"Tycoonraker! or From Zantaf with Lumps"

LUCIANO BOTTARO. What more needs to be said? He's been published in the US! Finally! I feel very strongly that this is a momentous occasion, and there should be some sort of parade or something. And yet, it just happened, and no one's shouting from the rooftops. Why is this?!? Tell me!!! Well, I hope we see a LOT more of him in the months and years to come, is all I will say. It makes me sad to contemplate that a lot of his prime material is too obviously weird to be likely to see a US appearance, but that doesn't mean there isn't still plenty out there that oughta.

There were four really pivotal vintage Italian Disney artists: Romano Scarpa, Giovan Battista Carpi, Bottaro, and Pier Lorenzo De Vita (Marco Rota got going a little later). The Four Horsemen, as absolutely nobody up to now has ever called them (in this analogy, Guido Martina is Hell, who followed with them. So who's Carlo Chendi? I dunno--Nicolae Carpathia, maybe? I'm afraid this paragraph is getting a little flaky). Astute readers will note that out of these four, De Vita is now the only one to never have appeared in a US comic book. No reason I should've been, but I was sort of surprised when I first realized that. Never? Surely at least once or twice, just incidentally--no, NEVER. Part of the reason for this is probably that the best-regarded De Vita-drawn stories tend to be weird historical and/or literary pastiches of the sort that flat-out don't get published in the States (though the same could be said of Bottaro). Still, even though he's obviously the least of the four, I still hope he'll come 'round to visit one of these days. I've written about his stories here, here, here, and here. An' whaddaya know, I even made English versions of two of those suckers. Good times.

But this entry is not about De Vita! It's about Bottaro, and how awesome he is, and how badly I want to see IDW publish more of his stuff! Out of the four, Scarpa gets the most attention because he was (well, could be, let's say) a great writer, and Carpi certainly had his moments, but there's little doubt in my mind that Bottaro was the most skilled artist among them, and this story provides ample evidence of this.  Note that his characters rarely if ever go off-model the way those others' tend to.

I hadn't read the original, but I HAVE read Bottaro's sequel, "The Return of Dr. Zantaf," which, title notwithstanding, is actually a time travel story that features very little actual Zantaf. Still, I hope to see it over here sooner rather than later! It would be a good opportunity to introduce Pirate Captain Scrooge, which is one of Bottaro's favorite things to draw.

(I suppose I can't complain too much about that title, which is certainly more memorable than the original Mission: Zantaf, and ties into the whole spy business.)

It starts off in its meandering way, as his stories tend to. Nothing could peg this as European more obviously than the fact that Donald is watching soccer. This is one instance where you could legitimately square the circle, though: they really do call it "football" everywhere but the US (students would sometimes correct themselves when talking to me, having learned that we say "soccer" and thinking I wouldn't know what they meant by "football"), so go ahead and just call it that here and the reader can decide which kind of football we're talking about.

So here's this! If yer a USAian, you might remember the MIA from this story. You might well suspect that that bit of continuity is just a matter of localization, but no, in this case, I think it's a real thing. Inducks does, too. You will also note that, in spite of the fact that Carlo Chendi worked on both of them, they're very different kinds of stories. "Moldfinger" (as we call it) is very dense with plot, whereas this one is much more loosey-goosey (also, Bottaro's art here is much better than Carpi's there). But they're both fun! And that's what counts!

Dig the fish there. Those are extremely Bottaro; no one else was able to do anything like them. He didn't just do Disney comics, you know; he worked on a wide variety of stuff, including his own original characters--which might explain why stuff like this, to me, always looks kind of un-Disney-like in a way I can't quite pinpoint. But in spite or because of that, I still like it awfully well.

It turns out Zantaf is using this Manchurian-Candidate-esque conditioning to get money. Why not?

Yay! Tallgrass is, of course, a Barks character, but who is "Gotrocks?" It is, of course, this guy:

...or, alternatively, this guy:

But either way, it's a reference to a non-Barks Western story! How often do you see those suckers? Never, is my rough estimate.

So what about the Maharajah of Howduyustan? Or what about the ultra-popular Indian Joe? "Who?" you ask. Jeez--THIS guy, of course:

Sometimes I get the impression that you're not paying attention.

