Arisu, created to all intents and purposes to be read like a manga.

This fun culinary comic is set in a version of Italy full of peculiar creatures and incredible, difficult to gather ingredients, which require a particular type of person to pick them. These expert adventurers and seekers of delicacies are called gatherers, the majority of which is reunited in the U.R.C.A. association. In this world that revolves around cooking, cooks and gatherers are important figures and some of them can become legends! It’s clear to Pia, young gatherer and admirer of the most famous duo of the lands of Ausonia: Artemio and Nausicaa, first class gatherer and cook who mysteriously disappeared ten years ago. Entrusted to the care of innkeeper Nerone, Pia earns a living in the village of Piumanera gathering ingredients with her comically big cleaver, still looking for a clue to find the two.

Pia faces the badalischio

During one of her errands on Nerone’s behalf she bumped into a poor stranger poisoned by the most dangerous creature of the area, the badalischio. Pia rescues the boy and gathers the ingredients for the antidote, personally facing the creature. Once healed, the boy presents himself as Leo Greco, a young cook who came to Piumanera exactly to look for Artemio and Nausicaa. Leo and Pia become friends right away, talking about their favorite feats among the thousands of new discovered species and the extraordinary recipes invented by their idols. To return the favor, Leo offers to cook the badalischio meat, showing he is an excellent cook. On the other hand, Pia is more than glad to leave him the burner because she is as good of a gatherer as much as a disastrous cook!

After a joyful dinner (with an adorable scene where Pia explains how cantucci are dunked in vinsanto), Nerone decides to present to Pia a recipe book. The girl doesn’t understand the reason until, in the back cover, Nausicaa's signature stands out, and Leo finds out very quickly that the recipes trace a clear itinerary covering the peninsula. Pia leaves the room in shock, followed by Leo. The girl looked for clues for years without success, and this for her is the confirmation that she is not the right person. Leo understands how she feels and manages to convince her to follow the itinerary together. With Nerone’s blessings, the two leave for an adventure.

Dante the adorable gallonero

In this first chapter the fantasy atmosphere is expressed really well, with a great variety of interesting creatures such as “colombetti”, adorable flying mushrooms, the “gallonero” whose blood fights against venoms, the tasty “star caper” and its huge plant, or the fascinating “imprinting egg”, that can be handled only by the person who picked it until the moment of cooking. One of the perks of the printed volume is the inclusion of a delightful bestiary with the creatures featured in the six chapters. Furthermore, by removing the dust jacket we find a fun surprise: the real cover of the volume is the same as the cover of Nausicaa’s recipe book! These are the small details that show the attention given to the presentation of the comic.

Nausicaa's recipe book

In this first volume we see the progress of the dynamic between Pia and Leo, whose contrasting personalities lead them to risk interrupting the journey at the first stage. Thanks to the sweet couple of shopkeepers who cultivate the star caper, the two manage to make up and establish a relationship of trust. She’s hotheaded and bold, he’s observant and stubborn, Pia and Leo represent well the so called street smarts and book smarts: she knows well the area and the ingredients thanks to her experience on field, while he is not used to travel despite his knowledge; not preparing well his route is exactly how he risked his life with the badalischio! However it’s thanks to these differences that the two are complementary, and this dynamic makes them an interesting protagonist duo. Furthermore, beyond the differences they have in common some insecurity about their own skills. At the first incident during the gathering of the star caper Pia initially wants to go back home, but the discussion with Leo pushes her to try again and succeed. At the second stage of the itinerary we understand why the cook took the matter to heart, when he also has difficulties in picking the imprinting egg: considering his parents’ words, <<After all you’re a cook, honey! Just one call and we’ll come and pick you up, you know?>>, Leo probably wants to demonstrate he can do it on his own, even though it’s hard. Thinking about what Pia would do, the boy finally manages to pick the egg, showing the positive influence they have on each other.

The sixth chapter begins to lay down the first elements of a plot that will develop in the following volumes, with the introduction of four generals chasing the two kids, because their itinerary could lead them to Panacea! An excellent conclusion for the volume that intrigues the reader leaving a question: what is Panacea? And what ties do Artemio and Nausicaa have to what could be a legendary ingredient? We will find out following this fantastic story seeking Italian flavors!

