Donald Duck: Timeless Tales Volume 1 - Hardcover

The classic "maestro" Romano Scarpa (1927-2005) has historically been the most popular Italian talent with American Disney comics readers. As early as his youth in Venice, Scarpa had a passion for Disney comics and cartoons, with a particular fondness for the work of Floyd Gottfredson, plotter and artist of the classic Mickey Mouse newspaper strip. In 1955, Gottfredson was forced to transform that strip—hitherto a groundbreaking adventure serial—into a gag-a-day series. In 1956, Italian editors asked Scarpa to pick up the adventure serials where Gottfredson left off, and continue the narrative for Disney’s European readers.

Scarpa crafted legendary Italian Mickey epics like "Kali’s Nail," "The Chirikawa Necklace," and "The Delta Dimension," all of which were later reprinted in the USA to great acclaim. Apart from his Mickey work, Scarpa created two beloved thorns for Uncle Scrooge’s side: brassy business-gal Brigitta MacBridge and wanna-be tycoon Jubal Pomp!

After sustaining a wildly prolific career, Scarpa retired in Spain, leaving behind a grand legacy for younger Disney writers and artists, such as Giorgio Cavazzano.

Charles Alfred Taliaferro was born in Montrose, Colorado on August 29, 1905 and moved with his family to Glendale, California in 1918. "I knew I was going to be a cartoonist," he told interviewer Jim Korkis in 1968. "I've always believed that if you want anything bad enough and you work hard enough for it, eventually you'll get it." In the middle of the Great Depression in 1931 he learned that the Walt Disney Studio had jobs available. "I went in and was hired on the spot: January 5, 1931," he recalled. At first he inked Floyd Gottfredson's Mickey Mouse newspaper strip. He then went on to draw the Silly Symphonies Sunday page, where on September 16, 1934 he first drew Donald Duck, the character with whom he would become forever associated.

Giorgio Cavazzano is an Italian artist that started his career at the age of 14 inking for Romano Scarpa producing stories for Disney with the characters Micke Mouse, Donald Duck, Scrooge McDuck, and others. He is known for combining the traditional appearance of Disney characters with realistic illustration of technological gadgets and machinery.