LINUS 45
"RE PESTE"
(IN COLOR w/ English Translation)
Milano Libri Edizione was a publisher in Italy active in the 1960s & 70s. LINUS was possibly the 1st all-comics magazine published in Italy, and contained, among its features, PEANUTS, BARNEY GOOGLE, LI'L ABNER, POGO, B.C., THE WIZARD OF ID, POPEYE, as well as numerous features original to Italy.
Among them were a number of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations.
2nd in line...
"KING PEST".
The art is by Dino Battaglia (1 August 1923 – 4 October 1983), an Italian comic artist, noted for a distinctive and expressive style, best known for his visual adaptations of classic novels.
Between 1968 and 1981, Battaglia did a series of 10 Poe adaptations,
8 of which appeared in LINUS,
the remaining 2 in the large-format CORRIERE DEI PICCOLI.
Until 2006, Battaglia held the record for having done the most Poe adaptations by a single comics artist. 2nd place was tied at 9 apiece by Gahan Wilson (in 1990), Bill D. Fountain (in 1995) and Horacio Lalia (between 1998 and 1999).
Fellow fan Ron Harris was the one who first steered me to Battaglia's work, and I believe he also sent me the complete scans of the 1999 reprint book, which contained the 8 LINUS stories. (I had to BUY the other 2 magazines myself, to be able to do hi-res scans of the original 2-color printing.)
This story proved far more challenging than I expected, both for the coloring and translation. Halfway through, I decided my only option was to once more consult the ORIGINAL Poe text. After doing a rough translation, I could find which passages in the short story correlated to what was kicked out of the translator, replace the translated text with the original, and then, SEVERELY edit it down to fit the available space.
In addition, about halfway through this, it hit me that Battaglia's figure-work in this one reminded me VERY much of Chuck Jones' work in the Warner Brothers LOONEY TUNES cartoons!!
This was his 1st of 10 Poe adaptations.
ENJOY!
LINUS 45
cover by CHARLES SCHULZ (Milano Libri Edizioni / Italy / December 1968)
("KING PEST") / Version 1
Adaptation & Artwork by DINO BATTAGLIA / Page 1
Here's the reprints-- NONE of them in English...
TOTENTANZ
cover by DINO BATTAGLIA (Milano Libri Edizioni / Italy / November 1972)
cover by MILO MANARA (Milano Libri Edizioni / Italy / May 1985)
HISTOIRES EXTRAORDINAIRES
cover by DINO BATTAGLIA (Vertige Graphic / France / October 1993)
EDGAR ALLAN POE: DINO BATTAGLIA
cover by DINO BATTAGLIA (L'Editore Lo Scarbeo / Italy / February 28, 1999)
HISTOIRES D'EDGAR A. POE
cover by DINO BATTAGLIA (Editions Mosquito / Italy / March 2005)
cover by DINO BATTAGLIA (NPE / Italy / 2016)
BATTAGLIA - OMAGGIO A LOVECRAFT / EDGAR ALLAN POE
cover by DINO BATTAGLIA (Editoriale Cosmo / Italy / February 22, 2018)
English Translation & New Color Copyright (C) 2017 Henry R. Kujawa
Scan of LINUS #45 cover from the Fumetto Online site.
Scans from DINO BATTAGLIA: POE (1999)
supplied by Ron Harris with special thanks!
Scan of TOTENTANZ (1972) from the Libri Per Duti site.
Scan of CORTO MALTESE #5 (1985) from Ebay.
Scan of HISTOIRES EXTRAORDINAIRES (1993)
from the Price Minister site.
Scan of BATTAGLIA CONTES ET RECITS FANTASTIQUES TOME 3:
EDGAR ALLAN POE HISTOIRES (2005) from the EM site.
Scan of DINO BATTAGLIA: POE (2007) from the Horror Blogosfere site.
Scan of EDGAR ALLAN POE: DINO BATTAGLIA (2016)
from the Edizioni NPE site.
Scan of I GRANDI MAESTRI #19 (2018)
from the Editoriale Cosmo site.
Restorations by Henry R. Kujawa
For more:
Read about Edgar Allan Poe at The Poe Museum site.
Read about Edgar Allan Poe at the Biography site.
Read about Dino Battaglia at the Lambiek Comiclopedia site.
See more of Dino Battaglia's work at the Comic Art Fans site.
Read about KING PEST at the Grotesque Ground site.
Read a review of KING PEST at the JSTOR site.
Read the complete story at The Literature Network site.
See the KING PEST Gallery of Illustrations.
Comics:
Read the Dino Battaglia KING PEST adaptation!
(Coming soon:)
Read the Luiz Saidenberg KING PEST adaptation!
Read the Anton Emdin KING PEST adaptation!
Read the Eric Stanway KING PEST adaptation!
Misc:
Read the Dino Battaglia KING PEST adaptation!
Read the Dino Battaglia HOUSE OF USHER adaptation!
Read the Dino Battaglia LIGEIA adaptation!
(Coming soon:)
Read the Dino Battaglia GOLD BUG adaptation!
Read the Dino Battaglia PURLOINED LETTER adaptation!
Read the Dino Battaglia HOP-FROG adaptation!
Read the Dino Battaglia NEVER BET THE DEVIL adaptation!
Read the Dino Battaglia RED DEATH adaptation!
Read the Dino Battaglia TARR & FETHER adaptation!
Read the Dino Battaglia HANS PFALL adaptation!
See the CHRONOLOGICAL list of Edgar Allan Poe stories!
See the ALPHABETICAL list of Edgar Allan Poe stories!
(Continued in Poe 1968, Pt. 28)
