Topolino

Topolino (from the Italian name for Mickey Mouse) is an Italian digest-sized comic series featuring Disney comics. The series has had a long running history, first appearing in 1932. It is currently published by Panini Comics.

In 1932 the editor Mario Nerbini decided to open a new weekly newspaper for kids, containing illustrated tales with Mickey Mouse. The first issue of Topolino was published on December 31, 1932: it contained Mickey's first Italian story drawn by Giove Toppi. In this story Mickey Mouse was chased by an elephant. However Nerbini hadn't bought correctly the publication rights, so when Emmanuel (Disney's representative in Italy) protested, Nerbini changed the title of the comic book into Topo Lino (Mouse Lino), replacing Mickey Mouse with Topo Lino, another mouse. When Nerbini bought the publication rights from Disney and KFS (King Featured Syndacate), he changed again the title into Topolino. Floyd Gottfredson's stories made their debut into Topolino #7 with a Sunday page featuring Mickey, Minnie and Morty and Ferdie. Topolino published mainly Mickey Mouse Sunday pages; the daily strips were published on the supplement to the newspaper.

Topolino had eight pages and published also non-Disney stories such as Tim Tyler's Luck (Cino e Franco). In 1935 Topolino published Bobo the Elephant, Mickey Mouse and the sacred jewel and Mickey Mouse and Pluto the racer. In the same year the publishing house Mondadori bought the newspaper; the first issue published by Mondadori was #137.

In 1937 Topolino and I tre porcellini, Mondadori's newspapers for kids, merged into Topolino - Grandi avventure (Mickey Mouse - Great Adventures). The number of the pages of the weekly increased from eight to sixteen. The first page published a story in instalments by Floyd Gottfredson starring Mickey Mouse and his friends; the other pages published American stories such as Tim Tyler's luck as well as Italian stories such as Saturno contro la Terra, a story by Federico Pedrocchi where Rebo (the dictator of Saturn, he later appeared as Donald Duck's enemy in four Italian stories drawn by Luciano Bottaro) made his debut.

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