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Cover art from Topolino #3597 (Oct, '24), by Paolo Mottura & Mario Perrotta
(64.media.tumblr.com)
Sometimes I forget that Disney comics are not just an American thing, but have been thriving in Italy since 1932, specifically via Topolino magazine and associated publications. Interestingly, the output has not been solely Italian nor American, but evidently a mix of original content from both nation's creators.
Here's the published cover above, with thanks to t/dirtyriver for the find:
In recent years France's Glénat publishing house has joined the fun, but has been tending to go in more gonzo directions, not unlike various creators doing guest shots on Lucky Luke.
I came into contact with a huge stash of these when I was a kid. As I recall, the Paperino (Donald Duck) stories were always better than the Topolino (Mickey Mouse) ones. There's nothing quite like a good Paperino freak-out authored in Italian. Plus they came up with new characters like Paperinik.
I didn't even know paperinik was an italian thing. It makes sense, since it's clearly inspired by Diabolik, which is also an italian origianl creation
Indeed! Mickey Mouse Stories were most of the time just classic crime stories with Mickey as the investigator, which simply gets old after a few times. Donald on the other hand is a bit like Homer Simpson, you just can´t help but feel his troubles and feel sympathy for the kind-hearted underdog, especially considering how he is treated by his billionaire uncle.
That must be even more funny! There is probably no better language for it!
In the german version his name is Phantomias. That name sounds like it was inspired by Fantômas, which is weird because Fantômas was, as you might know not a hero but on the contrary, the first supervillain in pop culture. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fant%C3%B4mas