1969: violent struggles and social tensions, monumental achievements by labor unions, the Moon landing. Paperinik. It was precisely in 1969 that the most famous and appreciated alter ego of good old Donald Duck, our very own Paperino, appeared for the first time in the historic Topolino issues 706 and 707. With Paperinik and the Diabolical Avenger, a story scripted by Guido Martina and drawn by Giovan Battista Carpi, the unfortunate and beloved duck discovered the challenging role of a superhero. Inspired by the Marvel and DC Comics universes, as well as — starting with its name — the Italian Diabolik, Paperinik made a debut with a bang. Soon followed new stories and adventures, and the character was noticed abroad. Paperinik was thus "imported" to foreign Topolino editions, becoming naturalized Spanish, Dutch, American, and even Brazilian. Even today, some stories of the "diabolical avenger" can often be found on the pages of the ever-green (more or less) Topolino.

However, not everyone knows that, alongside the classic and traditional Paperinik, always busy with the understandable issues of a big city like Duckburg, a "new" superhero emerged in the 1990s. Alternative. Not in costume or character: Paperino, and thus his alter ego, was once again ironic, brazenly sarcastic, with a quick retort always at the ready (perhaps too much so). The difference lay in the panels, in the stories that featured him as the protagonist: more mature, with a more elaborate graphic style, and a slightly less childish underlying philosophy. And different enemies than the witch Magica De Spell or all the numerous villains faced throughout its career. Thus was born in 1996 PKNA — Paperinik New Adventures, or simply PK.

Curated by Paolo Cavaglione, then also the director of Topolino, and Ezio Sisto, the new monthly saw notable success: published until 2001, the official series counts 52 issues plus 4 specials. Of course, a summary of the stories told is as reductive as it is necessary: the masked duck, with a new headquarters in the mysterious Ducklair Tower, a "sentient" artificial intelligence as an assistant (the friendly Uno), and an arsenal of warfare halfway between Star Wars and Men in Black, is involved in dangerous missions and battles against ruthless aliens, supercriminals, monsters from parallel universes, and chrono-pirates (!). Not exactly the Beagle Boys, as he often likes to remind. Here, Paperinik and his friends really risk their necks. And some even lose them. To an already quite distant plot from the classic stylistic elements of the weekly "cousin" Topolino, rudimentary notions, more or less fanciful, of astrophysics and alternative science are added: black holes, interdimensional travel, time machines, and sliding doors have met the favor and appreciation of a large circle of "nerd" enthusiasts, probably more accustomed to finding their kind of content, as it were, in Marvel or DC Comics albums. But also in this sense, PK is a little gem of Italian comics: graphics and atmospheres of clear American inspiration, and at the same time, under a cloak of references to Batman, X-Files, and Alien (just to name a few), you find dialogues, jokes, and a certain vein of humor that draws heavily from the Topolino of the Bel Paese. Particularly, of course, from the "traditional" Paperinik stories recurring in the Walt Disney Italy weekly. The result is surprising. Of course, it’s not a work branded by Frank Miller, and the violence itself is strongly diluted. Despite the characters always being at each other’s throats.

However, some dark shades remain (Duckburg has never been so gray and sprawling), with great care in the drawings and a significant series of quotations and references that an eight or ten-year-old reader can hardly fully appreciate. Thus, it is a relatively demanding product that requires higher-than-average Disney magazine readership skills. And no offense to others, as these words come from a longtime subscriber to Tope. Moreover, benefiting from the work of great screenwriters such as Alessandro Sisti and Francesco Artibani, and artists like Lorenzo Pastrovicchio, Claudio Sciarrone, and Corrado Mastantuono, PK was regularly out in kiosks for nearly five years, offering almost always high-quality stories and panels. For many readers, it was probably a blow when the legendary PK Team decided in January 2001 to publish the last issue.

This first series was immediately followed by a second, renamed PK². But beyond the monthly release, there were few points in common: PK² presented itself with a different cut, if possible even darker and largely centered on the characters' psychology, and a plot that, although it theoretically was supposed to represent the continuation of the adventures narrated in PKNA, in practice was characterized by new elements that contradicted several points. The old, demanding readers of the first PK didn’t take it well. Sales soon entered a crisis, and often lively exchanges formed on the pages of the new magazine between disappointed fans and the revived PK Team, proudly holding their positions. From July 2002, the legacy was "collected" by a third publication, PK — Pikappa. From a narrative point of view, it wasn’t a sequel to previous ones, but a complete overhaul of the character starting from the genesis told by Guido Martina in 1969. A total upheaval of the masked duck's story, which nonetheless managed to gain a fair amount of acceptance and audience.

In issue 32 of the original PKNA, titled Underground, the villain of the episode is called Rosto Gramash. Traumatized by years of enforced confinement in sewers, amidst dark tunnels and rats of which he has a visceral fear, he suffers from recurring hallucinations. In a disturbing panel, rich in chiaroscuro, Rosto kneels on the ground like Willem Dafoe in the famous scene from Platoon. And imagines he has become such, a rat. A big, filthy rat. Just a little over a month ago, precisely on the pages of Topolino, Francesco Artibani and Lorenzo Pastrovicchio published a new story dedicated to the superhero that picks up the first, inimitable PKNA series: a bold attempt, perhaps not entirely successful, to bring back something that ended too soon to its former glory. While waiting for new releases, I went back to rereading the issues of the old monthly. A different Disney world. Not just for kids. 

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