Title: Squisito! Fantastici Sapori Tradizionali Italiani
Publisher: Jundo
Author (script, art and colors): Gianmarco Bonelli
Editing: LVCE1807 Lettering: Gianmarco Bonelli
Supervision: Matteo Vesprini
Digital platform: www.jundo.it and the Jundo app (the first six chapters are available for free)
Printed version: Tankōbon volume 16,5x12, flexible cover with dust jacket, 232 pages
Colors: B/W with the first 12 pages in color in the printed version
ISBN code: 979-12-80408-65-5

Illustration that accompanies chapter 6
(in colors on the website but black and white in the volume)

Lupin III Part 6 - Here comes the Italian dub

Lupin III's sixth series finally comes to Italian television! Lupin III Part 6 aired in Japan for the first time in October 2021 on broadcasting channel NTV, then it was dubbed in English and broadcasted on American programming block Toonami in April 2022 and available at the same time on the streaming platform HIDIVE. Regarding the Italian market Yamato Video, that usually takes care of dubbing the movies and the distribution of home video releases, worked on the official Italian subtitles for the simulcast release on the streaming platform Amazon Prime Video. This way, the Italian audience could watch the series at the same time as the Japanese broadcast. A year later, television company Mediaset (here we briefly talked about its history and collaboration with other European broadcasters) announced the release of the new series starting from October 12. The series, presented with the title “Lupin III - Una storia senza fine” (Lupin III - A neverending story), will air every Wednesday night in groups of five episodes each, covering 24 episodes in the span or a bit more than a month. With the release of the series’ promotional video, the fans noticed a detail not yet mentioned: almost all the voice actors were replaced.

Promotional video for the premiere on channel Italia 2

When a franchise runs for so long changing voice actors through the decades is a common event, but usually it’s a decision debated between the interested parties, and it aims at keeping vocal continuity as much as possible. The most frequent reasons are the actor’s retirement or passing. In this case, the most probable reason is that choosing a voice acting cast based in the Milan area is more convenient logistically for Mediaset than still working with the cast based in Rome (as Yamato Video prefers to do).

Promotional video for the Italian release of "Lupin III-The First"

In order to celebrate this phase of Lupin history in Italy, let’s remember the actors that voiced the gang in the past series.

Lupin III

Roberto del Giudice (1979-2007)

• Part 1 (first and second dub), Part 2, Part 3
• Tv specials since the first (Bye Bye Lady Liberty) to the 15th (Angel Tactics)
• Movies from the first (The mystery of Mamo) to the fifth (Dead or Alive) + the OVA movie (The plot of the Fuma clan) 

Stefano Onofri (2008-2021)

• The woman called Mine Fujiko, second dub of Part 3 (2021), Part 4 y Part 5
• He debuted as Lupin in the tv special “Seven Days Rhapsody” in 2008 by choice of Roberto del Giudice before his death, he kept dubbing the specials until the 27th (Prison of the past)
• Movies from “Lupin The Third vs Detective Conan” until “Lupin III-The First”

Luigi Rosa (2022)

• Part 6
• Second dub for the home video release of “The Castle of Cagliostro” (1992)

Jigen Daisuke

Germano Longo (1979)

• Primero doblaje de Parte 1

Sandro Pellegrino (1979-2012)

• Second dub of Part 1 (1987), Part 2 y Part 3
• Tv version of the first movie (The mystery of Mamo, 1979), movies from the third (Legend of the Gold of Babylon) until the fifth (Dead or Alive)
• Tv specials from the first to the 15th + the OVA movie (The plot of the Fuma clan)

Alessandro Maria D’Errico (2014-presente)

• The woman called Fujiko Mine, second dub of Part 3 (2021), Part 4, Part 5 y Part 6
• Tv specials from the 22nd (Lupin III: Blood seal - Eternal Mermaid) onwards
• Movies from “Lupin The Third vs Detective Conan” until “Lupin III-The First”

