PKNA - Paperinik New Adventures
Hi to all! This post is dedicated to PK,… I know, I know… if you live out of Italy is almost sure you have never heard about this character. And it’s a pity.
If you look at PK, it could seems to you like Paperinik (a strange superhero, Donald Duck’s alter ego, and the the main defender of Duckburg). Actually, he is something different: we can think the world in which he lives as an alternative Disney universe, were the facts happened in a just sligtly different manner than in the “real” world (yes, americans are the best in such things, but this italian attemp was really succesful). Here, Donald Duck, and his aletr ego PK has, insteadUncle Scrooge and other well known characters, lots of new and original firend and enemies ti interact with… Let me quote a text from the english version of Wikipedia: “In 1996 a new monthly series was launched: "PKNA - Paperinik New Adventures". The series had a new format for an Italian Disney comic as it was influenced by Marvel Comics' superhero comic books both graphically and story-wise. The art was more modern and "faster".”
But it’s a little bit more than an alternative Disney world: “With the addition of many new technological characters (droids, A.I.s, aliens, etc.) the series was intended for a different target audience than the classical Paperinik. The adventures were mainly science fiction and in addition to the story featured in every issue were published sketches, special files, analyses and more. The stories were much darker than the original Paperinik stories, having more action and a few deaths from time to time.”
And here it is because the series was stopped and closed and, what’s more, never pubblished as it was in the USA. It was simply too different from the Disney’s mainstream sories where the end have to be happy, and where no one can die…
I can say the PK stories are one of the most succesfull attempt to do a captivating story and well-characterized characters… I really miss some of them, and I think at Lyla, Eidolon and PK with affection still today.
An awful attempt to create a new series (the so called third serie”) with sweeten up storiboards and much “in line” characters (created on purpouse in order to sell the series on the american market), led to ugly stories, followed by the sales collapse, and the serie end. And it was a liberation, because for a PK fan as me the last series was a disgusting attemp to made this comics more commercial, removing up all the beautiful idea that made PK a great, adult, comics.
PK. Un fumetto che amo. Parlo al presente, perché è davvero uno dei pochi fumetti ai quali sono così affezionata da ripensarci di tanto in tanto e riprenderne in mano le storie con la voglia di rileggerle. Storie intelligenti, ben scritte, in genere ben disegnate, con dei personaggi interessanti e ben caratterizzati. Aggiungete a questo un bellissimo background alle storie che assume sempre più spessore man mano che si va avanti con la serie… e forse capirete perché sono così entusiasta di questo fumetto. :)
Un fumetto Disney dove però i personaggi e le storie erano scritte per un pubblico (anche) più “adulto”, e che quel pubblico sono riusciti a conquistarlo. Storie dove anche un papero può morire, e muore davvero…
Sia chiaro che sto parlando della prima serie di PK. La seconda serie (nonostante alcune storie di buon livello e piacevoli da leggere) devia dalla prima rimescolando molte carte in tavola per quanto riguarda continuity e personaggi, a mio parere spesso senza motivo. Della terza quasi preferisco non parlare… sull’onda del successo di PK, per aprire anche al mercato estero, per “riallineare” il prodotto al pensiero della casa madre (sia mai che qualche bambino possa essere turbato da una storia ben scritta), nonché per promuovere un videgioco, dall’alto della Disney Italia si sentirono in diritto di “azzerare” la time-line, e ricominciare da capo in maniera edulcorata e ridicolmente “semplificata”. Fu un flop clamoroso, meritato.
Aggiungo al post alcuni originali a tema PK in mio possesso. Inutile dire che ne vado molto fiera! :P Nel particolare, una tavola di Fabio Celoni (tratta dal numero 6, “Spore”), uno schizzo di Lorenzo Pastrovicchio, e una tavola di Stefano Intini, (da “Vedi alla voce Evron”, serie di ministorie su Evron… una delle mie cose preferite di tutto PK!!).
Enjoy!