(Okay okay, I'm not that dumb; I can guess well enough why those two wouldn't have been candidates for inclusion here. No need to tell me!)

YES! More BOTTARO POWER! I really just wanted to highlight this image, and how cool it is.

Reading "Return of Zantaf" was not enough to give me a clear impression of the guy's character (seriously, guys, I went back and checked--in a sixty-two-page story, he appears in all of four panels*), but now that I've read his debut, I have to say--as insane supervillains go, he's pretty darned adorable. Look at him there--at the simple, childlike joy he's taking in his love of snakes! Just lovely!

*I imagine some editor going "Bottaro!  The kids are going CRAZY for this Zantaf guy!  Give us more!"  But B felt the character was played out, so he grudgingly gave them the least Zantaf-y Zantaf story he could come up with.

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(I do think most of the appeal here comes from Bottaro's art, and suspect that in just about anyone else's art he would come across as a lot more generically villainous.)

Sure, the "compulsory snake adoption" policy seems a bit undesirable at first glance, but let's think about this: a big snake fan like Zantaf is obviously gonna want these snakes to have healthy, happy lives. And what's the best way to achieve that? By putting them in happy, healthy households, of course. And how best to do THAT? By eliminating economic insecurity, natch. So expect Zantaf to institute a robust social safety net, and also to put in place the strongest possible measures to combat climate change--he's a scientist, not some willfully know-nothing politician! And he knows that it's gonna affect snakes too. What I'm trying to say is, Zantaf for President! I'd vote for him before any members of the current Republican freakshow, that's for sure. Granted, that's not really saying much; I'd also vote for Cruella de Vil over any of them--but I'd vote for Zantaf with enthusiasm.

Also, he has sweet little chicken-bot things ("Electro-Men"). This guy is unbelievable!

This entry may turn into nothing but pro-Zantaf propaganda, but if so, so be it! He's a pretty darned chill villain. He's not gonna "liquidate" you. Tossing you behind bars is quite enough!

He's not even gonna get mad if you try to escape! He is nothing but amused to catch this electronic bowtie. Really, if you're going to be imprisoned be a deranged megalomaniac, you gotta go with the Zantster!

I mean sure, if you try to escape he's gonna wipe your memory, but can you really blame him? What else is he going to do, just keep letting you interfere with his world-dominating schemes? The US title may spoof a James Bond movie (or two), but any Bond villain would have killed you dead by now.

He likes...snakes. See? Reptiles are his true inner passion! This villain stuff is just a distraction.

Notice that he's not even angry at first--just upset that some jerk's destroyed his formula. As why wouldn't he be? YOU would be, I'll tell you that much!

Sure, he finally turns to violence, but, you must admit, only after a lot of pushing, and really, can you blame him?  Dude just won't stop messing with his schemes.

(I've been so consumed with Zantaf apologia during this entry that I haven't said much if anything about Donald, but he comports himself pretty well too--a bit bumbling but more or less competent in what he's doing. All joking about Zantaf secretly being the good guy aside, it's still a good match between the two of them).

"Is a Laocoön like an antique raccoon?" Sure, probably, why not? I do like the joke, though it'd work a bit better if "coon" and "coön" actually rhymed.

Anyway, back to talking about how great Zantaf is: LOOK HOW GREAT HE IS, even when hypnotized! He likes butterflies! Yay! I just hope this hasn't negatively impacted his love of snakes.

So the question is, is the word supposed to be antidisestablishmentarianism? 'Cause if it is, then even if he couldn't exactly pronounce it correctly, you'd think he'd know what it was to the extent that he could look it up when he got back home. But then we see him trying out unrelated words. So I don't know.

WHAT A NON-SURPRISE. Though it reeeally must be said that it's not at all clear what her actual purpose was in this mission. Sure, she just happens to show up at the crucial moment to distract Zantaf, but who could've known that would even be necessary? Other than that, she just wanders around and acts stoned. Her role in "Moldfinger" was similarly small, but rather more crucial.

Daisy's having fun...heck, even Zantaf is having fun! And a final YAAAAAAY!!! for that. I kinda wish Donald would buck the heck up, but other than that, this ending puts a big ol' smile on my face.

Truth: I think this is the best story that IDW has published to date. More Bottaro, please! A lot more, preferably.