Goemon Ishikawa

Enzo Consoli (1979)

• First dub of Part 1
• Vittorio Guerrieri (1987)
• Second dub of Part 1 (1987), Part 3, second dub of Part 3 (2021)
• Tv version of the first movie (The mystery of Mamo, 1979) and third (Legend of the Gold of Babylon)

Massimo Rossi (1982)

• Part 2

Antonio Palumbo (1996-2021)

• The woman called Fujiko Mine, Part 4, Part 5
• Tv specials from the first (Bye Bye Lady Liberty) to the 27th (Prison of the Past)
• Movies from “Farewell to Nostradamus” until “Lupin III-The First” + the OVA movie (The plot of the Fuma clan)

Patrizio Prata (2022)

• Part 6

Fujiko Mine

Piera Vidale (1979-1982)

• First dub of Part 1, Part 2
• Theatrical release of “The mystery of Mamo” (1979)

Alessandra Korompay (1987-2021)

• Second dub of Part 1 (1987), Part 3, second dub of Part 3 (2021), Part 4 y Part 5
• The woman called Fujiko Mine
• Tv special from the first (Bye Bye Lady Liberty) until the 27th (Prison of the Past)
• Movies from the tv version of the first one (The mystery of Mamo, 1987) until “Lupin III-The First” + the OVA movie (The plot of the Fuma clan)

Emanuela Pacotto (2022)

• Part 6

Koichi Zenigata

Enzo Consoli (1979-1992)

• First (1979) and second dub of Part 1 (1987), Part 3
• Tv version of the first movie (The mystery of Mamo) and third movie (Legend of the gold of Babylon) + the OVA movie (The plot of the Fuma clan)
• First tv special (Bye Bye Lady Liberty) and home video release of “Crisis in Tokyo” (2002)
• His recordings were kept for the second dub of Part 3 (2021), that took place after his death in 2007

Marcello Prando (1982)

• Part 2

Rodolfo Baldini (años 90)

• Tv specials number 2 (The Hemingway Papers), 3 (Napoleon's Dictionary)  and 4 (From Siberia with love)

Rodolfo Bianchi (1996-2021)

• The woman called Fujiko Mine, Part 4, Part 5
• Tv specials from the 5th (Voyage to danger) until the 27th (Prison of the Past)
• Movies from “Farewell to Nostradamus” until “Lupin III-The First”

Mario Zucca (2022)

• Part 6

Lupin III Part 6 promotional video with Luigi Rosa

After two Wednesdays of broadcast, there are interesting considerations about the Italian approach to the series. First of all, the broadcasting of five episodes in a row every Wednesday night in prime time initially seemed odd, as if it was a way to complete the release as soon as possible, but now everything is clearer. Wednesday night has been for a very long time the time slot dedicated to the Lupin movies and tv specials: the block of five episodes probably aims to keep the usual weekly programming. Furthermore, the episode order was slightly changed, shuffling the standalone episodes: this way the six chapters covering the arc “Lupin III vs Sherlock Holmes” were aired with no interruption by the single stories, replicating the feeling of watching a movie (five episodes plus the the end of the arc the following week). This shows an interesting broadcast strategy created for the audience’s ideal enjoyment of the series. 

Regarding the translation and adaptation, to this day it seems that the dialogues stayed accurate to the original version, differently from the previous series, in which dialogues about death and murders were “softened”, part of a character’s history was changed (kidnapped for a ransom, when in reality the poor girl was exploited for pornografic pictures) and any mention of one of the supporting characters’ homosexuality was omitted.

Finally, the new voice acting cast proposes a convincing interpretation of the characters, hugely contributing to the pleasant vision experience. Personally it wouldn’t be a bad idea if the new cast kept dubbing the eventual future series and the “classic” cast kept dubbing the movies for Yamato Video. In any case, we will see soon what they will decide when it comes to the movie Lupin III VS Cat’s Eye coming in 2023 on Amazon Prime Video. Until then, I wait with enthusiasm for next Wednesday for the continuation of the series!

Fantomius, Disney Italia's gentelman thief

With the debut of the Diabolik film in cinemas this month I decided to stay on topic by talking about another famous thief of Italian comics: Fantomius gentleman thief. In order to talk about him we need a bit of context on his history and the long series of parodies and homages made by Italian Disney comic artists.

In 1969 authors of Topolino magazine Guido Martina and Giovanni Battista Carpi and editor-in-chief Elisa Penna created an alter-ego for Donald Duck: Paperinik, identity that allows Donald to have vindication against the misadventures of his daily life. Paperinik started as a bit of a humorous entity (one of his first achievements was stealing his uncle Scrooge McDuck’s mattress as a personal revenge), but soon Paperinik uses this new identity and his gadgets created by Gyro Gearloose to help people and fight crime as a vigilante. In Paperinik e il diabolico vendicatore Donald is inspired to take this second identity by the diary of Fantomius, who operated as a thief during the 1920s and had his home Villa Rosa in Duckburg as his base. Along with the diary, Donald found the famous thief’s costume as well and took it for his own adventure as Paperinik.

"Paperinik e il segreto di Fantomius"
by Marco Gervasio (2011)

For a long time Fantomius was a mystery, very little was known about his life other than his exploits and he had been mentioned in a few Paperinik stories only through his diary. The beginning of the character’s reinterpretation happens in four stories: Paperinik e l’ombra di Fantomius (2003), Paperinik e il tesoro di Dolly Paprika (2007), Paperinik e il segreto di Fantomius (2011) e Paperinik e il passato senza futuro (2012), which work as prologue for the official series dedicated to Fantomius set in the 1920s.

This new phase of the character’s management is led by Marco Gervasio, Disney writer and artist, who established a much clearer and more defined identity of the gentleman thief, exploring his adventures in his own series of stories, periodically published on Topolino. The saga Le strabilianti imprese di Fantomius ladro gentiluomo started in 2012 with the story Il Monte Rosa published on November 13th 2012 on Topolino n.2972. The first four stories were released in the span of four weeks on the magazine, to present the character, his friend allies and his enemies and rivals. Later, the thief’s adventures were released on a more free schedule, accounting to this day to a total of 27 stories plus the four of the prologue.

Cover of Definitive Collection n.0
with the four prologue stories

Fantomius, like Diabolik (one of his inspirations), takes elements from 1910s French novels about the thief Fantômas, with whom Fantomius has in common the blue mask as well.

Fantomius’ true identity is Lord John Lamont Quackett, a young noble fond of Robin Hood’s adventures stories who doesn’t appreciate the hypocrisy of the society of the time and feels alienated by his peers, because they consider him a slacker. Inspired by his favorite thief, Fantomius steals from the rich to give to those who need (and a bit for himself) and the thrill of the challenge: the more the exploit seems difficult, the more fun it is.

The series presents gadgets that were already mentioned in the diaries found by Donald and many new ones. The devices, created by his inventor friend Copernico Pitagorico (ancestor of Gyro, who helps Paperink in the present), sometimes are anachronistic inventions, that is they precede the real date of invention: for instance, in Il ladro e il miliardario, set in 1922, Fantomius uses a reel in which he can be heard talking, while in reality sound in films was achieved later, in 1927. 

Dolly Paprika, Fantomius
and Copernico in n.2
of the Definitive Collection

Like Diabolik, the duck thief has a partner both on the job and in private life: Dolly Duck, who works with Fantomius under the name Dolly Paprika. The two thieves are always chased by commissioner Pinko, a very determined but also unlucky character and source of part of the series’ gags. Through the series Marco Gervasio managed to build a group of characters with a defined personality and a detailed personal history, to the point that in the Definitive Collection volume edition you can read a timeline for each member of Fantomius’ gang. 

All three of them have a family history that gets explored in several stories, including the story of their first meetings and the formation of the gang. The brother that inspired John Quackett to become a gentleman thief, the ballet dancer training and the irritation towards the upper class that shaped Dolly Duck, and the conflictual relationship between Copernico and his twin brother Cartesio are some of the elements that make the characters interesting and charismatic.

Homage to Laurel & Hardy
in "Silenzio in sala"
(source: ventennipaperoni.com)

The attention to the 1920s historical context allows to create peculiar stories: Silenzio in sala, published on April 1th 2012 on Topolino n.2994, is an homage to silent films, and because of this the story is without dialogues! In addition, in a chase between Fantomius and Pinko through the Hollywood movie sets you can see homages to Nosferatu (1922), The battle of the century (1927) starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy (known in the first years in Italy as Cric e Croc before being called Stanlio e Ollio), Sins of Rome (1953) and Shane (1953). The last two are an example of anachronism because they didn’t exist yet in the 1920s, but it is a sort of artistic license, an intentional homage.

Visually, the Fantomius series stands out from the regular Topolino stories due to its more desaturated color palette, which goes well with the time period of the story. In addition, the caption squares are decorated, in contrast with the simple squares of the regular stories.

First page of "Il Monte Rosa"
by Marco Gervasio (2012)

Le strabilianti avventure di Fantomius has elements in common with Diabolik, but with a lighter and humorous atmosphere keeping the charm of the mystery intact; from this point of view it’s closer to the animated adventures of Lupin III. Fantomius is definitely one of the most interesting characters that the Italian side of Disney comics gave us in its very long history, and that still has the potential to keep telling new adventures.

A dream that ended too soon: the periodical Mangaka

Cover of issue n.1 of Mangaka

Japan Magazine was not the only periodical dedicated to the manga world that charmed me in the past. In the summer of 2009, after a day at the beach, in a newsstand I found a magazine called Mangaka, with a very colorful cover, and a subtitle saying “the only magazine that publishes your manga”. I was instantly fascinated and bought it. Inside it had a few short stories of European manga authors, with articles about techniques and interviews with manga authors. I hoped to find the following number, but I never found it: convinced I had found something that could fill the void left by Japan Magazine, I kept hoping to have luck and find an issue in the future. Years passed, and during a research on the internet I finally found an answer to my doubts: the magazine, published by Coniglio Editore in 2009 bimonthly, finished its publishing journey after the first two issues. The publisher itself doesn’t exist nowadays, it unfortunately closed down in 2011.

Ad for publishing on the magazine

Presented as a supplement to the title Scuola di Fumetto, Mangaka offered an incredible opportunity: the readers could send their own short stories to the editorial staff, and if it was published, the artist would have been paid 35 euros for each page! For me, a 13 year old kid, 35 euros per page seemed a fortune. Having the luck of seeing my drawings published in a magazine, and being paid as well? A dream! Here is the ad with the instructions to send by mail a story of one to four pages. Remember, it was the year 2009 and sending photocopies or digital scans on CD by mail was still more common and accessible than using e-mail.

Cover for issue n.2 of Mangaka

Unfortunately I don’t have the second issue, I would be very curious to see the works of non professional artists. The artists that collaborated on the first issue are:

• Joanna Zhou
• Åsa Ekström
• Marco Dominici
• Celia Machuca A. (script) + Elisabet Basanta 
• Federico Memola (script) + Teresa Marzia
• Giacomo Pueroni 
• Akane (Alicia Ruiz)
• Federica di Meo
• Enrica “Enrychan” Fastuca

Article about screentones

The articles talk about drawing techniques, fundamentals and tools, with easy writing for the beginners but at the same time very informative and interesting. For instance, a short article explains what are screentones, what is their function and where to find them in Italy.

In conclusion, the Mangaka periodical had the potential to be a point of reference and a stepping stone for beginner artists interested in the creation of manga, and it’s a shame that its publishing journey was that short. However, I am very glad I bought the first issue on that Summer day, fondly remembering the magazine to this day.

Before online forums and websites in Italy: Japan Magazine

During the boom of popularity of anime in Italy during the 80s-90s the average fan was very interested in discovering more about their favorite series, more aware of the differences between the censored dub and the original version, and as well wanted to meet other fans. However, in that era the forums and websites as we know them today didn’t exist yet. So, what did yesterday’s fans have?

Japan Magazine cover from 1991
(source: Guida al Fumetto Italiano)

In 1991 in the newsstands debuted Japan Magazine, a periodical dedicated to the current anime series. A versatile magazine, that through more than a decade changes many times covers, title and especially size. Japan Magazine’s inconsistent size was probably due to the change of publishers and the fact that technically it was a publication with pirated content, because it wasn’t authorized by the owners of the series, but this last part is speculation that was never officially confirmed. Correct or not, the rumors about the “pirate magazine” amplified its fame: Japan Magazine was the reference point for the newborn Italian otaku culture.

Its contents included articles about series on air and sneak peeks of what was about to come, interviews to the voice actors and comic artists, posters and spaces dedicated to the readers’ content. In fact, the readers could send their drawings and fanfiction to the magazine’s editorial staff! Furthermore, the staff replied to reader’s questions in La posta del Drago (Dragon Mail) and you could propose ads for selling, buying or exchanging in the column Fiera del Bambù (Bamboo Fair), where occasionally the ads were something along the lines of “I’m looking for friends to talk about manga and anime, you can write me at this mail address”. In the last period of its publishing history the Dragon Mail was accompanied by Matilda’s Mail: the first was about questions and daily general themes, the latter was dedicated to questions about the anime world and Japanese culture.

JM cover from 1993 featuring
unexplicably Dylan Dog
(source: Guida al Fumetto Italiano)

This all seems legit, right? Where is the pirated content then? In the early years of Japan Magazine, the periodical used to feature chapters of anime comics, that is a comic version of an episode created using frames from the animated series. Normally anime comics can be quality work, when they are made by a team that understands the visual language of comics. The point is that JM’s anime comics used to take already existing adaptations and modify them, sometimes cutting scenes and simplifying dialogues. We can see an example of this thanks to MikiMoz’s article, that presents us a Sailor Moon anime comic and the differences with the correctly translated version made by Marvel/Panini years prior. His article about the magazine is also quite interesting! During the third publishing phase of JM the anime comics were reduced and when they appeared it was a few pages put together by the editorial staff with frames of lower quality, they personally remind me of VHS recordings.

Page from the Beyblade anime comic
(2005, personal collection)

What’s more, in the early years a few issues had an annex of some VHS of movies or OVA (Original Video Animation) anime, and these were undoubtedly pirated, to the point of open conflict between publisher EDEN and authorized distributors such as Yamato.

This peculiar magazine, that sometimes can be considered similar to a fanzine, had three series through its publishing history:

• Series I (1991-1992) 10 issues
• Series II (1992-1995) 28 issues
• Series III (1998-2005) 66 issues

For this, although it’s not easy to identify the release date of each issue, it’s possible to estimate the year of publishing.

JM cover from the late 90s
(source: Guida al Fumetto Italiano)

During my childhood in the 2000s I used to buy Japan Magazine when I had the chance of finding it at the newsstand. I remember seeing different sizes, one time it was a small book, another time it was as big as printer paper! The number of pages changed as well and occasionally the title, and I used to wonder why it was like that. I own several issues titled JM Japan Magazine, and a few titles JM Cartoons, sized like a little book. Thanks to the archive site guidafumettoitaliano.com I could finally understand the bizarre journey of the magazine and it’s special editions, such as JM Cartoons. One of the articles that particularly impressed me was about drawing tools and it mentioned Pantone markers with many images as well.

JM cover from 2005
(personal collection)

In the end this was JM’s strength: in a time period where the internet didn’t exist or it wasn’t as accessible as it was today, images and information (although sometimes partially incorrect) were a precious treasure! After the golden age between 1995 and the first years of 2000, in the last period of its publishing history the magazine gradually lowered in quality, and concluded its journey in 2005. When I decided to write this article I looked for my issues of the periodical and I found two that are very likely from 2005. I hope to find the issue with the Pantone markers, so I could share the article here!

JM was a peculiar and a bit odd magazine, it wasn’t perfect but it was a product of passion from manga and anime enthusiasts. Thank you Japan Magazine for the happy memories of two generations of fans! <3